Continuing the study of 1 Timothy 2:8-15, let’s get to the controversial part. ¹¹ A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. ¹² But I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. ¹³ For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. ¹⁴ And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a wrongdoer. ¹⁵ But women will be preserved through childbirth—if they continue in faith, love, and sanctity, with moderation.” The word “quietly” in 2:11 and “quiet” in 2:12 is hésuchia: Quietness, silence, tranquility. In the New Testament, “hésuchia” refers to a state of quietness or tranquility, often in the context of demeanor or lifestyle. It implies a peaceful and calm disposition, free from disturbance or agitation. This term is used to describe both an external quietness and an internal peace of mind.” I don’t think it means absolute silence at all times, although silence could be included at times. A submissive women in marriage or in the church will have a peaceful, calm demeanor and not be aggressively speaking out or challenging their husbands or the men in the church leadership. She cannot “teach or exercise authority over the man”. All this does not mean that the women could not speak in church gatherings. In 1 Corinthians 11, the women were told that they could pray and prophesy in a mixed men/women group if they would wear a veil to show that they were in submission and not trying to take over from the men. That has to be vocal prayer (prayer in silence would make no sense) and prophesying was vocal. This was based on the order given in 1 Cor 11:³ But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” That order would apply to the home and church. But in 1 Cor 14:²⁶ What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.” Paul gives some guidelines for “when you come together” in any group of Christians, house church, small group, church building. This would have to include women who had a miraculous gift like prophecy b/c he had just told the women they could use their gift of prophecy as long as they wore a veil. So the women could use their gifts in a mixed assembly to teach or prophecy or pray aloud (maybe in tongues) or sing a solo song, etc. But in 1 Cor 14:33 As in all the churches of the saints, ³⁴ the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. ³⁵ If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.” The forbidden “speaking” here is sigaó: To be silent, to keep silence, to hold one’s peace. Guzik: “Some have said the reason for this is because in these ancient cultures (as well as some present-day cultures), men and women sat in separate sections. The thought is that women interrupted the church service by shouting questions and comments to their husbands during the service. Clarke expresses this idea: “It was lawful for men in public assemblies to ask questions, or even interrupt the speaker when there was any matter in his speech which they did not understand; but this liberty was not granted to women.” So the context of 1 Cor 14:34 women not speaking is indeed silence but silence under certain circumstances and not some general rule that in the assembly the women can’t use their gifts aloud at all, which would be a contradiction of 1 Cor 11.

I was raised in a church that used 1 Cor 14:34 to say that the women could not pray aloud in the assembly *even if veiled) or share a teaching in the assembly. I think that is a unbiblical restriction of the use of gifts that women in the church have to edify the church. Plus my church was so inconsistent on applying the rule. Women could sing in the assembly, but that goes against their literalist interprestion of not speaking at all. They could share a truth in a mixed Bible class before the assembly began but could not do the exact same thing once everyone went into the “sanctuary”. The early church only met in house churches, and there would be no such distinction between a Bible classroom and the sanctuary. The male leaders of the church are allowing the women to use their gifts in a mixed group gathering. The women are not “usurping” the authority of the men, trying to take charge, when they modestly use their gifts, yielding to the male leadership when need be.

BTW I need to add this. If women did lead prayer in a mixed group, I don’t think they would need to wear a veil to show submission. That was a cultural way in the first century of showing submission but that is not our culture here in the U.S. I think a woman could lead a prayer in a mixed group without a veil. I think it is obvious if a woman praying is being submissive or not without a veil. It is interesting that some of our churches of Christ stil encourage the ladies to wear little doillies during the assemblies. That is weird really since they are not even allowed to pray out loud, which is the reason for wearing a veil in 1 Cor 11, i..e. only if a woman is praying aloud in a mixed group. If a woman’s conscience tells her to wear a doillie like that, then she should follow her conscience. Hopefully she would not judge others who choose not to do so, and those who choose not to do so would not judge her (Romans 14:1-3).

