Hard Teaching – 1 Timothy 2

Part 6 of My Gender Role Journey

            How can we understand hard passages in the Bible? I mentioned previously that I was taught that egalitarians didn’t believe in the authority of the Bible, and they just threw out the verses that didn’t align with their viewpoint. As I started hearing from actual egalitarians, I realized they were not advocating for a flat dismissal of what God clearly said, but a different interpretation. There are many passages in the Bible that are confusing if we take a plain reading of the text.

            For example, in John 6, Jesus feeds the 5,000 and the next day they are back again looking for bread. He astounds them by saying he is the bread of life and those who do not eat his flesh and drink his blood do not have eternal life in them. Many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” and they stopped following him. But when Jesus asked if the Twelve would also leave, Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” The people who were just there for the bread left when Jesus’s command didn’t make sense. Others were confused by his words because it seemed impossible to take them literally, but they trusted Jesus would make it clear in time and they kept following him.  

            There are a lot of commands in the Bible which, if taken literally, are very hard to accept. What do we do with verses like, “You must hate your father and mother” (Luke 14:26)? Most people read that and presume that Jesus did not mean we needed to literally hate our parents because that would go against a larger command to love one another and the fifth commandment to honor your parents. Would it be fair to characterize them as just trying to avoid Jesus’s clear command? I don’t think so.

            A difficult passage for me to understand was 1 Timothy 2. Verse 12 says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.” When taken literally, it is used as the foundational verse for prohibiting women from assuming positions of authority in the church. Verses 13-14 go further and seem to justify women’s silence by appealing to the creation narrative and implying that women are more gullible by nature, so men need to be in charge. Then further confounding us, Paul says in verse 15, “Women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with propriety.” This whole section of teaching is hard to accept at face value. If we took all this literally, we would have to require childbirth as a part of our theology of salvation. Is there something that can connect these verses and help us understand?

            During our Zoom class meetings in Race, Gender, and the American Church, our professor often brought in guest speakers to cover different topics. Dr. Lynn Cohick visited and taught us about the cultural and spiritual context of Ephesus, where Timothy was ministering. She began by saying that she believes Paul was a man of integrity, someone whose actions would be consistent with his words. She reminded us of Paul’s practice of working with and affirming female missionary co-laborers (Rom 16). She reminded us that Paul stationed Priscilla and Aquilla in Ephesus (Acts 18:19) during his third missionary journey before moving on to the next city himself. Now, years later, Paul began his letter by exhorting Timothy on how to deal with two particular men who were blaspheming. She explained why she believed the second chapter was a continuation of a theme throughout the book of how to combat false teaching in the specific context of Ephesus, not establishing doctrinal principles for all time. She explained it was likely that Paul was speaking to Timothy about certain women, perhaps new converts, who had been under the influence of the cult of Artemis but now aspired to be teachers in the church. Combatting religious syncretism was important in the early church. The great temple of Artemis was located in Ephesus, and we know from Acts 19 the people there were very devoted to her worship. In fact, the economy of Ephesus relied on the sales of her statues and as the gospel changed the loyalties (and purchasing habits) of many Ephesians, a riot broke out and caused the whole city to be in an uproar. Dr. Cohick explained that Artemis was considered the goddess of several things, one of them protecting women in childbirth. Understanding that context gave me new clarity about why Paul would say women will be saved in childbearing. Since we know childbearing does not save a woman, it now makes more sense that his comments were intended to counter the idea that Artemis would save them in their childbearing.

            Another large piece of the 1 Timothy puzzle concerns the word Paul uses that is often translated as “authority.” It is the Greek word, authentein, not used anywhere else in the New Testament. There are standard words for rule and authority that Paul utilizes frequently elsewhere but his use of this particular word is unique. In earlier Greek, it meant “to murder” and later “to domineer.” Several lexicons define the word, “to control in a domineering manner” (Louw and Nida), “to assume a stance of independent authority, give orders to, dictate to” (BDAG).[1] So why don’t we see that kind of negative nuance in our English translations? We scramble to obey the plain meaning of the verse and are left drawing all kinds of lines in the sand about what women are allowed to do or not. What if this passage was never intended to create permanent prohibitions against women’s authority? What if Paul was instructing Timothy on how to deal with women converting from Artemis worship and their common misunderstandings and false teaching that was being carried over?

            We are all going to get to points in our reading of scripture when we encounter passages and say, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” We will never understand everything and when we get to heaven, we will find we were wrong about a lot of things. Sometimes I envision Paul watching all the women being excluded from serving in positions of authority and just shaking his head saying, “That’s not what I meant.” On this side of heaven, we must decide for ourselves where we think the evidence is most compelling. Until I learned the context of Ephesus, I only could rely on a plain reading of these texts.              

            I look back on my 20s and 30s and see a woman devoted to the scriptures and trying to obey them the best I knew how. I supported my husband’s ministry work, I was a stay-at-home mom, and I only led Bible studies for women so I could keep my conscience clean by submitting to what I thought was God’s design for biblical womanhood. But when I was called upon to teach adults at my church, it fanned into flames the gift God had put in my spirit (2 Tim 1:6). I had to wrestle with questions about whether this passage restricted me from teaching. It reminds me of how the Lord had to convince Peter that eating unclean foods was permitted and Gentiles could be part of God’s kingdom (Acts 10). Sometimes we are so fastidious in our obedience, we are guided by our own legalistic rule following instead of the Holy Spirit.

            I was in another church recently and Ephesians 5 was the passage for the day (one I also hope to cover soon!). As the reader finished and said, “This is the word of the Lord” I heard a man behind me say “This is the word of Paul.” Some passages of scripture are so confusing, and it seems easier to resolve that cognitive dissonance by chalking it up to sexism or obeying literally. But just like I don’t think Jesus was calling his disciples to rigorously hate their parents, I don’t think Paul was creating a doctrinal command that women should always be in subordination and never teach men. It would be in opposition to his own personal practice and the broader commands in scripture. Thankfully we don’t have to abandon Paul’s words to follow scripture. We just need to hold them in tension with the rest of the Bible.

            When we encounter difficult verses, we use clearer scriptures to help us understand them. Zooming out and looking at scripture with a wider lens is another method that is important in our interpretation. This is how we can be confident Jesus doesn’t want us to literally hate our parents. Seeing a larger view of God’s upside-down kingdom and how the fall impacted male-female relationships was eye-opening for me. And learning not to miss the forest for the trees is the next scheduled stop on this gender role journey!

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[1] https://margmowczko.com/authentein-authenteo-1-timothy-2/