Should a Woman Lead?
As I have been preparing to teach a course on Wesleyan Church history in the coming weeks, my mind has been drawn to the wonderful history of my church's tradition (The Wesleyan Church) of confirming that call of Christ in the lives of women and empowering these women to serve in leadership positions in the church. I realize that not all agree to this end, but I firmly believe women capable of a leadership role at any level in the Church. It was with this on my mind that I was drawn to a study on 1 Timothy 2 I had done in the past - it is this passage that many have occasionally turned to in order to limit the rise of women in leadership. Allow me to offer a truer interpretation of this passage:
It is important to determine the culture the Ephesian church was in and the dilemmas in which the church was facing that prompted Paul to write this letter. 1 Timothy was a letter written by the apostle Paul to his missionary colleague who was working with the church in Ephesus. Timothy was working in a town that had trouble allowing a strong foothold of Christianity to take hold. Ephesus was where silversmiths aroused a riot against Paul in his early mission trips due to his teaching against idols. Silversmiths formed this riot because they made money off of people buying silver idols and Paul was telling the people to stop (Acts 19). It is also the town where Paul thoroughly wrote to the Christians to be children of light because of the darkness that was around them in Ephesus (Ephesians 4 and 5). In their article "May Women Teach," Richard and Catherine Kroeger describe Ephesus as a city that, “Boasted of its thousands of sacred prostitutes,” and was full of heretical Christian beliefs (2).
These prostitutes belonged to the goddess Artemis. Pagan women flocked to worship her for, “This religion allowed them greater freedom than anything experienced previously” (Lea, 79). The pagan goddess was at the center of this metropolis where, “Citizens of the city would follow the routes of materialism, flagrant immorality, pagan religions, or pleasure in their quest for satisfaction” (Lea, 79). Rightly so, the central concern for Paul’s directions in 1 Timothy 2 was to combat against this stream of thought, which was dragging people down the line of heretical teaching and finding its way into the church. Paul realized the culture in which the Ephesian church was immersed. He knew that a letter of strict guidance would strengthen the church’s watch for heretical teaching.
Naturally, the church in Ephesus had women in it. However, many of these women would have emerged from a history in pagan religion, specifically that of Artemis. In result, Paul wrote his second chapter in 1 Timothy. He begins by making an urging call to the Ephesian Church to continue in prayer. Paul outlines types of prayers the people should be doing and then continues on to describe the One God whom the church worships and how it is only through him that the church is able to pray and it is only by Him that the church is saved. Paul included this to continue his process of weeding out false doctrine that was being taught by heretics. It is in verse nine where Paul’s discourse on women and their role in the church begins. There are three sections in which arguments are made against Paul’s directions for women.
First, an over-aggressive rationale is made for the covering of women in worship. Some religions have taken this to an extreme and have had women cover every area of their skin. Others have said that women cannot, in any circumstance, wear jewelry or flashy dresses. None of these things were what Paul was getting at. In fact, Paul’s concern deals less with outward appearance and more with inward intentions. The culture and time of the present church revered self-respect as one of the most important virtues of a woman. “Modesty implied that she was well ordered in the conduct of her life, chaste in her marriage” (Collins, 67). A woman who covered herself sent the message to watchful men that she was indeed no prostitute and that she was above reproach. Clearly, Paul sought for women in the church to separate themselves from those worshiping Artemis by the way in which they dressed. Even more, it was not so much that women could not look nice going to church but it was about the reason some women wore pearls and jewels. It seemed that some women wore those things to gather attention and remove the focus from worshiping God to watching them. Paul made a call for, “An appearance that avoids excess and does not call attention to itself” (Black, 58). Sometimes, too much is too distracting and thus, Paul discouraged it.
Paul continues in this section, however, to describe what women of the church should clothe themselves in. Women who profess the name of God should adorn themselves with good works. True virtues and qualities of women in the church should be, “Reflected not in ostentatious trappings and luxurious clothing but rather they (women) are to be seen in their good works” (Collins 68). Why would a woman try and show her worth by flashing her wealth and body and perhaps lose her dignity or respect? Instead, “She is to adorn herself with good works. Her adorning, that which gives her attractiveness, is not to be costly array but exhibitions of Christian character” (Kent, 111). Paul prescribed a way in self-respect where women could, in a way, strut their stuff. He told women to clothe themselves with good works and men would know that they are virtuous women.
Looking even deeper, one could argue that Paul was actually advocating women to be disciples and evangelize. After all, those are the good works of the Lord.
That claim leads into the second argument over verses eleven and twelve. The male headship reasoning points to these verses in order to say that women should be submissive and any leadership role in the church is to be a man’s, not a woman’s. Once again, however, it is only through the eyes of the culture in which the Ephesian church lived that these verses can be properly understood. Starting off, “Let a woman learn, was a concept foreign to Rabbinical thinking” (Black, 58). Jewish culture said women could not even learn and so for Paul to say “Let them learn” was revolutionary. In a way then, Paul was actually empowering women to a higher level than Jewish culture allowed.
