13: Does The Bible Really Say A Woman Is Not Permitted To Teach A Man?, Part 1

Welcome to the Ready for Eternity podcast. I'm Eddie Lawrence. As part of the podcast series we're in about church leadership, specifically pastors,

I want us to discuss what the Bible says about women pastors. But before we can do that, there's a more fundamental question related to what the

Bible says about women teaching men. Therefore, we're going to do a two -part episode answering the question, does the

Bible really say a woman is not permitted to teach a man? Over the course of the next two episodes,

I would ask you not to jump to conclusions. You may think I'm going in a certain direction when it comes to the question of whether women can be pastors, but don't jump ahead.

Hear me out. Listen to the next three episodes without prejudging what I'm about to say.

So with that, let's jump into this episode. A woman must learn in quietness and full submissiveness.

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. She is to remain quiet.

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.

1st Timothy 2 11 through 14. This is one of the most misunderstood and abused passages in the entire

Bible. It's been misinterpreted and misapplied for centuries, leading to absurd, inconsistent, and even cruel practices directed towards women.

The way in which this passage has been translated into English has contributed greatly to the problem.

1st Timothy 2 verses 10 through 14, at first glance, appears to be very straightforward.

However, it requires more than just a casual reading. The passage is multi -layered, and therefore it is best approached like peeling an onion, uncovering one layer at a time.

Having said that, there's nothing difficult in these layers. Nevertheless, there are clues that are typically overlooked, which are vital if we're going to properly understand what

Paul is communicating. Once the fundamentals of the passage are understood, it almost interprets itself.

Before peeling back the layers, let's first notice something about the onion, or the context itself.

It's typically assumed that Paul's instructions in these verses are related to church gatherings.

However, there is nothing in the context of 1st Timothy suggesting that church meetings are specifically under consideration.

Paul's stated purpose for writing the letter of 1st Timothy, which he states in chapter 3 verse 15, was so that you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God.

The household of God is the family of God, not the church building. God's standards of behavior include church assemblies, but they aren't restricted to church assemblies.

The context within which we are working is Christian life in general.

Now, let's make some observations about the clues which make up these layers, along with a little commentary, and then we'll tie it all together in the next episode.

Once we've laid the foundation, we'll see if Paul really forbade a woman to teach a man.

So, the first layer of the onion is a misplaced emphasis in 1st

Timothy 2 verse 11. So, what is the real emphasis? Historically, the emphasis has been on women being silent, and traditionally it's been emphasized that a woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness, with the emphasis upon quiet and submissive.

Traditional interpretation says that verse 11 teaches women to be silent and submissive, but we may have missed

Paul's point. First century culture generally denied women a formal education.

This was true both among the Jews and Gentiles. There were exceptions, of course, but generally society denied girls any advanced formal education.

Is it possible that we may have read this verse with a misplaced emphasis? What if Paul's emphasis was that a woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness?

Not with the emphasis being on quiet and submissive, but with the emphasis being on must receive instruction.

So, why would Paul be so adamant that women receive instruction? Perhaps it was so that they wouldn't fall into the same transgression as Eve.

In verse 14, Paul says that deception is why Eve transgressed.

Now, maybe Paul wants Christian women to learn, and by means of a proper Christian education, they would be less likely to fall victim to deception, which could lead to sin.

Knowledge is power, and greater knowledge gives both men and women a better understanding of what

God expects of us. Which of these two does the context support? That's the question.

The second layer of this onion is that verses 12 and 13 are parenthetical.

They are a parenthetical thought inserted into the main point made in verses 11 and 14.

So, parentheticals are phrases inserted into the main thought of a passage. They can add crucial information, but we can skip what is in parentheses, and the sentence still works and makes sense.

So, assuming that verses 12 and 13 are parenthetical, let's read 11 and 14 together.

A woman must learn in quietness and full submission. Adam was not the one deceived.

It was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. So, right away you should be able to notice how verses 11 and 14 connect.

