Women in ministry:
an overview of some biblical passages
|
by Spencer Gear [1]
J. Hudson Taylor "founded the China Inland Mission as
a faith mission in 1865, and by 1890 it embraced 40 percent of the
missionaries of China." [1a] It is now called the Overseas Missionary
Fellowship.
"J.
Hudson Taylor makes
extraordinarily ample use of the services of unmarried ladies," wrote a
German missionary in 1898, adding that he thought the idea "unbecoming
and repellent."
He was not alone — many missionary societies
severely
criticized the idea of sending single females to the mission field. But
by 1898, the tidal wave of evangelical missions was sweeping away
strict gender roles. The Women's Missionary Movement, begun in America
in the early 1860s, had already given birth to 40 "female
agencies" — mission societies that sponsored only single women.
Barred
from ordained ministry in their homeland, hundreds of women eagerly
volunteered to serve abroad.
A large measure of this change can be attributed to
the policy of Hudson Taylor. Women were vital to the China Inland
Mission from its inception. In 1878, he took a much criticized step in
permitting single female missionaries to work in teams in the interior
of China. By 1882, less than 20 years after its founding, the CIM
already listed 56 wives and 95 single women engaged in ministry.
Women labored sacrificially and with distinction in
virtually every capacity of [Hudson] Taylor's mission. . . Most
of the single women missionaries in the CIM worked with a female
partner or on teams that included married couples. But some struck out
independently. [2]
"Lady missionaries tend to stay
longer than married couples, and also often make better church planters
- they push forward nationals; men too often want to control
things. As a rule of thumb in most missions today the numbers are
1/3 married men, 1/3 married ladies and 1/3 singles, with only 10% of
the singles as men." [3]
What would happen if we withdrew all the married and single women in
public ministry from the mission field? I'm talking about
withdrawing adult women who minister to adult males and adult females
on the mission field.
On Sunday, 18th July 2004, I attended Birkdale Baptist Church
(Redlands Shire, outer Brisbane) with my son, Paul, Angela and my two
grandsons, Joseph & Daniel. I heard one of the finest sermons
I have heard in quite a while by Robyn Lanham, a female missionary with
WEC International. Such
God-gifted ministry would be closed down if women were not allowed to
preach and teach publicly in this church or any church. Did God
make an error when he gifted Robyn Lanham with the ministry gift of
teaching?
I am convinced that the Bible teaches that God gifts men and women for
public ministry to adult males and adult females. I have to
survey the entire Bible in about 40 minutes. I've been asked to
keep it simple. That is difficult when having to deal with
difficult Greek grammar. However, I want you to hold me
accountable. If there is anything in what I preach that is not
simple enough, please shout out, Spencer! I will stop so that you
may ask your question of clarification. I mean this. If you
want to debate this with me, please do that at morning tea after the
service.
Should women teach men? We are getting to that, but let's look at
an example from a very prominent female preacher.
Billy
Graham has called his daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, "the best preacher in
the family," [3a] yet Anne Lotz has experienced some shocking
harassment (abuse?) by pastors in the evangelical community. "Anne
Graham Lotz [Billy Graham's daughter] learned this
lesson
personally as she began her itinerant ministry 13 years ago. She was
addressing a convention of 800 pastors. As she walked to the lectern,
Anne was shocked to see that many of the pastors had turned their
chairs around and put their backs to her. She managed to share her
message but was shaken. She asked herself, Was the inaudible voice
I had heard from these men, in essence saying, ‘Anne, you
don’t belong
in the pulpit when men are present’ authentic or not? Wanting
to
follow God’s plan for her life, Anne went home and opened her
Bible. As
Anne read, the Lord told her that He put the words in her mouth and
that she was not responsible for the reaction of her audience. God
confirmed the call in her life. Anne, you are not accountable to
your audience; you are accountable to Me." [3b]
| II. Foundation
principles in understanding the Bible |
If we are to interpret the Scriptures there are three basic principles
that we must not depart from:
| A.
First, God is the God of truth; he does not lie. |
Isaiah 45:19 says, "I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in
a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob's descendants, 'Seek me in
vain.' I, the LORD , speak the truth; I declare what is right"
(NIV). God is the God of truth.
Hebrews 6:18, states: "It is impossible for God to lie."
God is the God of
truth. He does not lie or speak with a forked
tongue. His word is utterly dependable. He cannot agree
with women in public ministry on the one hand, and deny women in public
ministry as a universal principle in the Kingdom of God. So, how
do we deal with the passages that seem to say that women must be silent
and not have a public ministry, yet there are other clear examples of
women in active public ministry?
| B. Second, when we interpret the Bible, we
must understand it in context. |
Like reading the News-Mail, it is important to understand verses
as they relate to the verses around them, the entire book in which
those verses are found, and in harmony with the entire Bible. We
must consider the context of any verses.
| C. Third, we must understand the grammar of
the original language, and the history & cultures of Bible times. |
This
takes work and most people don't have the tools to do
it, sadly. All of us, especially preachers, must engage in
historical-grammatical interpretation of the biblical text.
I Tim. 2:12 states: "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have
authority over a man; she must be silent" (NIV). Sounds clear on
the surface, but we cannot interpret it without a knowledge of grammar
(including the meaning of words, "authority" and "silent") and a
knowledge of what was going on in the Ephesian church where Timothy
was. We must understand the history and culture.
