1 timothy 2:11 14 interpretation

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Certainly it is clear that Paul requires many forms of behavior in the pastoral epistles that are both in keeping with the culture of the day and are part of Gods eternal will for His people. 1 Corinthians 12:28-30). While the word in question, oude (and not, neither, nor), certainly usually joins two closely related items,21 it does not usually join together words that restate the same thing or that are mutually interpreting, and sometimes it joins opposites (e.g., Gentile and Jew, slave and free; Galatians 3:28).22 Although teaching in Pauls sense here is authoritative in and of itself, not all exercising of authority in the church is through teaching, and Paul treats the two tasks as distinct elsewhere in 1 Timothy when discussing the work of elders in the church (3:2, 4-5; 5:17). (Reasons for thinking that this submission in this context is not just to husbands but to male leaders in the church generally are given below.) Similarly, all Christians are encouraged to study the Scriptures; but Paul expressly limits teaching to a restricted number who have the gift of teaching (cf. For these reasons, we think the translation have authority over is the best English rendering of this word. In this essay, we will attempt to justify these conclusions. 15 See the discussion of K. H. Rengstorf, Didasko, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ten vols., ed. 40 The preposition dia (through) would designate attendant circumstances.. Eve taught the man to eat of the tree, bringing the ruin of falling into transgression; the women at Ephesus must not repeat her mistake by propagating false teaching and bringing ruin to the church. Copyright 1997 Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Since Paul labels the false teaching as demonic (1 Timothy 4:1), it is likely that this turning away to follow Satan means following the false teachers and that they were teaching the opposite of what Paul commands in 5:14. For women to be prepared to teach other women (see Titus 2:3-4), they would naturally need to learn and learn well.

(13)For Adam was formed first, then Eve.

The false teachers stressed asceticism as a means of spirituality.

Women, he said, are to submit to their own [idiois] husbands [Ephesians 5:22, NASB; cf.

First, Paul says, in quietness. The word Paul uses (hesuchia) can mean silence, in an absolute sense, or quietness, in the sense of peacableness (a cognate word, hesuchion, is used in 1 Timothy 2:2: that we may live peaceful and quiet lives ).7 Although the point is much the same in either case, there is good reason to think that the word should be translated silence in this context, since its opposite is teaching. Clearly, Paul is concerned that the women accept the teaching of the church peaceablywithout criticism and without dispute. The first reason Paul offers is found in 1 Timothy 2:13, For Adam was formed first, then Eve. Because God chose to create the male, Adam, before the woman, and subsequently, because (according to Genesis 2) Adam was given instruction that later he was to make clear to the woman (regarding the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil), Adam had responsibility for instructional leadership regarding what God had said.

The interpreter of Scripture may validly question whether any given command or teaching is to be applied beyond the situation for which it was first given. Second, the occurrences of this wordthe verbthat are closest in time and nature to 1 Timothy mean have authority over or dominate (in the neutral sense of have dominion over, not in the negative sense lord it over).18 Third, the objection that, had Paul wanted to say exercise authority, he would have used the word exousiazo19 does not bear up under scrutiny.

27 See Towner, Gnosis and Realized Eschatology, p. 110. In light of these considerations, we argue that the teaching prohibited to women here includes what we would call preaching (note 2 Timothy 4:2: Preach the word with careful instruction [teaching, didache]), and the teaching of Bible and doctrine in the church, in colleges, and in seminaries. 150-151). We do not think so.

12 For further discussion of this point, see Moo, p. 65: Payne, pp.

That the behavior required in 1 Timothy 2:11-12 falls into this category is clear from (1) the lack of any reference in this context to a concern for cultural accommodation, and (2) the appeal to the order of creationa manifestly transcultural considerationas the explicit basis for the behavior.

The false teachers were encouraging women to discard what we might call traditional female roles in favor of a more egalitarian approach to the role relationships of men and women. Paul emphasizes that man was created first, then Eve; the temporal sequence is strongly marked (protos, first, and eita, then). As an apostle responsible for shaping the culture of Jesus church at the direction of the Spirit, Paul did not permit these practices in the churches that he founded and counseled.

We will confine ourselves to three points that we think are most important. There are examples in the New Testament of women gifted to communicate words from the Lord (cf. 101-104.

The Theology of Womans Place and the Paulinist Tradition, Semeia 28 (1988): 101-112.

10 Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 2nd ed., trans.

This makes it clear that not all Christians engaged in teaching.13 In the pastoral epistles, teaching always has this restricted sense of authoritative doctrinal instruction.

But this line of argument founders on two counts: (1) Paul appeals here to the situation not after the fall, but before it (even Eves deception is, technically, pre-fall [Bacchiocchi, Women in the Church, p. 180]), and (2) Paul, while anxious that Christians maintain a credible witness and not offend those without, would not, we think, in the new age that had dawned, treat people and require them to do things as if they were still under the curse.

Thus far we have spoken of Pauls prohibiting women from two specific activities: teaching men and having authority over men.

