A reponse to the SBC about women's role in the church

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control. (1 Timothy 2:8–15, ESV)

This one is tough; and it's frequently used by many Christian denominations to claim that women are barred from the role of a church pastor because of it.

There's a counterpoint, though, and one doesn't have to dig into the whole scholarship debate over whether Paul even wrote the letters to Timothy or if they were compiled by others after his death. For me, it's more a matter of practical interpretation.

By "practical interpretation," I mean this: We have to first understand what Paul's intentions were in the context of the people that this letter was first written to before we can make any attempt to apply this to the broader context of the entire church. We therefore must assume first that Paul had a reason for giving these instructions to that specific church and then ask if those same circumstances that warranted that church-specific instruction still continue.

Specific application (the church Paul wrote to)

In the context of Paul's letters to Timothy, that church is in Ephesus. It also happens to be the intended recipient of other letters in the New Testament like Paul's direct letter to the church at that city and the letters of John, who resettled there from Jerusalem in his later years. Ephesus was a major commercial center and crossroads within the empire at the time, and it was also home to the temple to Artemis (a.k.a. Diana, the patron of fertility) and a thriving commercial enterprise around it selling shrines and other trinkets.

Paul's relationship with Ephesus goes back to his visit as documented in Acts 19, where he spends two years in the city preaching and debating first in the synagogue before withdrawing to the school of Tyrannus (vv. 8–9) when the local Jews begin speaking against him. Beginning in v. 23, we find out that the wave of conversions to Christianity was beginning to put a dent in the local Artemis business, and the local craftsmen instigate a riot in the city in an effort to throw out Paul and his entourage if not kill him outright. It takes the town clerk (v. 35) to put a stop to it, and not long after, Paul leaves for Macedonia (Acts 20:1).

It is this cult around Artemis that we have to account for when we're reading Paul's instructions to Ephesus. We now have a church whose presence has spread geographically beyond what the original apostles are able to control from Jerusalem, assuming most of those apostles haven't already been martyred or aren't under arrest on their way to being martyred. The environment is ripe for gnostic and pagan influences to begin creeping into the early Christian church, and it is these influences that Paul, and especially John later on, write to counter.

Turning back to the specific instructions given by Paul at the start of this post, we have to first assume that there was a purpose for those instructions specific to the church Paul was writing to. And, indeed, there was: countering the influence that both artemisian worship and the gnostic infiltation was having on local church doctrine and practice.

If anything, verses 9 through 15 indicate that women were considered full and active members of the early church, something that Paul affirms elsewhere (1 Corinthians 11:4–5; 14:33–35; Ephesians 5:21,22; Colossians 3:18,19; Titus 2:1–10), and we also must remember that in Galatians 3:28 Paul states that in the body of Christ there is no distinction between Jew or gentile, male or female, slave or free, in terms of position within the body.

That said, what are the specific instructions here? That women:

• Should adorn themselves modestly and discreetly (σοφροσύνη, a word with no direct equivalent to English but refers to self-control, sobriety, and modesty) by means of "good works" rather than shiny jewelry and attire, as the Artemis-worshippers were doing. Zodhiates suggests Paul's instruction here is that women should not attire themselves in such a way as to lure men other than her own husband.

• Should "quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness" (NASB), the word here being ἠσυχάζω for "quietly", meaning "in tranquility" or "peaceably," not in a such a way as to disturb the assembly. (By the way, the same word is used in the following verse that women should "remain quiet"—same word, different form.)

• Should not "teach" or "exercise authority over a man"—This is the sticky one, but it's because of a poor rendering from Greek to English, particularly in the KJV. "Woman" and "man" here use the terms γυνη (woman or wife) in contrast to ανηρ (her husband). That contrast is important. Paul in this instance affirms what was (and is) considered to be the proper order of the Christian household—the husband as its head, the wife in submission not in the sense of being a doormat, but acknowledging the husband's role and accountability as the head, responsible to protect and care for her and the family. In that positional relationship the marital unit becomes "one" with its "one head" (the husband).