Does this mean that women can’t be elders and preachers? The elder part of that question is obvious to me. 1 Timothy 3: one of the. qualifications of an elder is “husband of one wife”. Unless you are a LGBQT proponent of a wife having only one wife, that rules out women being elders. Sometimes I see unwise elders making terrible decisions for the flock and I wish some of the wise women in the. pews could be the elders instead, but we must trust God’s wisdom on this matter. What about women preachers? That is a little more difficult to answer. I concede that a woman can come into the gathering (even the main church assembly in the sanctuary) and share a teaching aloud to the flock as long as she does not try to usurp authority and take over from the men leaders. Then could the men agree to allow her to. preach a 30 minute sermon in the same assembly. Technically, I guess so. But this brings us back to a bigger issue. Why do we have a 30 minute sermon, even by some man preacher?

In the early church, there were many miraculous gifts for mutual edification. 1 Cor 12:⁴ Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵ and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; ⁶ and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. ⁷ To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸ For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” Then in 1 Cor 14 Paul gives instructions on how to use those gifts in any assembly or gathering of sainst. 1 Cor 14:²⁶ What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. ²⁷ If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. ²⁸ But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. ²⁹ Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. ³⁰ If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. ³¹ For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, ³² and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. ³³ For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.”

No one gift dominated the time in the assemblies. We don’t have those miraculous gifts, but “prophecy” might be close to our concept of preaching today since the preacher is doing what the prophets did, which is revealing the word of God to people (although not miraculously like the prophets). So, 2 or 3 prophets, and apparently, if one of them goes too long and takes over the time, then a prophet sitting in the flock, then the long winded prophet was to “be silent” and let the one sitting speak. Apply that to church preachers today. Can you imagine 10 minutes into the preacher’s 30 minute sermon some man in the pews telling him that he has a teaching from the word of God that needs to be preached. He tells the main preacher to sit down and then he speaks for 10 minutes. Bottom line, the way we do it is not not scriptural. The assembly should be using our gifts (even if not miraculous gifts) to edify the flock. Use diverstiy of gifts: we don’t need more than 2 or 3 of any gift. Do not let any one gifted person dominate the time, even a paid preacher.

Which brings to a bigger question. Why do we have paid preachers in congregations? In the early church, you had house churches with elders (hopefully) in each group. You had miraculously gifted elders and teachers in each group. You would never think to hire a paid full time preacher for the group. If anything, 1 Timothy 5 will say that an elder might need supplemental income from the flock if he is devoting so much time to shepherding and preaching. 1 Timothy 5:¹⁷ Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” But where would they “preach” in addition to shepherding? In the New Testament, the word “preach” comes from the Greek word kerusso, which means to proclaim, to declare, to announce, or to herald a message. It was the message proclaimed by the kerux, who was the official spokesman or herald of a king.Used to describe the act of proclaiming the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.” It would not be the word used of an elder shepherding his house flock, although he might preach the gospel basics if a non Christian is visiting the group gathering. Apparently some elders would go to surrounding locations and actually preach the core gospel message to those who were not Christians. That might take time from their trade and incoome to support their family.

The “evangelists” in the early church would go to different places for limited periods of time. Paul left the evangelists Timothy in Ephesus and Titus in Crete to work with those churches. The church might give them food and clothing, but they did not become full time paid preachers. They would stay for a while and then move on to preach the gospel somewhere else, establish a church, or work to correct a church that needed help (like Ephesus or Crete). The Didache (late 1st century church manual) says that if they stayed more than 2 or 3 days, they were false teachers preaching only for money! Didache Chapter 11 “Travelling teachers — Apostles — Prophets: 3 And concerning the Apostles and Prophets, act thus according to the ordinance of the Gospel.  4 Let every Apostle who comes to you be received as the Lord, 5 but let him not stay more than one day, or if need be a second as well; but if he stay three days, he is a false prophet. 6 And when an Apostle goes forth let him accept nothing but bread till he reach his night’s lodging; but if he ask for money, he is a false prophet.” So already in the first century they had problems with men preaching for money!