Of course, there can be an over-reaching application of Pauls instruction here as well. Still othersevangelistic witnessing, counseling, teaching subjects other than Bible or doctrineare not, in our opinion, teaching in the sense Paul intends here. But the criteria used to answer that question must be carefully formulated. (9)I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, (10)but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. For any woman in any culture to engage in these activities with respect to men means that she is violating the Biblical principle of submission. J. H. Charlesworth (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983, 1985), 1:775-780 (the translation in the text is also from this volume). Acts 18:26).Moreover, such women gifted by the Spirit in teaching and exhortation should be encouraged to use those gifts in a variety of places within the life of the body, so that the ministry and encouragement of the Spirit can have its full impact in peoples lives.A FINAL THOUGHT OR TWOThe truth is that many women who have given themselves to the truths and teaching of Scripture have incredible insight from which we can all profit as we grow in Christ. Certain people from within the church have departed from the true teaching of the gospel, have become quarrelsome and argumentative, and are propagating doctrines that are erroneous. Are they right?

Many interpretations of 1 Timothy 2:11-15 rely heavily on the nature of this false teaching at Ephesus in explaining what Paul means in these verses. The verbal form of this word (infinitive) is used in 1 Timothy 5:14 (albeit without the article) to denote bearing or raising children generally, and this is the meaning we would expect it to have in 2:15 also. Certainly if we mean by teaching an officially recognized activity of expositing and applying a section of Scripture, this is not the case.

But this principle, when understood and applied, does not rigidly prohibit godly women, who are aligned with the churchs Biblical doctrine and Christ-centered leadership, from doing any teaching of the body. The final item on our list of exegetically significant issues in verse 12 is the relationship intended by the words gyne and aner. Clearly, then, Pauls prohibition of womens having authority over a man would exclude a woman from becoming an elder in the way this office is described in the pastoral epistles. In such cases, if anyone is to be able to speak to the church today with authority, it is the true Paul, not the pseudo-Paul of the pastoral epistles.

How, then, were the women to learn? Rather, his reasons are supra-cultural. As we have suggested above, we think Paul is correcting the erroneous views of the place of women vis-a-vis men taught by the false teachers (although our conclusions do not depend on this) and that verse 12 restates Pauls customary position on this issue in response to the false teaching. The addition of an authoritative, written norm is unlikely to have significantly altered the nature of Christian teaching.

104-106; Alan Padgett, Wealthy Women at Ephesus, 1 Timothy 2:8-15 in Social Context, Interpretation 41 (1987): 25-27; Roger L. Omansen, The Role of Women in the New Testament Church, Review and Expositor 83 (1986): 23-24; Gilbert Bilezikian, Beyond Sex Roles (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1985), pp. 21 Payne, Surrejoinder, p. 104 (italics his). But, second, can we really conclude that learning must lead to teaching? Throughout the centuries of the church, many leaders have taken Pauls words here, as well as what is found in 1 Corinthians 14), and prohibited women from any public communication at all to the whole church.

Nor is it clear that redemption nullifies the role relationship established at creation, as Ruth A. Tucker and Walter L. Liefeld suggest in Daughters of the Church, Women and Ministry from New Testament Times to the Present (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1987), p. 451.

Neither do the texts cited by Spencer prove this. Several years into my ministry here, we had a major (and difficult) congregational discussion regarding whether or not our search for a new Worship Pastor could include female candidates (which I urged it should).

Some author very helpful books, some offer their insights through a variety of communication avenues, some are wise and helpful professors in undergraduate and graduate schools. Has the church been right to think that this passage imposes certain permanent restrictions on the ministry of women? But not only is Greek word order notoriously flexible in such areas, but Paul has probably thrust teach forward in the sentence for the sake of an emphatic contrast with learn in verse 11: Let the women learn, but, as for teaching .. Moreover, the Scriptures should be regarded as replacing the apostles, who wrote Scripture, not the teachers who exposited and applied it. 99-100. 179-181. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. In verse 12 Paul prohibits women in the church at Ephesus from teaching men and having authority over them. Such teaching leaders should regard gifted women as their partners without stepping away from their responsibility, the way that Adam was called to see Eve as his equal partner, and yet her leader. The womans being created after man, as his helper, shows the position of submission that God intended as inherent in the womans relation to the man, a submission that is violated if a woman teaches doctrine or exercises authority over a man. We should listen to one another and seek the Spirits wisdom, insight, help.At the same time, we must be careful to honor what the Lord wants honored and pictured.

Granted this and granted the complete absence of explicit temporal or cultural references in the whole paragraph, the prohibitions of verse 12 can be ignored only by dismissing the theological principle itself.

And is he restricting them from all teaching or only from teaching men?

In fact, some of those ministries (and parts of Jesus body) which might be deemed less by the worlds standards are, in fact, more honorable and more necessary to the Lord himself (cf.

