Should Women Be Allowed to preach to a mixed audience? 1 Timothy 2:11-15 (Part 4)

This morning we continue on our quest to answer the controversial subject of women teaching men. In Parts one, two, and three, we examined the first two verses in our 1 Timothy 2 passage: “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).

Today we move on to verse 13:

 “For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.” 

The traditional interpretation of this verse goes something like this: Paul is limiting women in the use of spiritual gifts and is attaching the creation order as the reason. The fact that man was created first indicates God intended a hierarchy. After all, in the Old Testament, the position of firstborn son was highly prized. He received the largest portion of the inheritance and became the ruling patriarch of the family when the father died. So wasn’t Adam then more privileged or valuable in God’s eyes as His “firstborn”?

It’s always important to look at the context of any passage. A look at the rest of Genesis does not support this idea.

 God certainly did not bless or elevate the firstborns over their brothers in any of the patriarchs’ families.

The messianic line went through Seth in the next generation, who was the third child of Adam and Eve. Later on, Abraham’s second son Isaac and his descendants received the everlasting covenant with God. Isaac’s son Jacob was chosen over his older brother Esau. God placed Jacob’s son Joseph in a position to rule over his brothers, and he was the eleventh out of twelve. So it would be hard to prove from the rest of Genesis that God gave preference or greater value to his first created human.

Also, man and woman were not the only ones created on the sixth day. The cattle, creeping things, and beasts of the earth were created first.

So, assuming creation order was an indication of superiority would make the animals the most important.

Which obviously was not the case, since they were not created in the image of God. Mankind was the crowning glory over all creation.

So if Paul was not teaching that God’s creation order indicated a hierarchy between men and women, what was he talking about? Stay tuned for part 5, when we uncover the false teaching Paul was warning against.