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Torture

I Timothy 2:8-15 - Part 3

Somewhat Literal – Women should not teach men.  Paul is not excluding women from singing, however.  They should not raise too many questions or create problems and distractions for the men who are teaching.  This is how it was from the beginning because the woman deceived man.

A New Approach (many of these thoughts come from an NT Wright presentation.  The transcript is available here.) – The literal views do not seem to conform to a proper hermeneutic—people (a generalization, I know) don’t approach v8 with the same interpretive method as v9-10 or 11-15.  Women regularly contribute ideas in Bible classes and they sing in our assemblies.  Perhaps we’ve read/translated the passage improperly because of traditional assumptions. 

Note that in I Corinthians 11, women prayed in the assembly.  Later in the same book (chapter 14), Paul says something very similar to 1 Timothy 2:11-12.  Surely he’s not contradicting himself.

First Corinthians and I Timothy are the only places with passages that read like this about women, and it’s interesting that Corinth and Ephesus each had a temple to a goddess—Aphrodite and Artemis respectively.  A place where all of the priest roles would be filled by women. 

Now when we actually look at verse 11, notice that it is not a restriction, rather an instruction or permission.  Women should learn in full submission to God, just as men should.  At this time in history, it would be uncommon for a woman to be educated.  NT Wright goes on to interpret verse 12 this way: “I don’t mean to imply that I’m now setting up women as the new authority over men in the same way that previously men held authority over women.”

Why say this?  The only example these women had of female religious leadership was the Artemis cult.  Paul could be saying this to Ephesian women (and Corinthian women) because he knew they were being too bossy or perhaps creating a disturbance about issues they had not studied. 

The word “authority” means “being bossy” or “seizing control.”  Paul says it would be wrong for women to take over.  But can’t some roles involving speaking in the church be shared, especially if the woman has done her part to study and know what she is talking about like verse 11 says? 

Sorry that the last explanation was so long, but because it is not typically heard in my tradition, I wanted to make sure to spell it out a little better.  Also, there are probably some other various interpretations or nuances I neglected. 

Some will now say that it’s impossible to genuinely approach the text and come to one or more of these conclusions.  But I believe that this is entirely possible.  Even if we were all able to read the original languages, some amount of interpretation has to occur. 

So with that said, can people of different traditions and schools of thought still commune together?  Can they still celebrate the bond they share in Christ together? 

Barton W. Stone answered the question this way and with this I close:
"I blush for my fellows, who hold up the Bible as the bond of union yet make their opinions of it tests of fellowship; who plead for the union of all Christians; yet refuse fellowship with such as dissent from their notions. . . Such antisectarian-sectarians are doing more mischief to the cause and advancement of truth, the unity of Christians, and the salvation of the world than all the skeptics in the world. In fact, they create skeptics."  ("Remarks," Christian Messenger, August 1835, p 180)