I Tim. 5:3 (ESV) reads: "Honor widows who are truly widows." Who
are the true widows as opposed to the false widows? We need a
knowledge of grammar, history & culture. I have noticed that
the search for those who are "true widows" is not an issue in this
church. Why? Cultural understanding.
I Cor. 11:5 reads (NIV): "And every woman who prays or prophesies with
her head uncovered dishonors her head -- it is just as though her head
were shaved." I know that a hat on a woman's head is an issue in
Brethren assemblies, but they don't seem to be an issue here in this
church. Why? Culture.
I want to put a proposal to you that the teaching on the silence of
women in ministry needs to be based on proper grammar and understanding
of culture and history of the biblical texts. But I'm jumping ahead of
myself.
| III. What do the
Scriptures say? |
This morning, I will look at 4 controversial areas.
| A. Women in ministry in the Old
Testament |
The Old Covenant had very different rules for men and women.
There were special privileges given to certain male Jews and not to
male Gentiles. Some had larger functions than others did
(e.g. the Levites). There were women in ministry in the OT. The
OT congregation had almost no function.
We have OT examples of women in active ministry:
Miriam, the prophetess (Ex.
15:20);
Noadiah,
the prophetess (Neh. 6:14)
Queen
Esther (Book of Esther);
Deborah,
a prophetess, Judges 4:4;
Huldah,
the prophetess, (2 Kings 22:14; 2 Chron. 34:22);
Isaiah's wife was a
prophetess (Isa. 8:3).
What does a prophetess do?
Judges 4:4-6 says
that Deborah, the prophetess was "judging Israel at that time. . . the
people of Israel came up to her for judgment." To Barak she
prophesied, "Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you, 'Go,
gather your men at Mount Tabor…'"
2 Kings 22:15
says of Huldah, the prophetess, that "she said to them, 'Thus says the
Lord, the God of Israel: 'Tell the man who sent you to me, Thus says
the Lord. . ."
The OT prophetess was a public person who heard the voice of God and
delivered it publicly to God's people, Israel, and to
individuals. She was a "thus says the Lord" person.
My conclusion: There were definitely women in active
ministry to men in the Old Testament.
| B.
The New Covenant and women |
Luke 2:36 speaks of Anna the prophetess.
A limitation on female ministry seems to contradict the principle of
men and women being equal before God and being able to minister.
See Paul's epistles:
1 Cor. 11:5,
"And
every woman who prays or prophesies with her head
uncovered dishonors her head"; so women had active public ministries.
I Cor. 14:26, " What
then shall we say, brothers [and sisters]? [3c] When you come
together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation,
a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the
strengthening of the church." The word, "adelphoi" means
"brothers" but it also means "brothers and sisters." See I Cor.
11:2-16 where women are addressed (v. 5). See also Phil. 4:1-3
where Paul addresses the believers as "brothers" (adelphoi) in v. 1,
but then, in the next sentence, in vv. 2-3 Paul addresses two
women. So, the term "brother" in Paul's writings refers to men
and women.
Gal. 3:28, "There is
neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor
female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Eph. 5:21, " Submit
to one another out of reverence for Christ."
Therefore, it should not be surprising that God
would tell us in advance what would happen with the coming of the New
Covenant. He prophesied through the prophet Joel what to expect
with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant, from the
Day of Pentecost onwards. In Joel 2:28 it was prophesied: "And it
shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your
young men shall see visions.”
What a change has come about because of the New Covenant? The law
of God is written on the human heart. The Spirit indwells people
who repent, believe and trust Jesus as their Lord and Saviour –
Jews
and Gentiles, men and women, slaves and non-slaves. Special
clergy classes of people are abandoned as the Spirit gifts all people
for ministry, males and females.
If women are to be
silenced from public ministry in the church,
including ministry among men, it will violate God’s New
Covenant.
From the Day of Pentecost onwards, Joel 2:28-32 began to be fulfilled
according to Acts 2:17, "And in the last days [beginning with
Pentecost] . . . I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons
and daughters shall prophesy”. Here is not the place
to get
into what is meant by "prophecy," except to say that you can't
engage in "prophecy" in the church gathering and be silent at the same
time. So, the New Covenant has done away with the silencing of
women in public ministry among a mixed audience of males and females.
Some of Paul's writings make the teaching ministry available to all
believers, including women. In Colossians 3:16, "teaching and
admonishing" is the responsibility of "one another," which must
obviously include male and female. If "teaching and admonishing"
are restricted to males only, consistency of interpretation should
require that compassion, kindness, gentleness, patience, bearing with,
forgiveness and love (Col. 3:12-14, NIV) must be practised by males
only. Such a conclusion regarding Christian character is
untenable. See also 1 Cor. 14:26 where "each one" (male and
female) in the church is encouraged to minister via a psalm,
teaching, revelation, tongue and interpretation when the church
gathers. If women are restricted from teaching, consistency of
interpretation requires their silence with psalms, revelations, tongues
and interpretations. Paul affirmed the teaching ministry of women
(Acts 18:26, Titus 2:3)
and commended women in ministry (Rom. 16:1-15; 1 Cor. 11:5; Phil.