  Also of note, Paul uses the singular when referring to "a woman" rather than "women" generally. His instructions are clearly directed at a specific object—wives, who are to acknowledge their position relative to their husbands as a means of acknowledging his responsibility and accountability for her. In a sense, the wife is called to accept a certain set of limitations in contrast to the husband's call to provide for and protect her, to the point of laying down his own life for her (Ephesians 5:22–33).

  The verb in this verse, διδάσκειν, is also an inifinitive in the present tense, "to continuously teach". There is a time and place for women to speak up, in Paul's mind; but that should not be in such a time and place place as to constantly embarass her husband who has responsibility for her. This is also suggested by the use of αὐθεντεῖν, to "take authority over" or "give orders to [someone]"—a wife is not to become an authoritarian over her husband and order him around as it usurps the husband's place as head of the marital unit.

Verses 13 and 14 explain Paul's reasoning, based on the order in which humanity was created—the man first, then the woman created as his "suitable helper" to be alongside but submissive in acknowledgement of his responsibility (Genesis 1). Remember, God demanded an explanation from Adam first before he ever spoke to Eve about what they had done; Adam was the one held accountable.

Verse 15, "...women shall be preserved through the bearing of children...", is a direct statement against the Artemis-worshippers and a continuation of his thought in verse 14; the woman who was deceived and "fell into transgression" is "redeemed" through her important creative act of childbirth and her acknowledgement of her husband's position as the head and person accountable for the household.

Broader application

The language that Paul uses here, "I do not allow to continously teach..." is of note here. This is his own personal statement, and he makes no claim to be authoritative across the entire church, except in his reasoning for why he does not allow women to exercise authority over their husbands.

The other question to ask is whether the circumstances that led to Paul's instructions here still exist and thus make the instructions to that specific situation still relevant to today's situation. That answer is both "yes" and "no."

The "no" is obvious—the Church is not in the same city as a bunch of Artemis-worshippers, although one could argue that the culture at large has become one in its worship of casual sex with little, if any, concern over its consequences. That is the topic of a whole other study.

The "yes" is because the positional intention of Christian marriage that Paul details then still very much applies today. This is also the topic for a whole other, much more extensive study; but the basic proposition is that in marrying, the wife accepts the authority of her husband as head of the relationship, and in turn the husband accepts the responsibility to protect and provide for her and whatever family they may produce through that relationship and accountability to God for the same. It is never intended to diminish a woman's value as the husband's equal, but rather acknowledges a position within the relationship in terms of responsibility and accountability. The result is the "two becoming one" with a singular head (the husband), accountable to God for the course of that unity.

Conclusion: Should women be allowed to pastor/preach?

I don't think I've produced a clear answer to the question, if I was to be honest. There is nothing explicit in Scripture that states "thou shalt not pastor", but there is the proposition that a woman (specifically, a wife) should be careful about how she uses the freedom given to her such that she does not usurp her husband's role as head, provider, and ultimately the accountable party for their relationship. Allowing or disallowing women to exercise the role of pastor over other men needs to be seen in that context.

The best, and I believe fairest, approach that I've come to find is that of the church I'm currently attending; and rather than try to summarize I'll quote it directly:

Within the Scriptures, we see the role of elder as a specific role in the life of the local church reserved for biblically qualified, called, and affirmed men. In conjunction with this, we recognize in the Scriptures the authoritative teaching within the Lord’s Day Gathering as a space meant to be reserved for elders, as it is the primary space for the authoritative teaching of the Scriptures and doctrine of a church. There can be and will be additional opportunities for non-elder men and women to teach on occasion in our Lord’s Day Gatherings coupled with oversight and shepherding from the elders on topics where there is a unique insight that these non-elder voices could speak to. For all other teaching environments within Mosaic Church, non-elder men and women are encouraged and utilized to build up the church body through their Giftings. Additionally, non-elder men and women can and will be invited into elder meetings to be both views and voices to provide valuable insight and perspective into decisions.¹

Primary references

Zodhiates, Spiros (editor), The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible: New American Standard (Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 1984, 1990). Notes on 1 Timothy 2:9–15. A lot of this article paraphrases Zodhiates' notes.

Strong's Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (for basic definitions)

Various Greek lexicographic material via Logos Bible Software