More so, “quietness and submission” do not translate to, “Christian women are to surrender their mind and conscience to the dictation of men but to be willing listeners” (Hiebert, 60). Women were not directed to be servant-slaves in the church, but were to be active learners among the other men who were learning as well. Looking into Paul’s diction and meaning of the word, ὑποταγή, meaning submission or subjection, it can be said that he was referring to more of a social virtue to be found in Christian women. In fact, it was, “Not so much as obedience as it was keeping one’s place so as to assure the stability and order of the whole” (Collins, 67). Paul then was not admitting men to reign supreme over women, he was merely telling women that they should not be causing corruption.
Paul then moves on to claim women should not teach or have authority over a man. This direction is not intended for all women of all time. Instead, it was meant specifically for the women at Ephesus because of the heretical teachings women were bringing into the church from their history in worship with Artemis (Padgett, 5). Some might say that this declaration by Paul does not prohibit women from being teachers of other women and children but it does mean, “She cannot assume the role of authoritative teacher of Scripture, in which role she would exercise dominion over men” (Kent, 113). It is a cautionary step that Paul wishes upon the Ephesian church in order to weed out the heretical teaching in the church.
The third and final argument comes from deep roots reaching back to rabbinical teaching concerning the creation story. People, specifically men, assert that because men were created first in Genesis then they must be superior. This reasoning follows a tradition that taught, “That which was created first was more important” (Collins, 71). Thus, Adam and all men have superiority over Eve and all other women because women were created second.
This excuse is not the only one made concerning the creation story and why women are inferior. Another argument is made in the case that Eve was the first to sin and is thus inferior to Adam. Because she was the first to bring the curse of sin into the world, Eve and all women should be held in a lower regard than men. The common thought was, “These women at heart are transgressors. We need to continually keep them disciplined. They must not learn as we do. All women are like Eve. Eve was created second signifying she was inferior. Eve was a transgressor. All women are transgressors” (Spencer, 216). Women were second and there was no use trying to raise them up.
These were not Paul’s intentions at all. Why would he say women have no place in the church because of Eve all the while he was writing other churches and commending them to honor their women who were being disciples and leaders of Jesus Christ? It seems that Paul was not using Eve as evidence for women’s downfall but was instead using Eve as reason for the need to build women up. As mentioned multiple times before, heresy was a big concern surrounding the church at Ephesus. “The tales, peddled about by old women, expressed opposition to God and turned many away from the truth” (I Suffer, 127). These heretics were twisting Bible stories in order to support their jaded views and heretical teaching. In response, Paul was trying to relay a common story that the people would know in order to tell them that women should be learning the truth, and the exact truth they should be learning. He was not saying women could not and should not teach because, “Eve fell first or because Adam was made first. The women at Ephesus had also listened to the snake and they had believed his false teachings” (Padgett, 6). Just as Eve had fallen to the slander of the serpent so the women at Ephesus had been deceived by the lies of heretics. It was not about who sinned first but about equipping those who were in danger of falling or had already fallen with the truth of Jesus Christ so that they could stand firm in the midst of all the lies.
Looking even deeper into the arguments, one could say that because Eve sinned first, there should then be all the more need to educate her and women in the ways of righteousness so sinning does not continue. For, “Adam sinned knowingly, but Eve was genuinely deceived. If Eve needed more learning, how much more did the kind of women to whom Paul was referring” (Mickelsen, 5). Paul wanted the women who were being caught up in the lies of heretics to be taught the correct teachings of Jesus before they were given areas of authority and teaching. It was for the good of the church that women were not teaching and holding spots of authority if heretical teaching was corrupting them.
In closing 1 Timothy 2, Paul gives a verse of promise to women and a reminder that there is good in women and that God uses them for his purpose in reaching people. Paul concludes that through faith, love, and holiness in self-control women may be saved through childbirth. Now he is not saying that it is only by having children that women are saved. Instead, Paul is actually reminding women that they are saved through “THE childbirth”, referring back to the birth of Jesus by Mary. “Even as women brought sin, so woman’s seed brings salvation... childbirth is a part of salvation-history” (Padgett, 8). More so, “Salvation is available to the female as well as the male, and she need not surrender her gender” (I Suffer, 176). Paul was sure to make known the fact that salvation was available to all, not just men.
This truth adds to all the other reasons why women should be taught the truth and given the opportunity to teach others. Women have been a part of God’s plan since the very beginning in Genesis. A single woman was used to bring the greatest gift the world will ever see. Obviously women were and are included in God’s agenda for saving the world. It is a downright shame for people to point to 1 Timothy 2 for evidence against women being in ministry. It should be considered absurd to point to any part of the Bible to say women have no place in teaching God’s word. The evidence is all throughout the Bible leading to the fact that women are more than capable of being disciples, having prophecies, and being leaders in the church. Paul, in no way, makes a case against women in the ministry. If anything, Paul is sure to say that the church needs to be careful who it puts in charge because it needs to be a place of correct doctrine that teaches the true story of God and salvation through Jesus Christ, whether it be male or female. Paul knows the power in which women can influence people and so he commends the church in Ephesus to take serious the authority it gives to women because any small heresy can ruin the Gospel.