4:2-3.).
Does this include women in a teaching ministry of
men?
| C. The Controversial
Passages |
1. I Cor. 14:33-34: "Women must remain silent in the
churches. They are not allowed to speak" (v. 34).
Remember the general principle of the New Covenant. God has
poured out his Spirit on ALL flesh, male and female. God's gifts
of the Spirit are for BOTH men and women.
If women are excluded from a significant ministry in every church today
(as they are in many evangelical churches), this will have
ramifications at a deep level in the local, national and international
church. Should not this restriction have been included in the
Pauline passages dealing with the churches' teaching ministry
(e.g.. Rom. 12, 1 Cor. 12, Eph. 4)? Except for the one
sentence in 1 Tim. 2:12, the gifts of the Spirit to the church
have never been differentiated on the basis of sex in the entire New
Testament.
How do we understand
this silence of women issue in
I Cor. 14? I Cor. 11:5 says that women can pray and
prophesy. So, women allowed to speak in ch. 11 and told to be
silent in ch. 14 does not make sense for the God of truth who does not
lie.
Could something else be going on here?
What is happening that will help us in this
church in Bundaberg in 2004? Let's examine this "something else"
that helps our interpretation.
Take a look at the context of these verses from I Cor. 14:33ff.
We find this:
a. There was confusion in the
Corinthian church as 14:33 states, "For
God is not a God of disorder but of peace." God wanted peace instead of
disorder in this church.
b. Could it be that the women had a big part in creating this
confusion? How? By speaking and that was disrupting the
church gathering.
c. We get this idea from 14:35 where the women are told that
“if
they want to inquire about something" then they should “ask their
own
husbands at home.” Were they seeking to learn in the church
gathering and it was resulting in rowdy confusion? Seems so.
d. If “it is shameful for a woman to speak in the
church,” it
cannot
mean that women are forever stopped from public ministry in the church
gathering as I Cor. 11:5 and 14:26 make clear. It has to mean
that it is shameful for a woman to engage in disruptive behaviour while
in the church gathering and so contribute to the confusion in the
church meeting. This is a silencing of the women in “all
the
churches of the saints” (v. 33). The inference is that it
applied
to all of the churches as women seem to have been the culprits in
creating this confusion. [4]
e. This temporary silence of women in all the churches, would stop
the
confusion, quit the disruption, and “all things” would then
“be done
decently and in order” (v. 40, KJV).
While this explanation may not be acceptable to those who hold
firmly to the traditionalist view of the silence of women in the
church’s mixed gathering, I cannot see any other way out of it,
without
making God a liar or a perpetrator of contradictory messages.
Such would be blasphemy! God can't say on the one hand that it is
OK for women to speak by praying and prophesying (11:5) and on the
other hand women are to remain silent. It surely was a local
situation that was not meant to silence women for all time. This
also seems a more reasonable explanation in
light of God’s views of the change, promoting women in ministry
in the
New Covenant, from the Day of Pentecost onwards.
For a more extensive examination of this passage
from I Corinthians, see: "Women
in Ministry in I Corinthians: A brief
inquiry."
Let’s look at another challenging passage, probably the
most
difficult passage.
2.
I Tim. 2: 9-15, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have
authority over a man; she must be silent" (v. 12).
In I Tim. 1:3, Paul tells Timothy to "stay there in Ephesus so that you
may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer."
Then right at the end of the book, I Tim. 6:20-21, Paul writes: "
Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from
godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called
knowledge [note those words], which some have professed and in so
doing have wandered from the faith.
This was a letter to Timothy about correcting false doctrine in the
Ephesian church. It was known as a Gnostic heresy (false teaching
about false knowledge).
v. 11 "A woman
should learn in quietness and full submission" (NIV).
[5] In quietness a woman should learn and in
full
submission.
v. 12 "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over
a
man; she must be silent." (NIV).
"Authority" (v. 12) is an unusual word. The normal Greek word for
authority is exousia.
This verb is authentein is
rare word.
This is the only place it is found in the entire NT. It means, to
"have authority, domineer over someone." [6] It means being
master over
or domineering or something like that. It's a hard word to
translate, but it is not the ordinary word for authority. It does
not have to do with authority in the church but a domineering that is
going on in the Ephesian church.
A woman is permitted no teaching, no domineering
over a man; she must be in quietness. If your translation says
that she must remain "silent" (as in the NIV), don't believe it.
The word may mean silence, but there is another, clear, unambiguous
word in Greek for silence that means to keep your mouth shut. [7]
It is
NOT these words. This word translated "silence" is exactly the
same
word in I Tim. 2:2: We must live "quiet" lives. I do not
know why the NIV translated the very same root work, "quiet" (1 Tim.
2:2), "quietness" (1 Tim. 2:11) and "silent" (1 Tim. 2:12). It is
clear
that "quiet" does not mean keep your mouth shut. It means, not
disturbing the peace, not disrupting things. It's the same
word in 1 and 2 Thessalonians about the unruly, idle people who are
sponging off others and not living in love. It does not mean women are
to keep their mouths shut, but women are to stop disrupting
things. Get on with peacefulness. Practise quietness, not
domineering, not disrupting the community.
