1 Timothy 2:12 - A Short Exploration by Peter Kligmann
1 Timothy 2: 12 I
do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she
is to remain quiet.
Due to the interpretation of that verse, over the past 30+
years, there has been a rise in debate amongst Christian churches, of whether
or not women should be allowed to be pastors, leaders over men, and teachers of
men in the church. For the most part,
the giftings, talents, and competency of women who do lead/preach/teach are not
questioned, even by those who staunchly oppose it. It will be my attempt to
show readers that there is strong evidence that the traditional interpretation
of the passage is in error. When engaging in Bible study, the standard process
amongst scholars, is to look at who was writing and who was the audience, the
context of the passage, how it relates to the rest of the Bible (this would
include other writings of the author, if any, and if New Testament, how it
relates to the Old Testament), and finally how it was applied and how it can be
applied today (hermeneutics). In this exploration, I will be presenting information
following this method.
The
apostle Paul was writing to his apprentice, or now journeyman, if you will,
Timothy. Timothy was a mature but young
Christian whom Paul sent to pastor the church in Ephesus. Ephesus was a cultural and economic center in
the Mediterranean part of what is now modern Turkey. Recent findings suggest that the city was
founded by the Amazons in the area of Turkey called Anatolia1,2 whom
the Greeks defeated but at a cost that gave rise to a cultural fear of strong
willed women. The Amazons were violently
feminist and matriarchal3. They worshipped the goddess Cybele4
(kuy-bell), ironically, a sort of anti-male goddess of fertility, whom required
her male priests to self-castrate and parade themselves as women. There is some
evidence that Cybele worship continued in Ephesus up through the first century
AD. This may have given rise to the strong subculture of matriarchy amongst the
more affluent women. There has been opposing arguments of the existence of the
Amazons by historians. The Temple of Artemis/Diana in Ephesus, one of the 7
wonders of the world, has carvings of warrior women at the base of its pillars. Historians agree for the most part that the
goddess Artemis of Ephesus was not the original Greek goddess of the hunt and
of wild animals. Artemis of Ephesus was
a fertility goddess and was thought to watch over woman who were trying to get
pregnant as well as women who were pregnant.
Because women and their babies often died in childbirth, they would go
to the temple and worship and beg the goddess to protect them. As with many of the goddess temples of old,
there is said to have been temple prostitution as part of the worship; however,
the types of practices performed are in argument and refuted by some
scholars. Alexander the Great who was Macedonian
Greek and not Dorian Greek, conquered this area and then the Roman empire
conquered all of the Greek empire. The Romans
were accustomed to and excellent at adapting and incorporating religions into
their own as well as other cultures. It
was this that perhaps modified the Artemis of Ephesus to be more like the Artemis
of the Hunt and now Diana of the Romans to be more like the goddess of the hunt
and as such has been attributed to that goddess; however, the fertility and
birthing protection aspects of the original goddess were maintained in the
cultural worship in Ephesus. The Roman
practice of adaptation/incorporation of religions makes an argument that the
goddess Cybele may have also been incorporated. Because of the location,
population, strong cultural and religious influence as well as economic
importance of Ephesus, Paul and Timothy had their hands full overcoming the
strongly seated traditions and history of the society ingrained with Artemis
worship.
Now that a summary of the history of Ephesus has been
established in order to understand the people of the time of the letter we can
start to look at the letter itself. The word used in verse 12 for “authority”
is the rare Greek verb authentein. It
only appears once in the entire Bible5. On the other hand, the word exousia, appears
over 102 times in the New Testament6. The meaning of the word
exousia and its application is very clear.
Paul uses it to mean authority as in having a position over someone or
others. Matthew uses the application in
chapter 8 when Jesus interacts with the centurion. Matt 8:9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me.
And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and
to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
Again, in the
interest of solid exegesis, a closer look at the word authentein and its forms
is required. Since it only occurs once in the Bible, which in and of itself
should raise flags, period publications must be examined. Dr. Leland
Wilshire in his book7 extensively researches the word authentein.
using philological techniques and the database of Thesaurus Linguae Graecae8
or TLG. Philology (phi-la-lojee) is the study of the structure, historical
development, and relationships of a language or languages. The TLG is
considered as one of the premier resources of literary references of Koine
Greek. Koine (koi-nay) Greek was the common language spoken from about 600
BC,the classical Greek era, to ~ 843 AD the end of the Byzantine era, (see
Ancient History, www.History.com) Because he, and most philologists agree that
language changes over periods of time due to events, cultural influx, and
economic changes, as well as many other influences, he analyzed the usage of
the word in collections of published documents written in koine Greek from the
time period of 600 BC to 600 AD.
His
research using the TLG data base has shown that the following applications of
the word authentein and its forms in the period literature are:
“doer
of a massacre” – 100 BC word
form = authenten7
“restrictions”
or “rights” – 100 BC word
form = authentian7
“perpertrators
of sacrilege,” - 100 BC -100 AD word
form = authentais7
“authors
of crime,” - 100 BC -100 AD word
form = authenten7
“supporters
of violent actions,” - 100 BC -100 AD word form = authentas7
“being
one’s own murderer” – 100 BC – 100 AD word
form = authentes7
“perpertrators
of crime,” - 100 BC -100 AD word
form = authenten7
“perpertrators
of slaughter,” - 100 BC -100 AD word
form = authentas7
“authority”
– 200 AD word
form = authentias7
Wilshire
explores the possible applications of the verb based on his findings. He explains that since it is the only use of
that verb in the Bible along with the numerous other places where the common
term exousia is used, for authority, it is a weak translation to assume that
authority was Paul’s purpose in using authentein. He further explains that the
word for quiet or silence used in the verse is hesychia7 which is
more often used for calmness whereas the word sige and phymos7
are used more often to express silence or being silenced. Coupled together in the verse, Wilshire
proposes that the instigating violence application of authentein coupled with
calmness and self restraint seems more appropriate with Paul and how he desired
worship and church behavior to be conducted. Wilshire’s conclusions strongly
support that interpreting authentein to mean authority, as stated in 1 Tim 2:12,
is weak. His research showed that the
verb authentein was exceedingly used more often to indicate violence of some
sort being executed as opposed to the rarity of taking or having authority. Consequently,
the Ephesian woman of prominence who were raised in Cybele/Artemis/Diana
worship, where the practice of women physically domineering men as part of
their worship was employed, lends support to Wilshire’s findings. The word
exousia used many more times for the application of having authority as in
place of rank, would have been used if that is what Paul meant for this passage.