You can see, in context, this dovetails nicely with the idea that Paul is emphasizing that women must learn.

To remain ignorant is to increase the risk of deception. Paul's point is that women must also be taught so that they will not be easily deceived.

You've probably noticed the English Bibles do not add parentheses around verses 12 and 13.

So, how can we be sure these verses are parenthetical? We can have confidence because this passage forms a literary structure called a chiasm, and that's our third layer.

Verses 11 through 14 form a chiasm. A chiasm is a literary technique where an author presents two or more statements, which he expands upon by additional statements.

The structure of a chiasm is better seen than heard, so I would encourage you to click on the link in this episode's description to go to the article which

I'm currently narrating, and you will be able to see a chiasm laid out visually.

I'm going to do the best I can to do this verbally, but you really need to see it.

I'm going to read a passage from Genesis that uses a chiastic structure. This means the ideas are presented in a specific order, then repeated in reverse order, with the central idea in the middle.

Listen for how the first and last parts relate, and how the second and second to last parts relate.

Okay, so line A. And God said let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place.

Line B. And let the dry land appear. Line C. And it was so.

Line B prime. God called the dry land earth.

Line A prime. And the waters that were gathered together he called seas.

And God saw that it was good. Notice how the first and last parts both deal with water, while the second and fourth parts both concern dry land.

The central statement, and it was so, serves as the turning point of the structure.

Now, let's look at the chiastic structure of 1st Timothy 2 verses 12 and 13.

Remember, the first part and the last part will be related, and the two inner statements will be related.

So, line A. A woman must learn in quietness and full submission.

Line B. I do not permit a woman to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man.

She must be quiet. Line B prime. For Adam was formed first, then

Eve. And then line A prime. Adam was not the one deceived.

It was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. In this passage, line

A prime, the last line, tells us the reason for the statement in line A, which was that a woman must learn in quietness and full submission.

Likewise, B prime, Adam was formed first, then Eve, explains the logic behind what

Paul said in line B when he said, I do not permit a woman to teach, or exercise authority over a man.

Again, you really need to see this visually to fully grasp it, so please take a look at the article so that you can see the chiasm.

It'll make a lot more sense when you see it versus hearing it. But knowing that verses 12 and 13 form a chiasm gives us confidence that they are parenthetical.

The fourth layer of the onion is a change from plural to singular. Prior to verse 11,

Paul refers to women and men in the plural. In verse 11, he switches his wording to a woman and a man, both singular.

Paul has changed his focus from the general to the specific. He no longer has all

Christian women and men in mind. This is an important clue. The fifth layer is that biblical

Greek did not have distinct words for husband or wife.

The Greek word gune could mean either a woman or a wife.

Only the context allows you to determine which is under consideration. Likewise, the

Greek word anair could be either a man or a husband. Again, the context will let you know which is under consideration.

So since these words can mean either woman slash wife or man slash husband, only the context of a given passage allows us to determine which is meant.

The sixth layer is word definitions. The word translated quiet in verses 11 and 12 comes from the

Greek word hesuchia. State of quietness without disturbance, quietness rest, as opposed to accompaniment of thunder and lightning without any fanfare.

The word submissive in verse 11 comes from the Greek word hupatage, which means the state of submissiveness, subjection, subordination, as opposed to setting oneself up as controller.

The word teach in verse 12 comes from the Greek word didosko, which means one, to tell someone what to do, tell, instruct.

They did as they were told, Matthew 28 15. Two, to provide instruction in a formal or informal setting, teach.

And finally, the words translated exercise authority in verse 12 come from a single

Greek word, authenteo, which means to assume a stance of independent authority, give orders to, dictate to.

In the next episode, we'll take this foundation we've laid today, that is these six clues or six layers of the onion, and we'll put it all together and draw some conclusions and make applications.

Thanks for listening to the podcast. We hope this episode has deepened your understanding of Scripture.

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