One of Timothys main tasks is to teach (1 Timothy 4:11-16; 2 Timothy 4:2) and to prepare others to carry on this vital ministry (2 Timothy 2:2). (11)A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.

Others think it may limit only certain women from certain ministries in certain circumstances. The difficulty arises from the fact that these words are used to describe both the marital relationship (wife/husband) and the larger gender relationship (woman/man). There is nothing wrong with this in principle; good exegesis always takes into consideration the larger context in which a text appears. 41 See, in more detail, my Interpretation, pp. While this unknown author admired Paul and wanted to use his authority, he also contradicted Paul. In the same way, if the women at the church at Ephesus proclaim their independence from the men of the church, refusing to learn in quietness and full submission (verse 11), seeking roles that have been given to men in the church (verse 12), they will make the same mistake Eve made and bring similar disaster on themselves and the church.28 This explanation of the function of verse 14 in the paragraph fits what we know to be the general insubordination of some of the women at Ephesus and explains Pauls emphasis in the verse better than any other alternative. Against the attempt of the false teachers to get the women in Ephesus to adopt libertarian, unbiblical attitudes and behavior, Paul reaffirms the Biblical model of the Christian woman adorned with good works rather than with outward, seductive trappings, learning quietly and submissively, refraining from taking positions of authority over men, giving attention to those roles to which God has especially called women.

But the advocates of the view we are now examining go further, insisting that verse 12 is directed only against women who had fallen prey to the false teaching. This would be the case even if a womans husband were to give her permission to occupy such a position, for Pauls concern is not with a womans acting independently of her husband or usurping his authority but with the womans exercising authority in the church over any man.

But this does not mean that Pauls desire for women to learn is the main point being made here. But, as so often with this word, its mild adversative force arises from the transition from one point to another rather than from a contrast in content.10 In this case, the transition is from one activity that women are to carry out in submission (learning) to two others that are prohibited in order to maintain their submission (teaching and having authority). Yet Spencer (p. 85) and Payne (Surrejoinder, p. 97) claim that Pauls use of de here indicates a consciousness of the contrast between the command to learn and the present prohibition of teaching. Nevertheless, even if we grant that de here is adversativewhich, in light of what we said above, is hardly something we can be very sure ofthis particular interpretation of that contrast has no basis in the text, as Mary J. Evans, who is sympathetic to the viewpoint of Spencer and Payne, recognizes. But second, and more important, this interpretation does not mesh with the context. Almost the entire New Testament is written to specific circumstancescorrecting certain false teachings, answering specific questions, seeking to unify specific church factions, etc.but this does not necessarily mean that what is written applies only to those circumstances. We do not, however, think this interpretation is likely. Certainly this is what the passage, as translated above, seems to say. Therefore, the question to be asked of 1 Timothy 2:12 is, Can we identify circumstances that limit its application to certain times and places?

His reasons are rooted in Genesis 1,2,3. The verb translated in the NIV have authority (authentein) has generated a great deal of discussion.

In keeping with these ascetic tendencies, they may also have stressed physical training as a means of spirituality (4:8). 18 See particularly George W. Knight III, Authenteoeo in Reference to Women in 1 Timothy 2:12, New Testament Studies 30 (1984): 143-157, and Leland Edward Wilshire, The TLG Computer and Further Reference to Authenteo in 1 Timothy 2:12, New Testament Studies 34 (1988): 120-134. If up front as a worship leader, would she be teaching in violation of 1 Timothy 2?In my view, these kinds of restrictions reflect an unfortunate over-reach.

No doubt Jesus unpacked this with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, following his resurrection (Luke 24:26-27,44-45).Second, early Christians were to be taught by those who were instructed well, and clear, about this truth which originated with the Apostles. Pauls position in the pastoral epistles is, then, consistent: he allows women to teach other women (Titus 2:3-4),17 but prohibits them to teach men. Accordingly, my children, flee from sexual promiscuity, and order your wives and your daughters not to adorn their heads and their appearances so as to deceive mens sound minds.6 The problem addressed in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 is of the same general nature, in which the Christian women were adopting a style of dress (or hairstyle) that implicitly proclaimed their independence from their husbands. See, for instance, Don Williams, The Apostle Paul and Women in the Church (Van Nuys, CA: BIM, 1977), p. 112. 100-101. 36 See Towner, Gnosis and Realized Eschatology, p. 111; James G. Sigountos and Myron Shank, Public Roles for Women in the Pauline Church: A Reappraisal of the Evidence, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 26 (1985): 289-298.

23 Russell C. Prohl, Woman in the Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1957), pp. The passage is thus useful within such a narrow situation, and does not more broadly deny women the opportunity to teach both genders in the Body of Christ.However attractive this interpretation and application might be especially for us living in a day when women are asking for equal treatment and position this approach to the passage does not best serve nor reflect the details of the passage, nor the overall teaching of the New Testament. Has the position of the Christian church on this issue for twenty centuries been the product of cultural conditioning from which we finally are able to free ourselves?

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