According to the remainder of Scripture, salvation is obtained by grace
through faith. But what does I Tim. 2:15 say? " But women will be
saved through childbearing--if they continue in faith, love and
holiness with propriety" (NIV) This verse links salvation to
having babies. How is this possible? I have heard about
Christian women who have died in child birth.
In trying to understand this passage, v. 15 was the
toughest nut for me to crack, but when I began to understand this
Gnostic heresy, it opened up for me. For a more detailed
explanation of this section of Scripture, see my paper, "Must Women
Never Teach Men in the Church."
What
was the nature of this
gnostic heresy?
What
was the Purpose of 1 Timothy?
The epistle begins (1:3) and ends (6:20-21) with a concern about
false
teaching. The issue of false teachers and their teaching,
mentioned throughout the letter (chs. 1, 4, 5, 6), also appears in the
wider context of the pastoral epistles (2 Tim. chs. 2-4 and Titus chs.
1 and 3). The purpose, then, of 1 Timothy was to provide
instructions to combat the Ephesian heresy which Timothy
encountered. Within this context, I propose that 1 Tim. 2:12, is
not a universal command applied to every Christian church, but a
specific direction given to Timothy to correct the Ephesian error.
What
was the nature of this Ephesian false
teaching?
a. Those embracing
false doctrines at Ephesus were involved in "worldly
and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called
'knowledge' (gnosis)" (1 Tim.
6:20-21). This Gnostic heresy
included
b. Elaborate systems of intermediate beings who bridged the
gap between
God and man, complete with astounding genealogies and fantastic myths
about these primordial beings. Other Gnostics were considerably
closer to Jewish traditions and gave exaggerated roles to Adam, Eve,
Cain and Seth. [8] See 1 Tim. 1:4, 4:3, 6:20; 2 Tim. 2:18, 23, 3:6-8,
4:5, 14, Titus 3:9.
c. If you read Acts 19, you will find that the Ephesian church was
pioneered in the midst of confrontations with occult and pagan
practices (Acts 19:9, 13, 18-19, 27). The apostle Paul warned of
the "savage wolves" who would attack the believers (Acts
20:29-30). He exhorted them not to be "tossed here and there by
waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of
men, by craftiness, in deceitful scheming" (Eph. 4:14). However,
the Ephesian church reeled under the impact of various kinds of false
teachings, influencing many to defect from the faith (cf. 2 Tim. 1:15,
4:14-15).
d. Some of the prime
targets of the false teachers were women who
listened to anybody, without coming to a knowledge of the truth (2 Tim.
3:6-9).
However, there is every indication that women were
involved in propagating this Gnostic heresy through their roles of
mediatorship (suggested by 1 Tim. 2:5-9). The city of Ephesus
contained thousands of female prostitutes associated with the temples
of Artemis (or Diana) and Aphrodite (Venus). It was considered a
commendable duty to be a temple prostitute. There was a long
tradition in ancient religions of female figures serving as
mediators. Women were supposed to possess a special affinity for
the divine. This "mystic-sexual principle" was evident in early
Christian heresies. [9]
Some
false teachers exalted and revered Eve as the
mediator who brought divine enlightenment to human beings. They
said that secret gnosis was
given to Eve by the serpent, making her the
originator of the knowledge of good and evil. It was even
proposed that Adam received life through Eve's instruction. [10]
A Gnostic sect, the Nicolaitans, promoted heretical
views in Ephesus according to Revelation 2:6. They revered a book
which, they claimed, was the work of Noah's wife, Noria. Sexual
immorality was exalted because of its sacred nature, they said. [11]
If the heresy of 1 Timothy involved Gnostic groups,
women probably were among their teachers. Many early Christian
writers showed that "women performed all churchly roles within many
Christian gnostic groups." It is reasonable, then, to conclude
that women in Ephesus were teaching heresy. [12]
False teachers were prohibiting marriage (1 Tim.
4:3) and may have encouraged women to leave their homes and meet
together (1 Tim. 5:13).
All of this concern for public reputation, model domestic life,
appropriate décor, and maternal domestic roles of women, clearly
implies that the opposition Paul and Timothy faced in Ephesus,
constitutes an assault on marriage, and what were considered
appropriate models and roles for women. [13]
How
was this to be corrected?
The apostle is adamant about what should be done with false
teachers:
"Instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines" (1 Tim.
1:3). They "must be silenced" and reproved severely (Titus 1:11,
13). Could it be that this is the meaning of 1 Tim. 2:12?
Since women were involved in practising and teaching errors which
plagued the Ephesian church, they were forbidden from teaching, as a
temporary measure, until they received adequate instruction (1 Tim.
2:11). One view is that "evidently the ban on teaching by women
had been issued as one of several emergency measures during an
extremely critical period in the history of the Ephesian church." [14]
At the core of Paul's strategy was the elimination of all unqualified
or deviant would-be teachers, both male and female, so that the
church's teaching ministry would be carried out exclusively by a small
retinue of approved "faithful men" who would be able to take from
Timothy the teaching he had himself received from Paul and transmit it
to others (2 Tim. 2:2). Thus, neither women nor all men could
teach in Ephesus, but only a group of trained and carefully selected
individuals. [15]
What
about that difficult v. 15, "women will be kept safe through
childbirth, if they continue in faith, love and holiness with
propriety."? I don’t have time to go into the details, but
this
verse is not an explanation of how a woman can earn eternal salvation,
but a Christian response to Paul's argument for the temporary silence
of women teachers. A female false teacher "will be restored only
when individual women continue in faith and love and holiness, with
modesty, thereby demonstrating the maturity of faith demanded of any
Christian teacher. [16] For an in-depth treatment, see "Must Women Never Teach Men
in the Church?"
