Book of 1 Timothy - Ch. 2, v. 11

Okay, so last week we obviously were working our way through chapter 2 and at this point we're all the way up into verse 11. We finished up a pretty lengthy, I think about three week discussion on biblical modesty and specifically about the types of things that the Apostle Paul would have had in mind in verses 9 through 10.

And so that's right where we left off was verse 10. Biblical modesty, of course, if we were to summarize the last three weeks, it is not a simplistic dress code as many people want to make it, but at the same time it does set a very high standard for Christian women because as we have seen in the scriptures up to this point, the way that a person is presented outwardly says everything about their inner dignity as well.

And of course that inner dignity is then displayed in their outer clothing which should also be dignifying just as their inner man is dignifying. So if we're talking specifically about Christian women, those who have been given a new heart, who have been regenerated, they now have a new creature within them.

They are a new creature. They have the new man, so to speak. And so their outward appearance and the way they present themselves speaks with or I should say should speak with a dignity that correlates with the dignity of that inner man in contrast with much of what our modern day culture presents itself or in the way it presents itself.

Biblical Modesty and the Dignity of Christian Women

So for example, attempting intentionally to draw kind of lustful attention, if we're talking specifically about women which of course is in view there in chapter 2, one specific pitfall and temptation that they will have in a culture is to draw that kind of attention, lustful attention because their beauty is obviously something that can be used for that.

Of course, we saw in Isaiah chapter 3, another thing that's to be avoided is attempting to be haughty with their outward appearance and things like that. Of course, there are ways in which the outward appearance can be used as a form of rebellion.

And so again, it's not a simplistic dress code, but we have enough information to know where certain lines should be drawn. A pastor that I enjoy listening to once said, and I thought it was pretty funny, you know, there's nothing in the Bible that says that a woman can't wear pants.

For example, there are some people that want to create that line, but it's an artificial one. There's nothing in the Bible that says a woman can't wear pants, but if the pants are so tight you can tell that the coin in their pocket is heads or tails, you've got a problem.

Obviously, it's one of those things where when you compile the biblical narrative, the biblical information that we have, you can know where those lines are with that information without having to construct our own legal code, our own dress code and things like that.

We can let the Bible draw those lines without us having to do it. And so again, that is what biblical modesty is all about. It's adorning oneself to elevate the femininity that God gave women as a particular glory while avoiding things like trying to draw lustful attention, trying to be haughty, trying to be rebellious and things like that.

The Cultural Controversy Surrounding 1 Timothy 2:11–12

Now, that was the topic of modesty that we had from verses 9 through 10, and as if the topic of modesty in a grossly immodest world that we live in, as if that wasn't controversial enough, we now, between verses 11 and 12, arrive at perhaps two of the most controversial verses in the Bible, at least in our modern age.

Not to say these have always been extremely controversial, but they are at the present time. But I want you guys to remember as we go through it that the controversy is only there, it's only present, because it cuts against the grain of what you might call our cultural creeds are today.

In other words, the morality of the culture, quote-unquote morality of the culture, the scruples of the society, the creeds of our society, these particular verses cut against that. And so it creates a controversy in the minds of those living within the culture because it's like, well, hold on a second, we now have this very dogmatic, authoritative injunction against what our cultural norms, our cultural scruples say is perfectly okay.

So that's what creates the culture. It's not the Bible in and of itself that creates, excuse me, I said culture, it's what creates the controversy. Culture creates the controversy, not necessarily the Bible.

And so just as a brief preamble, a brief preamble before we go into these verses in more detail, I want to remind everyone where we started. This entire passage, all the way back up in verse 9, which was what?

God's good design for men and women. That's where we started everything, and we're going to keep going back to that reference point because as we move through the remainder of these verses in this chapter, that has to be the reference point.

Otherwise, we may create some undue confusion or something like that. God's good design for men and women. Men and women were created equal in value and in dignity, but beneficially different at the same time.

So we have to remember that reference point. We have to remember that foundation as we move through this. Another thing that we talked about about a month ago at this point, that once more is very important as we get into the following verses, is that any and all commands that are given by God, whether they're to men or to women, they are never burdensome or grievous, as the KJV puts it in 1 John, but rather they contribute to our ultimate flourishing in this life.

