Can Women Teach According To Scripture?

Can Women Teach According to Scripture?

I Timothy 2:11-14 “11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. 12 But I suffer (allow) not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression."

Many would use this as Scriptural proof that woman should not teach, but I would suggest a closer look at the text, and that is to be in context with the whole of Scripture. First note the word “I” in the highlighted phrase above. Paul in writing says that he, Paul does not allow women to teach, and then he gives his Scriptural defense for that belief. Did every word that Paul wrote in the Epistles come directly from God? Well let’s find out by looking at Scripture. See for example later in the same book, I Timothy 4:1 “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly…” this phrase reveals that the Spirit may not have directly inspired all of Paul’s previous words in this particular book. Now see two more instances where Paul makes a clear distinction between his word’s and those inspired by God.

I Corinthians 7:12-15 “12 But to the rest speak I, not the Lord…"

I Corinthians 7:25 “Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment…"

Now that we have clear precedent that Paul sometimes speaks of his own judgment, and not necessarily directly from God, then we must ask, is it clear when he does this? The answer is yes. If Paul made such a distinction in these cases, it can clearly be understood that he was convicted to separate his own judgments, from the commands and teachings of God. Therefore we should not worry if what we are reading is from Paul or God, because a simple examination of the text should make that distinction clear with little to no effort on our part. Later on we will see an example where Paul did not clarify the source of a statement regarding women, but we should evaluate his teachings in light of the rest of Scripture. This is a major reason why relying on men, rather than on the Spirit of God for teaching is so easy a way in which to be deceived.

In I Timothy 2:12 Paul reveals that it is he himself that does not allow a woman to teach, in that he says ‘I’ do not allow them to. Now we must examine the rest of Scripture and interpret the validity of this doctrine held by Paul in light of other passages.

First thing that I would note is Paul’s defense of his opinion. He claims that his reasoning is because the woman was deceived in the garden, and not the man. He seems to be implying that a woman is more easily deceived than a man. We could first examine this in light of known differences between men and women. You do not need a license, or degree in behavioral psychology in order to know that the woman is more emotionally driven than a man, while a man is more logical. That is not to suggest that man is devoid of emotion, or the woman of logic, but the stronger tendency toward one or the other is strongly based on the genetics of gender, guided by testosterone and estrogen, and this is apparent simply by taking into account your own experiences. Now ask yourself, which is an easier front upon which to cast deception, with a logical argument, to a mind with a propensity for logic, or an emotional plea to an emotionally heavy mind? It is a simple matter to combine a lie, with an emotional plea that resonates with the intended target, and results in deception; whereas it is much more difficult (though certainly not impossible) to combine a lie with logic, because logic is more clear and decisive, and a mind driven by logic is more inclined to carefully consider what is being said. If an emotional plea resonates with it’s audience, then it has automatically gained more strength in their mind than a logical argument to a logical mind, because logic is an activity that takes time to process, whereas emotion is largely an instinctual and immediate response. My point is that according to human logic it seems evident where Paul may have been coming from, though I will say plainly that I feel he missed the mark big time, and I will get to that soon.

As a bit of an aside, I will also say that the Scripture records God telling Adam of His rules, and Adam presumably told Eve later, since she had not been formed yet, meaning that Eve likely never actually heard God say “don’t eat of the fruit”, but she instead received the admonition from Adam. This is just a different possible reason why Satan would have gone after Eve, rather than Adam.

But first I want to show you the prominent roles of women in Scripture. Miriam was a prophetess along side her brothers, maybe you’ve heard of them, their names are Moses and Aaron, Exodus 15:20, Numbers 12:4-5, 26:59. Deborah was a prophetess and a judge over all of Israel in Judges 4-5. Anna was a prophetess in the days of Jesus’ birth Luke 2:26. And whom did the resurrected Jesus use to tell, or to teach the Disciples that He had been raised from the dead? The answer is women, Matthew 28, Mark 16:10.

One could argue that teaching and prophecy are two different offices, but that doesn’t hold water in the case of the legality of women teachers, as you will soon see. True the two offices are different, but first note that there is never a decree in the Old or New Testament for a woman to be forbidden to do either office, except in Paul’s writing’s where as we’ve seen, there is strong evidence that his word’s were of himself, and not from God. Paul’s defense was that the woman was deceived therefore she should not teach. For one, why would a woman teacher be more susceptible to deceit than a woman prophetess? Yet God works through women to prophesy. The answer depends on one thing only, the presence or lack thereof of the Holy Spirit. Can a woman have the Holy Spirit? Simply put, yes she can, see Joel 2:28. It shouldn’t need to be proven that the Holy Spirit needs to be present in order to prophesy, but here’s a verse anyway, II Peter 1:21. But does one teach by the Spirit also? If not, then perhaps an argument could be made that differentiates the office of prophetess from that of teacher, based on the presence or lack thereof of the Holy Spirit.

I Corinthians 2:12-13 “12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual."