My conclusion is that 1 Timothy 2:9-15 is not a command to prevent all
women from teaching in
the church for all times. Paul's intention was not to place a
permanent limitation on women in the ministry. Rather, these
verses were addressed to a problem situation in Ephesus where women
were teaching heresy.
I agree with Mark Roberts conclusion: "So today, if women fail to
continue in faith and love and holiness with modesty -- like men who
fail similarly -- they should not teach. Ones like these, whether
female or male, need to learn in silence and to practice what they
learn. But if women have learned, if they have persevered in the
Christian faith, if the Holy Spirit has gifted them for teaching, let
us not quench the ministry of the Spirit through women. . . We
must encourage our sisters as they seek to serve Christ in his
frighteningly patriarchal church." [17]
3.
I Tim. 3:12, "A deacon must be the husband of but one wife"
This is also the same statement for elders in 1 Tim. 3:2,
that the
elder must be "the husband of but one wife." On the surface, this
verse looks as though all debate is ended. Deacons can only be men
because the qualification is "the husband of but one wife." In
context, if we look at v. 8, Paul is speaking of male deacons who "are
to be men worthy of respect, sincere, . . . etc." That's how it
seems
with a surface reading.
Let's observe something about the phrase "husband of but one wife"
(NIV).
The word translated, "husband" is the Greek, aner. Let's check out
the most authoritative Greek-English lexicon (a lexicon is a
dictionary), Arndt & Gingrich, and discover the various meanings of
aner. [18] This is what
we find:
Remember the story of the
feeding of the 5,000 people by Jesus. In
Matthew 14:21 it reads, "The number of those who ate was about five
thousand men [aner], besides
women [gune]and
children." These are the
words translated as "husband" and "wife" in I Tim. 3. There is no
way
that we would translate Matt. 14:21 as "The number of those who ate was
about five thousand [husbands], besides [wives] and children." Aner
in this context means "man in contrast to woman." In addition to Matt.
14:21, you'll find find "man in contrast to woman" used also in
passages such as Mk.
6:44; Acts 4:4; I Cor. 12:3;
Also, aner
speaks "of a woman having sexual intercourse with a man" referring to
Joseph and Mary in Lk. 1:27, 34;
Yes, it can be
translated as "husband" See Mt. 1:16; Acts 5:9ff;
It also means a
"man in contrast with a boy" (I Cor. 13:11);
It refers to a
"full-grown man" (Eph. 4:13);
Aner is also used as the equivalent
to "someone/some people" in Lk. 9:38; John 1:30; Acts 6:11.
So, there is no reason why aner
should be translated only as
"husband." It is just as valid to translate as "a man, a mature
man,
or a person."
In the phrase, "the husband of but one wife," the word for "wife" is
the Greek, gune. Again
we
go to the most authoritative Greek-English lexicon by Arndt &
Gingrich [19] and this is what we find. Gune can refer to the following:
Remember
Matt. 9:20? It reads, "Just then a woman [gune] who had been
subject
to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of
his cloak. So, gune here refers to "any adult
female." You'll find a
similar kind of use for gun in Lk. 1:42; 1 Cor. 14:34ff.
Yes, it can refer
to "wife"
as in Matt. 5:28; I Cor. 9:5; Col. 3:18ff.
In Luke 4:26, we read, " Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them,
but to
a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon." The "widow" is gune
in
the Greek.
In Matt. 1:20,
Mary is said
to be Joseph's bride or wife.
In Rev. 12:1-17, gune speaks of "the woman in
heaven."
So, gune can mean an
adult woman, wife, or widow.
What then is the meaning of "the husband of one wife" in 1 Tim. 3:2, 12
as it refers to qualifications of deacons and elders? One of the
outstanding evangelical Greek scholars of today is Dr. Gordon
Fee. He writes that this "is one of the truly difficult phrases
in the Pastoral
Epistles." [20] There are at least 4 options for what it means:
First, it would require that
overseers & deacons should be
married. Support could be found "in the fact that the
false teachers
are forbidding marriage and that Paul urges marriage for the wayward
widows" (see 5:14; cf. 2:15). [21] But, this would contradict what Paul
says in I Cor. 7:25-38 that singleness was best for most effective
ministry. Besides, in that Roman culture, it was assumed that
most
people would be married.
There's a second possible
interpretation: to prohibit polygamy
(having more than one wife at the same time). This would
emphasise the
one wife aspect, "but polygamy was such a rare feature of pagan
society." [22] Even further, if you go to I Tim. 5:9, it states that
"no widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty,
has been faithful to her husband" (NIV). So, warning against
polygamy
would have been irrelevant.
A third option: "It could be prohibiting second marriages."