So any instruction we are ever given in Scripture, it is not ever intended to be a burden. It is intended to contribute to your flourishing as a man or woman of God. And so when we read what we're about to read, we have to understand there is goodness behind this.

There is not an authoritarian connotation. It is the connotation of a father delivering instructions for ultimate flourishing for his children. So we need to remember that. And with that being said, I want to tell you guys one of my greatest pet peeves really quick.

One of my greatest pet peeves, and I will say some of my favorite pastors have done this very thing, but it irks me just as much. Whether it's a pastor that I love or whether it's, I don't know, someone that I wouldn't have much respect for.

Yeah, exactly. Well, not necessarily bad preacher clips because they wouldn't do what I'm about to say the pet peeve is. But the pet peeve is this, often a pastor or a Bible teacher prior to going into verses like this will throw in some qualifiers, you know, to I guess try to relieve a felt tension in the room or something like that.

You know, they'll throw, they'll try to be funny with it. They'll throw out some things like, now ladies, you know, I'm sorry, but you know, we're going to go through this pretty quickly and things like that.

And you know, or this isn't me talking, this is the apostle Paul, so blame him, you know, things like that. And I've even, I've even heard them go so far as to say is now we're not really going to be talking to the women here, but I'm really talking to the men and things like that.

Is it like, and I'm sitting here thinking, okay, so you're going to rob the women of the church from express, expressly given words from God directly to them because they, why? They feel uncomfortable because they feel the tension of our modern feminist culture that wants to condemn verses like this.

And so they capitulate, they compromise in a kind of a, an innocent way, if I could put it that way, just to give them the benefit of the doubt, because like I said, I've heard some of my favorite pastors do this.

And it's, it's one of my greatest pet peeves. Why is that? Because these are the words of God and there's no need for us to feel uncomfortable about them. We're going to go slowly through it for, for what reason?

For the same reason we've gone slowly through every other verse we've looked at. And that is because these are the words of God. And so there's nothing to apologize for. There's nothing to feel weird about because God's intention here is the flourishing of his people and nothing less.

“Let the Woman Learn”: The Text of 1 Timothy 2:11–12

Let's look at these verses together. Chapter two, verse 11 says, let the women or let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor do you usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

We probably won't get much into verse 12 today. But these two verses kind of go together. Obviously it's the same thought. So let's just park at verse 11 for a little bit. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.

Now I want to begin with a reminder of where we are contextually for a second. Yeah, go ahead. That's weird. Didn't you shut down the whole thing? Yeah.

I just went to screen saver, but also they've lost sound out there.

Worst case scenario is we just unmute your laptop. Yeah.

Okay. That's it. Would it pick you up from there? Uh huh. I'll just do that. That'd be fine.

All right. Yeah. No, that's okay. Just hit the unmute button. And then once it's all working, you can come remute this so they don't hear double. Okay. So again, context for a second. Let's remind ourselves where we're at in verse 10.

What we just finished talking about. What does Paul do? He commands women to adorn themselves in a way that is proper. And of course that is referring the external appearance, the clothing, that sort of stuff.

But not just that, because in verse 10 he also says you are going to adorn yourself with good works. So it's action as well as the actual dress itself. Now okay. So verse 10 ends with good works. It ends with this instruction for women to adorn themselves with good works.

We know that the New Testament is replete with examples of what good works can look like. So even if that was the only verse we had in isolation, our minds can go to a number of different passages throughout the New Testament.

We can think of some things that would fit the bill as far as how that adorning can manifest itself in good works. But even with that, Paul makes it even easier for us because while we can go to other places to get an idea of what good works look like, he gives us a couple of them right here in verses 11 and 12.

So he says adorn yourself with good works and then from 11 through 12 he gives us some good works that they can adorn themselves with. And so all of this fits together of course in one whole package contextually.

He tells us that women must learn, but he also tells us that they must learn in a specific way. He gives us some qualifiers. He says in silence, which another way you could translate that is quietly, and with all subjection or simply you could say submissively.