This heavily negates the idea of a restriction against women teaching men or
being in authority over men within the church.
As
I stated previously, part of Bible study is looking to the Old Testament and
how that fits in to what one is trying to research and learn. The apostle Paul was a learned man and knew
the Old Testament well. So let us look
at where he was going with this. It is a very difficult passage because of the
following in verses 13-14. 1 Timothy 2: 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam
was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Looking back into Genesis 3 where the account
of the fall is given, we see that while Adam may not have been deceived, he was
there and let it happen. Common sense then dictates that if he was not
deceived, he chose to rebel. This then gives rise to more confusion. Why would
Paul use this as a reason why women should not to teach or have authority over
a man? On the other hand, by the same reasoning, if the application of the word
or form of the word authentein does not mean authority over, why use it in this
manner as well? That seems to imply that Paul believed that women are weak
willed and weak minded and as such, easily deceived. The rest of his epistles do not support that
thought either. The latter half of the verse may give us a clue. 1 Timothy
2:12 … ; rather, she
is to remain quiet. Could it be
that Paul was inferring that if Eve had said nothing or did not offer forbidden
fruit to Adam, but “remained quiet” in her sin, she would not have brought Adam
down with her? Looking at Genesis 3: 17 And to
Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have
eaten of the tree of which
I commanded you, ‘You
shall not eat of it,’ cursed is
the ground because of you; in pain
you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
one
might easily draw that conclusion; however, we previously learned from Dr.
Wilshire’s research, that the Greek word used for silent in the passage, was commonly
used for calmness and not absence of voice. Again, it is hard to accept that as
a forgone conclusion too. If so, it would imply that Adam was a pushover and
allowed his wife to bully him into eating.
If that were the correct way of looking at the passage, we would then
extrapolate that women are too strong willed for men and must thereby be
subdued and held in oppression so the church can function properly. Paul allowed women to prophesy in church as 1
Corinthians 11. Prophesy was often speaking a word or command for God. This
might be countered with it is God’s authority that prophesy is spoken and not a
woman or man’s. This is a weak argument. All authority is delegated by God and not
belonging to man or woman; therefore, authority in the church is also directly
God’s or delegated by God and not belonging to man or women. Can we propose
that part of God’s judgement on Adam was due to Adam allowing himself to be
distracted by his wife’s voice instead of focusing on obeying God? Possibly.
Certainly, we all have been guilty of that at one time or another. In
some ways, looking at the cultural environment of that Old Testament passage
could be deemed useless since there was no culture. The other problem is that
the Old Testament passage is narrative, relating an event, whereas the verse in
Timothy is didactic, teaching or instructing. It almost seems like comparing
apples and oranges. Another perspective is that if Eve had remained calm and
not anxious to be more Godlike, she would have not been so easily deceived.
Even so, it is not a strong enough proposal to defend for or against a
restriction.
So where does this leave us? Can
we say that maybe the church in Ephesus was a special case because of the
cultural aspect of women being more controlling there than in other places, and
so Paul was making a special policy for that particular church? That too is weak. When looking back at Genesis 3 in verse 16,
God already states that women are cursed with the desire to control their
husbands and so it cannot be a special policy for only one church. We can, however, build the case that, based
on the historical cultural tradition of the conglomerate Cybele/Artemis/Diana
worship in which women, as part of the worship, violently oppressed men, Paul
forbade that practice in Timothy’s church and in all other churches as
well. The uses of the verb authentein in
the Koine Greek as shown in Wilford’s philological research strongly supports
that as well. We further build the case against forbidding woman pastors and
teachers by looking again at the repeated useage of the Greek word exousia for
authority compared to that of authentein. Exousia is used in the New Testament 102 times6. Authentein is used only once in the entire Bible5.
If Paul wanted a global church restriction against women, the word exousia
would have been chosen. What then about
teaching? I don’t believe we can separate the two. In the church that Paul
describes in all of his epistles, leaders should be able to teach. Honestly, do
you really want to attend a church, regardless of man or woman leading, where
the leaders were not able to teach? I
think that what it may come down to is that Paul was speaking out against
practices in the Ephesian church. Ephesus was a commercial and religious center
for the Roman empire and he did not want to see any of the perverse practices
spreading to any of his other churches as well.
A blanket restriction is not supported by the text, by historical
evidence, and not by the original language; therefore, based on these
conclusions, churches that have women pastors, leaders, and teachers
ministering to both men and women are free to do so without judgement or
Biblical proscription.
Works Cited
1.
National Geographic, “ Amazon Warriors Did Indeed Fight
and Die Like Men,” by Simon Warell published October 28, 2014
2.
Ancient History Encyclopedia, “Ephesus,” by
Joshua J. Mark published September 02, 2009
3.
Collected Works, “Amazons and Warrior Women,” by Eric
Edwards published July 25, 2013, Wordpress
7.
Insight Into Two Biblical Passages:Anatomy of a
Prohibition 1 Timothy 2:12, The TLG Computer, and the Christian Church, August 15, 2012
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