"It
would fit the widows especially and all kinds of inscriptional evidence
praises women (especially, although sometimes men) who were 'married
once' and remained 'faithful' to that marriage after the partner died."
[23] So, this view would mean that a widow or widower could not
remarry
and be a church leader, and divorce and remarriage would be prohibited
for deacons and elders. But, the scriptures give biblical reasons
for
divorce and remarriage in passages such as Matt. 5:31-32; 19:1-9; Mark
10:1-9, and 1 Cor. 7:10-15.
The fourth possibility is that
"it could be that it requires
marital fidelity to his one wife."
[24] That's how the New English
Bible translates the phrase, as "faithful to his one wife." Again
I
quote prominent Greek scholar of today, Gordon Fee:
In this view the overseer is
required to live an exemplary married life
(marriage is assumed), faithful to his one wide in a culture in which
marital infidelity was common, and at times assumed. . . The concern
that the church's leaders live exemplary married lives seems to fit the
context best—given the apparently low view of marriage and family
held
by the false teachers (4:3; cf. 3:4-5). [25]
Therefore, the "husband of one wife" can also be translated as "the man
of one woman." He was a one-woman man. While the English Standard Version [25a]
translates I Tim. 3:2, 12; Titus 1:6 as "the husband of one wife," it
gives this footnote: "Or a man of one woman." Today's New International Version
[25b] translates the phrase as "faithful to his wife." It is
giving an
example of the
need for faithfulness in marriage relationships. Commentator R.
C. H. Lenski explains: "The emphasis is on one wife's husband, and the sense
is that he have nothing to do with any other woman. he must be a
man who cannot be taken hold of on the score of sexual promiscuity or
laxity. . . To begin with, a man who is not strictly faithful to his
one wife is debarred [from service as an overseer]." [25c]
It cannot
restrict
deacons to males only. We know this from Rom. 16:1. Let's
take a look into who Phoebe was.
Rom. 16:1 states, "I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the
church in Cenchrea" (NIV). We need to note that Phoebe, in the
Greek
is said to be a "diakonos." Paul used the Greek masculine,
"diakonos,"
in 1 Tim. 3:8 (cf. 3:11) to indicate male deacons. Here in Rom.
16:1
we have clear biblical evidence that the feminine "diakonos" was used
to refer to a female deaconess. [26]
You will miss this in some English translation. The NIV: "I commend to
you our sister Phoebe, a servant [footnote: "or deaconess"] of the
church in Cenchrea." The NASB, ESV, KJV and NKJV, all refer to
Phoebe,
"the servant." The New Living Translation and NRSV read: "Our
sister
Phoebe, a deacon in the church." The RSV translates as "our
sister
Phoebe, a deaconess of the church." Phoebe was a female deacon,
i.e. a
deaconess.
A final controversial issue:
4. Can
women be apostles or elders? Rom. 16:7
This verse reads:
“Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow
prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ
before me” (that's the ESV). The NIV translates as:
“Greet
Andronicus
and Junias, my relatives who have been in prison with me. They
are
outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I
was.”
These two different translations show some of the difficulties in
translating this verse.
Literally, the Greek reads, word-for-word (English translation):
“Greet Andronicus and Junia/Junias the kinsmen of me and
fellow-captives of me who are notable among, in or by the apostles who
also before me have been in Christ.”
The controversy surrounds:
(a) Junia's gender?
Male or female?
(b) The phrase, “among the apostles,” and
(c) If Junia is feminine and she is among the apostles, this makes
her a female apostle.
Let's look at this briefly. Three quick points:
a.
Firstly, let's examine the gender of Junia.
The Greek form, Jounian (from
Junias), depending on the
Greek accent
given to it, could be either masculine or feminine. So the person
could be a man, Junianus, or a woman, Junia. “Interpreters
from
the
thirteenth to the middle of the twentieth century generally favored the
masculine identification, but it appears that commentators before the
thirteenth century were unanimous in favor of the feminine
identification; and scholars have recently again inclined decisively to
this same view. And for probably good reason. . . The Latin
‘Junia’
was a very common name. Probably, then, ‘Junia’ was
the wife of
Andronicus (note the other husband and wife pairs in this list in Rom.
16: Prisca and Aquila [v. 3] and [probably], Philologus and Julia [v.
15].” [27]
b.
Second: Is Junia a female apostle?
The phrase “esteemed/notable by the apostles” is a possible
Greek
construction as in the ESV. [28] But it is more natural to translate as
“esteemed/notable among the apostles,” as with the
NIV. Why is it
more
natural? It's a technical Greek expression that I explain in
another
paper on women in ministry
that I will give to the deacons to consider.
[29] Andronicus and Junia were probably a husband and wife team
of
apostles. [30]
c.
Junia is therefore a female apostle
This means that Junia was a female apostle, not one of the Twelve,
but one of the ministry gifts of Christ to the church (see Eph. 4:11).