Christianity’s Affirmation of Women as Learners

Now I'd like to take some time essentially to break down Paul's exhortation here word for word because there's some very, again, if you do slow down in passages like this, rather than trying to brisk through them because of the perceived tension in the room, and I'm not talking about here at all by any means, but churches at large, when they brisk through this and they're uncomfortable by it for whatever reasons there may be, you miss some of the amazing things that are right here, just plain as day, that tell us a lot about, for lack of a better term, and I don't really like using this word, but I'll just use it because I can't think of a better one at the moment, but kind of the revolutionary nature of Christianity, of the scriptures.

We're not revolutionaries. It wasn't a revolution. It's not the best word to use, but just this kind of radical nature that was very much new in the context of the first century Roman Empire. You'll see what I mean here in just a second, but you miss stuff like that when you go through it too quickly, so we're going to slow down.

We're going to go through this essentially word for word. Let the woman learn. If you just pause there for a second, you can grasp some things, and the first phrase, we already have a lot to work with here, so we need to first address a quick translation issue that we have with the word let, so the very first word of the verse is let the woman learn in silence and so forth.

In the Greek language, there is a construction that we do not have in English, so in English, we have a couple of things, one of which is called the first person imperative, and another is called the second person imperative, so a first person imperative would be like me saying, hey, guys, let's go outside because I'm including myself in that.

It's the first person. It's an imperative, and so it's a command of saying we need to go outside, but I'm including myself. Let's go outside. Or if I were to look at any of y 'all in here and say, you go outside, that would be the second person imperative.

In the Greek, there is a third person imperative, and that's something we do not have in the English language, and Paul uses that here, so in the Greek word that he uses for let the woman learn, you have it given in the third person imperative.

We do not have that in English, so it creates a little bit of an interesting thing when it comes to trying to translate it because we don't have this, and it's somewhat difficult to capture. The reason why this is important for me to note here is because what let in verse 11 does not mean, though it seems to carry the connotation to us just in English, just in straight English, what it doesn't mean when it says let the woman learn is allow the woman to learn.

So it does not carry the connotation of allow, even though just the English word let by itself may give that connotation like I mentioned. So let me give you a biblical example, another one, where the word let is used, but we know that there is nothing being allowed here, but rather it's a command that's going to happen.

When God in the creation order said, let there be, insert anything, let there be light, what it doesn't mean is allow there to be light. There was going to be light. It was a command that he is saying there must be light, but we translate it, and of course that's Hebrew, we're looking at Greek in the New Testament, but some similarities there.

The reason why we translate it the way we do is because it is a difficult translation to kind of carry the way it was delivered in the original, I'll put it that way. And so in the same way that when God says let there be light, that is a command, it's not a suggestion, it's not saying I allow there to be light, rather he's saying there must be light because I spoke it.

In that same way, the force of the Apostle Paul's exhortation here, let the woman learn, is in the command form, in other words, she must learn. The woman must learn. It is not a matter of allow her to learn, you know, factoring in anyone's preferences or anything like that, but rather it is in fact a command.

And so the use of let in the English to signify a third person imperative, it's usually the best way that we can translate that, but again, it can be confusing because of the connotation that the word carries, and so we have to address it for that reason.

He doesn't mean allow. Paul's intention here is not to give an optional preference, but to give a direct command. It is an imperative after all. It's a third person imperative, but it is an imperative straight to the women of the church.

And in doing so, he is teaching the whole church that women must learn. Now, just pause there and set the qualifications aside for a second, the in silence and in all subjection part that's coming, and it's important.

We'll talk about why in a sec. But if you set that aside and you realize the command he's giving, the women of the church must learn. Think about that for a second and the fact that he's giving it in positive light.

In other words, this is a good thing. In the ancient Roman Empire, it was not normal for women of any class to learn anything having to do with theology or philosophy or doctrine. And so this was like this was a new command in a form coming from Paul, talking to these new converts, coming into the church, letting them know, listen, if you want to honor God appropriately as men and women, you all must learn.

This is not limited to just the men, but the women also will cover more in a second. Go ahead, dad.

It's an old English, obey the king. Right. It doesn't mean allow them to obey. Right. They got to obey. You could easily miss the Greek, which shows your way. And the other interesting thing is, you know, Islam is pretty much still stuck in the first century because they don't have Christ.

