Women and ministry: 1 Timothy 2 and the New Testament's women, read fairly

First Timothy is one of the three Pastoral Letters, addressed to Timothy, whom Paul had left in Ephesus (1 Timothy 1:3). The traditional view, which this class follows, is that Paul wrote it in the early to middle 60s AD. Many critical scholars hold that it was written in Paul's name later. The occasion is the threat of false teachers in the Ephesian church (1:3-7, 19-20; 4:1-3; 6:3-5). Paul wants Timothy to put the church in order, and chapter 2 begins that order with public worship.

Ephesus was the home of the great temple of Artemis (Acts 19:23-41), a city with strong religious and civic pressures on women and men alike. The letter mentions women directly in several places: women who dressed expensively (2:9), younger widows who went from house to house as gossips and busybodies (5:13), and, in the second letter, women who were burdened with sins and were always learning but never reaching knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 3:6-7). The letter was therefore written into a particular situation, and the debate is how far the instruction travels beyond it.

The passage is among the most contested in the New Testament. Both major readings are held by serious scholars who accept Scripture's authority and want to be faithful to it. This class describes both and follows neither at the cost of the other's strongest argument.

First Timothy is a personal letter that sets out instructions to a delegate in a congregation under pressure. Its rules are given in a context, with reasons, and those reasons matter. The passage also shows one rule for interpretation: when a letter appeals to the creation story (2:13-14), the reader must decide whether the appeal is the ground of a permanent order or an illustration of a point made for the Ephesian situation. Both sides agree that it is a major question, and their answers divide the readings.

The verses must be read within chapter 2 as a unit. Verses 1-7 are about prayer for all, the one mediator and Paul's task. Verses 8-10 give instructions to men and to women about conduct in worship. Verses 11-15 address women in the assembly. The word 'likewise' in verse 9 joins the women to the men of verse 8, and the 'I want' of verses 8 and 9 contrasts with 'I do not permit' in verse 12. These grammatical details are given in every serious commentary and explain why careful readers still disagree.

A reader must also weigh other texts that deal with women and ministry, and not rest the whole question on one paragraph.

• First Corinthians 11:5 assumes women pray and prophesy aloud.
• First Corinthians 14:33-35 asks women to be silent. Romans 16 names women who worked in ministry. The class takes the evidence together.

2:1-7. Paul begins with prayer for 'everyone', including kings, because God 'wants everyone to be saved' (2:4). The reason is the gospel: 'there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all' (2:5-6). Paul adds that he was appointed as a preacher, apostle and teacher of the Gentiles (2:7). The wide scope of salvation sets the frame for what follows.

2:8-10. The men are to pray 'lifting up holy hands, without anger or dissension' (2:8). The posture is common in Jewish and Greek prayer. The women are to dress with modesty and self-control and to be known for 'good deeds' (2:9-10), not expensive display. The concern is that worship not be a stage for wealth or rivalry.

2:11. 'A woman must learn in quietness and full submissiveness.' The first verb is a command that a woman learn (manthaneto). In a world where many women had no formal teaching, that was not trivial. 'Quietness' is hesuchia, the word in 2:2 for the quiet life that all believers are to lead, and 2 Thessalonians 3:12 uses it of men who work quietly. It means calm and orderliness, not necessarily absolute silence. 'Submissiveness' (hypotage) is not said to whom. Complementarians take it as submission to the male leadership of the church, and egalitarians take it as the teachable humility that Paul asks of every learner, or as orderliness in a disordered assembly.

2:12. 'I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; she is to remain quiet.' The verb 'permit' is in the present tense, and complementarians read it as a standing practice, egalitarians as Paul's judgment in the Ephesian emergency, and both appeal to the text. The disputed word is authentein, used only here in the New Testament. In earlier translations it was 'usurp authority' (the King James Version). Some scholars, among them Andreas Köstenberger and Henry Scott Baldwin, who studied its uses and the 'not this nor that' construction, argue that the word has a neutral sense, 'to exercise authority', and that Paul forbids two linked activities, authoritative teaching and holding authority over men. Others, among them Linda Belleville and Philip Payne, argue that it can carry a negative sense such as 'to domineer' or 'to assume authority to oneself' and that Paul forbids an abuse by particular women. Greek evidence outside the Bible is thin and the senses vary. The word 'teach' (didaskein) is not qualified, and the New Testament shows women teaching in other ways (Acts 18:26; Titus 2:3-4).

2:13-14. 'For Adam was formed first, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who was deceived and fell into transgression.' Paul gives two reasons.