1. In the OT there were women in public ministry: prophetesses.
2. In the NT,
a. From the Day of Pentecost, in
this New Covenant, God is pouring out
his Spirit on all flesh. Spiritual gifts are for both men and
women,
including public ministry of preaching, teaching, other gifts of the
Holy Spirit, BUT men or women who teach false doctrine must not be
given the floor until they have corrected their teachings and
have
returned to biblical truth.
b. In the NT, the restrictions placed on gifts for women AND
men are in
local churches for correction of error or to stop confusion or bedlam
in the church gathering, according to I Cor. 14 and 1 Tim. 2.
c. We haven't had time to examine what Paul said in I Cor. 7:
ff.
about his preference for singleness for the most effective ministry,
"because of the present crisis" (I Cor. 7:26).
d. Objections to women in ministry should be on the same level as women
wearing a head covering in I Cor. 11, food sacrificed to idols (1 Cor.
8), slavery (I Tim. 6:1ff) and those who are truly widows (1 Tim.
5).
A local custom or heresy drove them.
e. What have we done to gifted women with teaching, preaching and other
public ministries? Too often we have sent them to the Sunday
School to
teach children (and many have done that in humility and have done it
well). But it is wrong to do that when we may have women who are
gifted Bible teachers in this church and they are prevented from
exercising those gifts because of the elevation of male-only ministry
in the evangelical church.
f. Take
these examples: The OT Tyndale Commentaries written by Joyce
Baldwin, Dean of Women at Trinity College, Bristol. She wrote the
commentaries on Esther [31], I & 2 Samuel, Daniel [32], and Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
Dorothy
Sayers
g. Dorothy Sayers
(died 1957) was a British Christian who was a
"novelist, playright, academic, and a Christian apologist. . .
Works
like The Mind of the Maker (1941) reveal how skillful an apologist for
orthodox Christian teaching she was. . . Sayers was a prominent
member
of that midcentury group of English Christian writers of whom C. S.
Lewis is the best known." [33] Closing down women in public ministry
among men closes down God's gifts to the church. I cannot support
such
censorship within the church.
h. I call on this church to set the women free to exercise the gifts
that God has given them. Since the Day of Pentecost, God has
poured
out his Spirit on all people. The gifts of the Spirit are not
discriminated on the basis of gender. Please, Please – let
the
men AND
women loose to exercise their God-given gifts. Some of the worst
preachers I have ever heard, who should never be let loose in any
pulpit, have been men.
i. I close with I Cor. 12:4-7, "There are different kinds of gifts, but
the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of
service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working,
but
in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to
each
one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good"
(TNIV). [34]
In support of women in
ministry see:
http://www.warc.ch/dp/walk/01.html
http://www.theologymatters.com/TMIssues/Janfeb00.pdf
http://www.womenpriests.org/classic/brooten.asp
http://www.ptmin.org/view.htm
For a contrary view on Junia see:
http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=1163
1. I am an Australian family relationships' counselling manager,
doctoral student in biblical studies, an active Christian apologist, and
may be
contacted
at: PO Box 3107, Hervey Bay 4655, Australia.
1a. Cairns 1954/1981, p. 402.
2. Tucker 1996 [22 April 2007].
3. Patrick and Robyn Johnstone, Operation World, info@operationworld.org; [3rd
August 2004].
3a. See: http://www.cbsnews.com/earlyshow/healthwatch/healthnews/20010913terror_spiritual.shtml
[3rd August 2004].
3b. See: http://www.cbn.com/700club/profiles/annegrahamlotz2.asp
[3rd August 2004].
3c. What does adelphoi (brothers) mean? Is it referring to males only, or are women included? Gordon Fee links his comments about adelphoi in 14:26 with his explanation of the vocative adelphoi in I Cor. 1:10:
"Although it means 'brothers,' it
is clear from the evidence of this letter (11:2-16) and Phil. 4:1-3
that women were participants in the worship of the community and would
have been included in the 'brothers' being addressed. The latter
passage is particularly telling since in v. 1 Paul uses the vocative adelphoi,
and then directly addresses two women in the very next sentence.
It is therefore not pedantic, but culturally sound and biblically
sensitive, for us to translate this vocative [in I Cor. 1:10] 'brothers
and sisters'" (Fee 1987, p. 52 n22).
4. Gordon Fee states,
"The most commonly held view is
that which sees the problem as some
form of disruptive speech. Support is found in v. 35, that if the
women wish to learn anything, they should ask their own husbands at
home. Various scenarios are proposed: that the setting was
something
like the Jewish synagogue, with women on one side and men on the other
and the women shouting out disruptive questions about what was being
said in a prophecy or tongue; or that they were asking questions of men
other than their own husbands; or that they were simply
'‘chattering'’
so loudly that it had a disruptive effect.
"The biggest difficulty with this view is that
it assumes a ‘church
service’ of a more ‘orderly’ sort than the rest of
this argument
presupposes. If the basic problem is with their ‘all
speaking in
tongues’ in some way, one may assume on the basis of 11:5 that
this
also included the women; furthermore, in such disarray how can mere
‘chatter’ have a disruptive effect? The
suggestion that the
early
house churches assumed a synagogue pattern is pure speculation; it
seems remote at best" (Fee 1987, p. 703).
5. The following information on "authority" and "quiet" is
based on
Gordon Fee, cassette tape, "Pastoral Epistles: About Women", preached
at Waverly Christian Fellowship, Melbourne, 1997.
6. Arndt, Gingrich & Bauer 1957, p. 120.
7. That is, use the negative, mē, with laleō (I speak), thus meaning "I do
not speak."