I mean, Jesus elevated women to the highest plane they ever were in all of human history.

That's absolutely true, indisputably so, despite what the current feminist movements might try to say. It's so bizarre to me that they throw Christianity uniquely under the bus as being is trying to subjugate women when it was the very thing that liberated children and women and slaves, whereas every other religion would have never done that and could not have ever done that.

Feminists will bow to the to the whims of Islam. They'll even wear the hijabs to show solidarity with them, while on the other side of the same coin, totally commodify their bodies in the way that they dress, in the way that they act, in the way that they speak.

It's it's the the there are so many verses in the Bible that talk about the confusion that the devil brings, the contradiction that the devil brings. It's on full display like it's never, never been before in specifically the feminist movement.

“In Silence”: Attentive Listening in Acts 21 and 1 Timothy 2

But to Dad's point, Christianity, you read this verse and you read it too quickly, you miss some very important things, which part of it being that Christianity brought a freedom that wasn't there before.

Now, let me say this, Dad, because you mentioned the Old English, the 1611. I want to give the translators the benefit of the doubt and say that the word lit is an appropriate translation. So when I say there's a translation issue here, what I don't mean is that it's a bad translation.

What I mean is we have to understand what they meant by it. And what's interesting, Dad, is the large majority of translations, even some of the modern ones or most of the modern ones, still use the word lit here.

And so that that just kind of backs up the fact that the original KJV translators, they didn't miss anything. They weren't doing anything wrong. They were trying to translate a Greek construct that we do not have in the English.

Just to, you know, give you a point of reference to understand this isn't like trying to play with the words or anything like that. Well, I'll say this way, when you are arguing with an egalitarian Christian or a feminist Christian and they read a verse like this and they say the word it says, let the woman blah, blah, blah.

It obviously means allow. It's really tough to argue with a person like that by going and talking about the third person imperative. That's typically not going to be a very constructive conversation. That's good for you and for your edification.

But a point that you can make that so that you can prove it's not you just playing with the words or trying to create an argument out of thin air just to win an argument, but rather being faithful to the original is there are a number of faithful translations that use a more literal, a more literal approach to this word.

For example, they may translate it. The woman should learn or the woman must learn or the woman is the woman ought to learn a little bit stronger English terms that correlate perhaps better with the original Greek.

And some of those translations would be things like the NLT, the CSB, the LSB and the NASB. Those last two, especially they don't necessarily use the right Greek manuscripts, but they are faithful in the sense that the men that did the like Feinberg, for example, the men that did the translations were very conservative, very solid men.

And of course, a lot of guys associated with MacArthur's Master Seminar did the LSB. So there are good translations out there or let me put it this way. There are modern translations that are faithful that do see what I'm talking about here with the way the connotation isn't allowed, but rather in the command form of a must.

So it's not playing with the words. It's not trying to to, you know, do a quote unquote word study so that you can, you know, make a nifty argument or anything like that. This is the intention of the apostle.

This is the authorial intent of this word. Now, I already kind of mentioned the historical point, but Paul is giving the command for women to learn once more in the first century Roman Empire. This was a culture where women learning anything, like I mentioned a second ago, related to theology, doctrine, anything like that.

That was not the norm by any means at all. And so before he even mentions the qualifications that we'll get to in just a second, he starts by simply inserting the Christian truth that all of God's children must learn in order to honor him.

Men and women alike. This isn't a matter of the higher classes of men only going, you know, like the monks going in and doing all of the all of the learning. And then they they preach in a dead language as the layman just sit around and are supposedly, you know, sanctified just by the mere speech of those that are speaking.

Rather, true Christianity is about the body of Christ becoming unified in their joint study of the scriptures. The thing is, is the faithful Jews were already doing this. The faithful Bereans, those were most likely believing Jew, like they were ethnic Jews, but they were now Christians religiously and they were faithful to go and test even the apostle Paul's words up against scripture.

Paul is now teaching that for the new newly converted Gentile Christians in saying this is what you need to do as well. If we're going to honor God together, we all need to be learning. Now, he doesn't end there, though.

He does give us some qualifications. He doesn't just say they must learn, period. And if he had done that, it would have been tough because then we would have all had we here would have needed to affirm essentially that women are to learn in the exact same way as men, which, of course, isn't the case because like we have established in this particular study, men and women were given different natures by design.