• The first is the order of creation (Genesis 2:7, 18-22).
• The second concerns the deception (Genesis 3:1-6; compare 2 Corinthians 11:3). Complementarians say Paul grounds the rule in creation, not in his culture, so it cannot be limited to Ephesus; the appeal to Genesis, they add, is the same one Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 11:8-9. Egalitarians reply that the order of birth is not a rule for authority (Genesis does not assign rule before the fall), that Paul uses Eve as a warning against being easily misled by false teachers (as in 2 Corinthians 11:3, where the whole church is compared to Eve), and that Ephesian women who were not yet taught were the deceived ones.

2:15. 'Women, however, will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.' This is the hardest verse. The Greek has 'through the childbearing' (dia tes teknogonias). Readings include: saved through the birth of the Christ, the promised offspring of Genesis 3:15; saved in and through the ordinary calling of motherhood, against false teachers who forbade marriage (4:3); kept safe through childbirth; or restored from Eve's transgression by faith shown in home and family. The verse cannot teach that childbearing earns salvation, since 2:4-6 and Ephesians 2:8-9 place salvation in Christ alone.

The wider evidence. Phoebe is called a 'servant' or deacon (diakonos) of the church at Cenchreae and a prostatis, a patron or helper of many, including Paul (Romans 16:1-2). She probably carried the letter to Rome. Priscilla and Aquila taught Apollos (Acts 18:26), led a house church (Romans 16:3-5; 1 Corinthians 16:19) and are called Paul's fellow workers. Prisca is named first in several lists, which is unusual. Romans 16:7 greets Andronicus and Junia, 'outstanding among the apostles' (episemoi en tois apostolois): whether Junia is a woman and whether she is counted among the apostles are both debated. Euodia and Syntyche labored at Paul's side in the cause of the gospel (Philippians 4:2-3). Philip's four unmarried daughters prophesied (Acts 21:9), as Joel had foretold (Acts 2:17-18). Lydia (Acts 16:14-15, 40) and Nympha (Colossians 4:15) hosted churches. First Corinthians 14:33-35 asks women to be silent in the churches. Readings include that it addresses disorderly questioning during the weighing of prophecies (14:29), that it addresses a local practice, and that Paul is quoting a Corinthian slogan that he then rejects (14:36). Some scholars, among them Gordon Fee, argue the verses were added later, since some early manuscripts place them after verse 40. Others consider this unproven.

The whole Bible teaches that men and women are made in God's image (Genesis 1:27) and are joint heirs of the grace of life (1 Peter 3:7). Galatians 3:28 says that in Christ there is neither male nor female, and Pentecost fulfils Joel's promise that sons and daughters will prophesy (Acts 2:17-18). Women appear among those the Spirit gives gifts to (1 Corinthians 12:7, 11) and among those who worked with Paul in the gospel. All readings agree on this. Women were also first at the tomb and the first sent to tell the disciples (Matthew 28:1-10; John 20:17-18).

The Bible also records a pattern of male leadership in the household of God: priests from Aaron's line, the Twelve, and elders and overseers described in the masculine in the Pastoral Letters (for example the 'husband' language of 1 Timothy 3:2). It records women who led in other ways: Miriam (Exodus 15:20; Micah 6:4), Deborah (Judges 4-5) and Huldah (2 Kings 22:14-20). Complementarians conclude that Scripture sets women free to every ministry except the office of elder or overseer and the authoritative teaching of men in the assembly. Egalitarians conclude that the pattern reflects the culture of the time, and that the gifts of the Spirit, not sex, decide who serves.

The question of headship (Ephesians 5:22-33; 1 Corinthians 11:3) belongs to the discussion. Complementarians understand the husband's headship as loving leadership, and in the church an order of male eldership. Egalitarians point to Ephesians 5:21, which says all are to submit to one another, and say the passage is about marriage and does not set a rule for church offices.

The one mediator is 'the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all' (1 Timothy 2:5-6). The Greek says anthropos, man in the sense of human being. This echoes Jesus' own words that the Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45), which fulfils the Servant of Isaiah 53:10-12. The passage that sets an order for the assembly begins and ends in Christ: it opens with the one God and one mediator, and the 'childbearing' of verse 15 is read by many as the birth of Christ, the offspring promised to the woman (Genesis 3:15; compare Galatians 4:4).

Christ's own dealings with women show his authority and freedom. He spoke with the Samaritan woman about worship and sent her to her town (John 4:7-42). He taught Mary as a disciple while Martha served (Luke 10:38-42). Women supported his ministry from their means (Luke 8:1-3), and he appeared first to Mary Magdalene and sent her to tell the others (John 20:11-18). Complementarians and egalitarians read these differently, but both begin from them. Christ also chose twelve men as apostles (Mark 3:13-19), and the traditions that reserve ordination to men begin there.

In marriage, Ephesians 5:25 gives the pattern for a husband as Christ's self-giving love for the church. The headship of Christ over the church is defined by his giving himself up, which both sides cite to show what any headship means.