8. Kroeger 1980, p. 15.
9. Ibid., pp. 15-16.
10. Ibid., p. 16.
11. Ibid.
12. Roberts 1983, p. 19.
n39
13. Scholer (1985).]
14. Bilezikian 1985, p. 261.
15. Ibid., p. 182.
16. Mark D. Roberts, "Women Shall Be Saved: A Closer Look at 1
Timothy 2:15," The Reformed Journal,
April 1983, p. 22.
17. Ibid.
18. Arndt, Gingrich & Bauer, pp. 65-66.
19. Ibid., p. 167.
20. Fee 1988.
21. Ibid., p. 80.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid., pp. 80-81.
25a. The Holy Bible: English
Standard Version [ESV]. Wheaton, Illinois:
Crossway Bibles (a Division of Good News Publishers), 2001.
25b. Today's New
International Version: New Testament Preview Edition 2001,
available from: http://www.tniv.info/pdf/TNIV_NewTestament.pdf
[12th August 2004].
25c. Lenski 1937, 1946, 1961, 2001, pp. 580-581.
26. Arndt, Gingrich & Bauer 1957, pp. 183-184.
27. Moo 1996, pp. 921-922.
28. This is using the preposition, ev, in its instrumental sense.
29. “With a plural object [apostles], ev often means ‘among’;
and if
Paul had wanted to say that Andronicus and Junia were esteemed
‘by’ the
apostles, we would have expected him to use a simple dative [case] or
[the preposition] hupo with
the genitive [case]. The word epistemoi
(‘splendid,’ ‘prominent,’
‘outstanding’); only here in the NT in this
sense [cf. also Matt. 27:16]) also favors this rendering” (Moo 1996, p. 923, n39).
30. Gordon Fee (1987) says that that Rom. 16:7 refers to “probably
Andronicus
and his wife [Junia]” (I Corinthians, n80, p. 729). Gordon Fee
says
that that Rom. 16:7 refers to “probably Andronicus and his wife
[Junia]” (p. 729, n80).
31. Baldwin 1984.
32. Baldwin 1978.
33. Pollard 1978, pp. 334-335.
34. Today's New International
Version, available from: http://www.tniv.info/pdf/TNIV_NewTestament.pdf
[5th August 2004]
William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, transl &
adapt. of
Walter B1937, 1946, 1961, 2001,auer 1957, "authenteo," A
Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament and Other
Early Christian Literature. Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press,
limited edition licensed to Zondervan Publishing House,
Joyce G. Baldwin 1978 Daniel
(The Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries,
gen. ed., D. J. Wiseman). Downers Grove, Illinois:
InterVarsity
Press.
Joyce G. Baldwin 1984, Esther
(The Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries,
gen. ed., D. J. Wiseman). Leicester, England:
Inter-Varsity
Press.
Gilbert Bilezikian 1985, Beyond
Sex Roles: A Guide for the Study of
Female Roles in the Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker
Book House.
Earle E. Cairns 1954, 1981, Christianity
through the Centuries: A History of the Christian Church.
Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Zondervan Publishing House,.
Gordon D. Fee 1987, The
First Epistle to the
Corinthians, The New International Commentary on the New
Testament,
gen. ed. F.
F. Bruce. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company.
Noel S. Pollard, "Sayers, Dorothy Leigh," in J. D. Douglas,
gen.
ed., Twentieth-Century Dictionary of
Christian Biography. Carlisle,
United Kingdom: Paternoster Press, 1995
Gordon D. Fee 1988, 1 and 2
Timothy, Titus (W. Ward Gasque, New Testement
ed., New International Biblical Commentary).
Peabody,
Massachusetts:
Hendrickson Publishers.
Richard and Catherine Clark Kroeger 1980, "May Woman
Teach? Heresy in
the Pastoral Epistles," The Reformed
Journal
(October).
R. C. H. Lenski, 1937, 1946, 1961, 2001, Commentary
on the New Testament: The Interpretation of St. Paul's Epistles to the
Colossians, to the Thessalonians, to Timothy, to Titus, and to Philemon.
Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers.
Douglas G. Moo 1996, The
Epistle to the Romans (The New International
Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids,
Michigan: William
B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Noel S. Pollard 1995, "Sayers, Dorothy Leigh," in J. D. Douglas,
gen.
ed., Twentieth-Century Dictionary of
Christian Biography.
Carlisle,
United Kingdom: Paternoster Press.
Mark D. Roberts 1983, "Women Shall Be Saved: A Closer Look at 1
Timothy 2:15," The Reformed Journal (April).
David M. Sholer 1985. "The Place of Women in the Church's Ministry: 1
Timothy 2:9-15," Dean of the
Seminary, Professor of New
Testament, Northern Baptist Theological
Seminary, Chicago, The address was delivered at Macquarie
University,
Sydney,
NSW, Australia, on March 15, 1985, sponsored by Zadok Centre,
Canberra, Australia, and available on cassette tape.
Ruth A. Tucker 1996, "Unbecoming Ladies: Women played a
controversial
but decisive new role in China missions," Christian
History (October 1), available
from: http://ctlibrary.com/418 [22 April 2007].
"Now to each one
the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common
good" (I Cor. 12:7, TNIV).
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