And therefore, the way in which God instructs men and women to do the things that he gives both of them to do, such as learning, he does so in a way that is consistent with their natures as well by their design.

And so that's where Paul's qualifications begin to come into play here. If it's now true that women are to learn as men also are to learn, what is that supposed to look like? What is that practically?

How is that practically applied? So still looking at verse 11 with me here. The first qualification we're given is that the woman must learn in silence. That's the first qualification or another way you could translate this is she must learn in quietness or simply quietly.

Now, the Greek term that's used here is actually a very rare one. It's only used two other times in the whole New Testament outside of this one. And I want to show you one of those places because it helps illuminate a little bit what exactly how Paul is is defining the word or how the word is used more specifically.

Look at Acts chapter 21 with me really quick. These are the kinds of things where it may feel a little bit tedious. You know, we're cross-referencing individual words, trying to get a grasp of how this puzzle can be fit together, so to speak.

But as tedious as it feels, it's important because I'm not joking when I say that passages like the one we're in are under attack like none other. There are historic heresies where people are always going to be attacking the Trinity and they'll always be attacking the deity of Christ and things like that.

We have to be prepared to defend those, too. But in an even more broad sense than any of those ancient heresies are now attacking the church, you have attacks on passages like this. Remember when I began a month ago with the somewhat provocative claim that feminism is a heresy and is a heretical teaching.

Why? Because, and I'm using it somewhat loosely, because anything that subverts the word of God and teaches indirect contradiction to it should be labeled that, at the very least loosely, if not very technically, such as certain Trinitarian heresies and things like that.

It may not fit that category, but loosely it certainly does because it tries to subvert the words of God. And so these passages are under attack. So as tedious as we may get, it is hopefully for everyone's benefit so that you're encouraged by it and so that you remember it when you ever experience such attacks yourself.

Look at Acts 21. Look at, I'm going to start in verse 40 and then read into the next chapter. Remember, what are we looking for? It's that we're looking for the same Greek word that Paul uses for in silence.

In First Timothy, chapter two, it's only used two other times. This is one of them. That's what we're looking for. It says in verse 40, and when he had given him when he had given him license, Paul stood on the stairs and beckoned with the hand unto the people.

And when there was made a great silence. Now, that's not the Greek term yet. It's a different Greek term that also means silence, but it's not the same one. But factor that in. There was a great silence and he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying, and then look at verse one of the next chapter, men, brethren and fathers, hear ye my defense, which I make now unto you.

And look at verse two. And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence. There's our Greek term. And then he saith and he goes on with the magnificent speech that he gives.

Why is this important? Number one, it's the same Greek word. So with that, we can use it to have a better understanding of how the word is used throughout the New Testament literature. So we see it here.

We see it in First Timothy one eleven. In this context, it's quite obvious. And I would argue it's obvious in First Timothy as well. But here it's very obvious that we have what a gathering of people, an assembly of people.

Right. We have an assembly of some of the most prominent religious leaders. At that time. And what are they doing? They are quiet and they are intently listening. And that's the key. They are intently listening to what Paul is saying.

And of course, all the more once he begins to speak the Hebrew language that really grabs their attention. And so the Greek term here is obviously carrying the connotation that the silence on the part of this particular assembly in Acts is not a passive silence.

It's not just sitting down, as Ash would say, the lights are on, but nobody's home kind of look just glazed over. You know, you're in your own world, you're thinking about your own stuff while stuff around you is happening.

It is not a passive silence where you're just sitting there zipped up. What it is, is the term is intimately connected to listening closely. So there's in other words, there's a purpose for the silence.

It's not a matter of you just need to be quiet. It's a matter of there are important things that are about to be said and you need to be listening closely, intently. Now, I want you to import that idea, that thought with the exact same connotation, which we should, because that was the word choice that Paul used, import that into our first Timothy passage.

When the women of the church are being taught, they must do so while intently listening to what's being taught. That's the purpose of the qualification. That's why he is saying women must learn in silence.

That's that's what the Greek term carries. It's not a passive silence, but it is an active silence. And that's a big difference. Again, it's not there. There's the old saying of children need to be seen and not heard.