I know we are discussing whether women should be full time paid preachers. The bigger question: should anyone, man or woman, be a full time paid preacher. My answer is no. There are some full time paid preachers who have done a lot of good, but overall the full time paid preacher system has been a negative. It has killed mutual edificatioin in church assemblies. It has put too much power in the preacher, his talents, his opinions, his influence. It has become a job for many. It has become a real problem when the preacher commits some money or sex scandal. Very few paid preachers are out preaching the core gospel message to unconverted sinners. Most of what they preach is just edifying messages from the word but there are most likely several men who could do that, for free, with short messages without a 30 minute sermon.

But how could a big church with a building, a budget, etc. function without a full time paid preacher that draws the crowds? It probably can’t, although I would love to see an established big church try to do without a paid preacher. Do you see the problem? The house church is growing, using mutual edification and no paid preachers, so we decide to rent a bigger place to meet. Then we get even bigger and decide to build a church building. Then we decide to hire a full time paid preacher who can give us 30 minute sermons instead of mutual edification. We have now done what Israel did: ” Give us a king so that we can be like the other nations”. We have enetered the big church business competition. Some get a talented paid preacher that can draw new members (usually not new converts but Christians coming from other churches). Do you see the problem? So to correct all that, do we disband big churches, sell the property and use the money to drill wells overseas and print Bibles for mission work, and encourage members to start meeting in house churches? Or, do we just try to make the best of it, live with the system, hire good men to preach good edifying messages, and allow the flock to love and serve one another within the current system? (BTW I still fill in to preach an occasional sermon at our church). Or do I pull away from the big church and start a house church in my home, hoping to draw even non Christians to our group? And if our group gets too large, then split and start another evangelistic house church.

Enough said on that! The questions was “should women be preachers”? If we mean, full time paid preachers (as I think the question would imply), then “no”. But maybe neither men or women should be full time paid preachers. I guess if you decide to use unscriptural full time paid preachers, then you are making up your own rules for doing church work. If you do that, then I guess the argument could be made to allow men or women full time paid preachers. The problem even there might be if she is considered to be the “senior pastor” as many denominations do. The word for “pastor” in the New Testament refers to elders, so a woman can’t be a senior pastor elder. The male elders might have to rebuke false teacher men in the flock. A woman elder might have to do that, which would be usurping authority over men, which is forbidden. If a woman preachers is considered to be the senior pastor, even if not appointed as an elder, then she would perhaps need to rebuke false teacher men in the flock. Do you see the problem?

In conclusion, Paul gives the reasons that women are not to usurp authority over the men. 1 Timothy 2:¹² But I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. ¹³ For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. ¹⁴ And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a wrongdoer. ¹⁵ But women will be preserved through childbirth—if they continue in faith, love, and sanctity, with moderation.” The chain of authority is 1 Cor 11:³ But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” But is this just a first century cultural thing? In 1 Timothy 2, Paul says that this order goes back to the creation story in Genesis 1-3. 1) The order in which Adam and Eve were created. Adam was created and then Eve was created to be a “helper” to Adam. An electrician has an apprentice helper, but you can’t have 2 heads, 2 people in charge. The main electrician is the one in charge. 2) Eve was deceived by Satan, but Adam was not deceived. So what? The implication, to me, is that women might the more likely of the two to be deceived in spiritual matters. Why might that be? B/c God has given women some unique qualities for birthing, nursing, and caring for little children while men out working in the weeds to provide for the family. Men think with their head, and women think with their heart. So, yes, women might be more easily deceived. So the men are given the responsibility of leading the home and making the tough spiritual decisions and women are to be in submission. Paul says this same logic would mean that women were not to usurp authority over the men in the church also. BTW Paul added this about the subject: 2 Timothy 3:⁶ For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, ⁷ always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.”

I know I have given a lot of opinion in this article. You can decide on how valid my opinions are. There is a lot of talk about men being “misogynists” today. I hope I am not one of those, just trying to keep women in outdated submissive roles. I hope I am just teaching the roles for women as God laid out in scripture.

Thanks for reading.