(A) We are taught by the Holy Spirit (John 14:26, I Corinthians 2:12-13, Ephesians 3:5), (B) women can receive the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28), (C) so why then can a woman not share what she has been taught by the Holy Spirit? Perhaps a better question is why cannot the Holy Spirit be poured out of the vessel of women in the realm of teaching, and yet He can be poured out in the realm of prophecy? I submit that the answer is because some men agree with Paul, and use his lone teachings, which requires that they also ignore the rest of Scripture on the matter of women.

I submit to you that Paul’s doctrine on a woman’s ability to teach lawfully was actually and likely un-knowingly denying the power of the Holy Spirit to work in women as He does in men. A woman teaching is forbidden nowhere in Scripture other than in Paul’s writings, and there the language is clearly showing it to be a Pauline doctrine, and not from God. Not that it is an evil doctrine, but rather that it is founded on the notion that the Holy Spirit cannot use a woman as He does a man, which is not Scriptural. Again, if God uses women as prophetesses and judges, why is it suddenly forbidden for them to teach, even though it is not forbidden anywhere else in Scripture, or even by any other New Testament writer?

Other Passages Used to Facilitate This Doctrine

In I Corinthians 14:34-35 we read “34 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. 35 And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church."

Here Paul does not clarify the phrase “it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church” by showing it to be his belief as opposed to the doctrine of God, but because of the rest of Scripture, we can still see that this is most likely the case; in other words the facts that no other writer commands or even suggests that women should not be able to teach, coupled with the fact that women held high spiritual offices in past times, unchallenged by God, is reason for a firmly Scriptural defense that the notion of women being forbidden to teach is a strictly Pauline doctrine, and not one from God. I will now remind you that Paul did at least have a Scriptural reason for his belief, albeit one that was seemingly not inspired or commanded by God Himself.

Also, don’t let a single dogmatic statement like the one in the passage above be the end of a discussion. Ask who said it, to whom was it said, in what context was it said, and how does it compare to the rest of Scripture? Who said it? Paul said it. To whom was it said? To the church at Corinth who had a plague of prophecies and speaking in tongues that was so chaotic that nothing else was getting done when they met together to worship, i.e. these gifts were being abused. He limited each gift to two or three occurrences per church gathering, and he said that tongues should never be spoken in the church without an interpreter present. The context is that Paul is essentially saying, “If a woman has a question about a prophecy that is spoken, let her not disrupt the service any further, but rather that she is to ask her husband at home”. Again we find his bias, but it is still his bias. Because the last question is How does it compare to the rest of Scripture, and we have seen that it does not mesh with the allowed office of prophetess and judge, and the total silence on women teachers being forbidden in the rest of Scripture.

Perhaps the single best argument for this doctrine lies in Genesis 3:16. As a penalty for original sin, God decrees, “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."

Does the man’s authority over the woman equal her not being allowed to teach, but somehow allowed to prophesy? I submit that if the husband allows the woman to teach, then she is well with God. If the husband refuses to allow her to teach, then she is not well with God if she does so anyway; not because He has forbidden her to teach, because I believe it to be clear that He has not, but rather because he has given her husband rule over her, as a penalty for original sin, and she is to submit to that rule. As an aside, the husbands rule does not facilitate commands from him that are contrary to Scripture i.e. if a husband tells his wife to steal, or break another command of God, then she is not obligated to obey him. Also, God has given command to the husband to love his wife as himself, and as Christ loved the church, which is to say, sacrificially. A God fearing husband will not take advantage of his rule, and therefore, the rule of the husband over the wife, should not be used to claim that God or His Word is sexist. The rule by husband over wife is penalty for the fall, and the complimentary command to love her sacrificially is also a non-negotiable command.

Some might use verses out of context in order to propagate this doctrine. Verses like John 3:34 “For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.” As if to say that God sent Paul, therefore Paul speaks for God, but this passage is referring to the Son only, and I remind you that Paul wrote several things that can be verified were of his own opinion.

Summary

The verses you will need to remember in order to make a Scriptural defense for women teachers are the following: (A) We are taught by the Holy Spirit (John 14:26, I Corinthians 2:12-13, Ephesians 3:5) + (B) women can receive the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28) + (C) the husband has rule over the woman (Genesis 3:16), = (D) Women can teach, so long as their husbands condone it. A + B + C = D. You will also need to remember the verses that illustrate Paul’s documented propensity for giving his opinion (I Timothy 4:1, I Corinthians 7:12-15, & 25), and the verses that contain Paul’s decree that forbids women to teach (I Timothy 2:11-14).

I would be interested to hear counter arguments, but please be Scriptural, I am not interested in opinion.

PS Husbands, God has not forbidden your wife to teach, so please don’t lord your headship over her and forbid something just to play god with the ordained headship from God. And remember, Christ is the head of the church as the husband is the head of the wife i.e. you are a part of the body that is Christ’s bride i.e. you are also a wife. And please don’t forget that you will be held accountable for the way in which you use your God given headship.