What usually when that is said, it is said for what purpose? The kids need to be quiet so the adults can talk, so the adults can do their thing. And of course, the kids couldn't care less about what the adults are talking about.

They would like to be in the conversation maybe with something interesting to them. But when the adults start talking about, you know, Trump's monetary policy or something, the kids are not going to be listening to that.

What are they going to be doing? They're going to be sitting quietly in silence, but passively. They're zipped up because they're not allowed to talk. They've been told you're to be seen and not heard.

And they are now sitting there in their own world, probably letting their imagination to the best of their ability run run loose while the adults talk about whatever they want to talk. That is not what is in view here.

What is in view here is an active silence, a silence that allows you to intently listen to the words being spoken for your own benefit, for your own good, for your own sanctification. So when Paul says in silence or quietly, the woman must learn in silence, the woman must learn quietly.

It means intent and quiet listening. It's an attentive silence while in the process of learning the things of God. And then Paul includes the next qualifier, of course, with all subjection or with with all submissiveness.

Submission, Authority, and the Proper Scope of Obedience

So the first thing is they are to they are to learn in such a way that allows them to hear the words of God being spoken and to be able to to be able to consume it, to meditate on it, to apply it to their lives.

And then we have the next qualification here. So that's first. Now we have with all subjection or with all submissiveness is the type of learning is the way in which they do the learning. And the Greek term here only appears three times in the New Testament, always also somewhat of a rare word, just like the previous one we looked at.

And one of those occasions is the very next paragraph in chapter three. Remember, the chapters and verse divisions were originally there, but we certainly had a cogent literary layout with paragraphs, sentences and things like that.

And in the very next paragraph of what we're currently reading in First Timothy chapter two, this Greek word for in all subjection pops up again. But that time it is when Paul is saying that a pastor must have submissive kids in order to be a qualified pastor.

So that's interesting to note. The same Greek term is used there. The word carries the idea of having complete respect for the order that God ordained. So in all subjection, in all submissiveness means that the person that is being submissive cares greatly about the order that God ordained.

Now, I want to slow down even more for just a second, and I want us to remind ourselves of what Paul is not saying in this verse, nor anywhere else in Scripture. When he says that women are to learn in silence with all subjection, what he's not saying is they are to do that to all men.

What he's saying, and you won't find that anywhere else in Scripture either, the only connotation or excuse me, the only context in which you would ever find something along those lines are in contexts in which the men are in likewise kind of universal subjection.

So in other words, underneath the authority of a king, obviously the woman is subject to him, even though that king is not her husband. The same would be true, believe it or not, with church leadership.

So we learn that in Hebrews. We're told that the congregation should be submissive collectively, men and women, to the leaders, and then it goes on and gives some very important information for the leaders to keep in mind.

Their souls are under your watch care, don't screw it up, is essentially the intent of that. But it begins by throwing it to the congregation and saying, you need to be submissive to the leaders that have been ordained over you.

So there's a few kind of, I keep saying that word, a few contexts where we see that, but it's not uniquely toward the women. It's both toward men and to women. When we do see a context where we see a unique submissiveness to a particular individual man, a woman to a particular individual man, it is always in two specific scenarios and only two with one possible corollary.

And I'll give you that one in a second. The first one, the first scenario that Paul has in view here is that the woman learns in silence and with all subjection to her husband, not every husband, but to her husband.

So that's the first scenario. The second is that the woman is to learn in silence and in all subjection to her pastor, not to every pastor. So again, it's not a universal hierarchical structure here where you have any woman being subject to any man or needing to learn in that submissive, silent way to any man.

It is specifically in the context of husbands and to their pastors. And by the way, with regard to the pastor, the very next chapter we're about to get into lets everybody know that that pastor better be qualified.

And so it's not a matter of just, you know, you were just submitting based upon any sort of intrinsic authority that the guy has as a pastor behind a pulpit, but rather one, number one, called by God, but number two is qualified to actually do the job.

So remember, these exhortations, these commands are for your own benefit. They are for your own flourishing and nothing less than that. Let me give you the possible corollary. And in scripture, we don't have a direct command for this, but I believe it is implied in a few places and that is this.