Should women be allowed to preach to a mixed audience? 1 Timothy 2:11-15 (Part One)

 

 When the elders at New Hope Chapel asked me to join the teaching team and give 1/4 of the Sunday sermons, I was a bit taken aback. There was that passage in 1 Timothy about women preaching. Was this opportunity legit? Or did it directly conflict with God’s Word?

I knew I needed to get to the bottom of this if I had any hope of feeling comfortable with their request. So, I asked my Bible study group if we could go through 1 Timothy together. What we found in our study was far different from what we had previously been taught. This blog post series is a result of those discoveries and will hopefully clarify exactly what Paul meant by this passage—piece by piece.

“A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.” 1 Timothy 2:11-12

 We begin by taking a look at some of the exact (Greek) words Paul chose. 

The first: A woman must quietly receive instruction…

There are two words used in the New Testament that can be translated quiet. We can compare the nuances of their meaning from how Luke used them in tandem in the book of Acts (21:40-22:2). Paul is before an angry mob, and as he motions them, wishing to be heard, the audience grows quiet (sige). Then, as he begins to speak, addressing them in Hebrew, they listened in quiet (hesuchia). The first noun, sige, shows the audience becoming still, silent. The second noun, hesuchia, shows the crowd being quietly attentive.

The word hesuchia was used by Paul at the beginning of 1 Timothy 2:2, when he instructs the entire church to pray for authorities, that they “may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.” Context here seems to indicate a different idea than total silence. Maybe a lack of strife?

Paul uses hesuchia in 1 Timothy 2:11. He is writing to his protégé Timothy, who is serving at the church at Ephesus.

We can get a clue on interpreting hesuchia from the only other passage in the NT that tells women to be silent. 1 Corinthians 14:34-5 tells women to remain silent (hesuchia) and ask their questions at home.

The context here sheds light on what Paul probably meant. There was chaos in the church at Corinth. The meetings had become a free for all. People were prophesying and speaking in tongues right over top of each other. No translators were giving the meaning of the tongues that were being spoken.

The spiritual gifts were being used for self-edification rather than for building up others. “Let all things be done for edification,” he urged the believers. A few verses later, Paul explained: “For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted…for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. The women are to keep silent (hesuchia) in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves… “But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.” (1 Corinthians 14:31-34, 40)

Author John Bristow recalls the memoir of a missionary who experienced what was perhaps a similar phenomenon in their Chinese mission:

 My mother used to compare the situation in Corinth to the one she and my father faced in northern China. Back in the 1920’s when they were first to bring God’s message to that forgotten area, they found women with bound feet who seldom left their homes and who, unlike the men, had never in their whole lives attended a public meeting or a class. They had never been told as little girls, “Now you must sit still and listen to the teacher.” Their only concept of an assembly was a family feast where everyone talked at once.

 When these women came to my parents’ church and gathered on the women’s side of the sanctuary, they thought this was a chance to catch up on the news with their neighbors and to ask questions about the story of Jesus they were hearing. Needless to say, along with babies crying and toddlers running about, the women’s section got rather noisy! Add to that the temptation for the women to shout questions to their husbands across the aisle, and you can imagine the chaos. As my mother patiently tried to tell the woman that they should listen first and chitchat or ask questions later, she would mutter under her breath, Just like Corinth; it just couldn’t be more like Corinth.”[1]

Both Corinth and Ephesus were gentile cities, where pagan worship featured women priestesses and temple prostitution. Women were not often given opportunity to experience a formal education. They were unaccustomed to listening to public speakers or to participating in public worship. Was Paul urging silence so that they could “catch up” to their male counterparts, allowing for orderly instruction during the church meetings?

It is unlikely Paul was giving the command to silence half the church, given that in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul tells women to have their heads covered when they are praying and prophesying. Why wouldn’t he tell them to be silent there as well, rather than merely urging them to cover their heads while vocally participating?

Stay tuned for more of  1 Timothy 2:11 “Receiving Instruction with entire submissiveness.” (Part 2)

[1] John Temple Bristow. What Paul Really Said About Women: An Apostle’s Liberating Views on Equality in Marriage, Leadership, and Love. Harper Collins: 1998, page 64.