Revisiting Biblical Womanhood

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Revisiting Biblical Womanhood

• What Every Pastor Needs to Know

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My Job?

• To discuss the question of female preachers and
  pastors.

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This has become one aspect of a larger debate
over evangelical feminism.
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Two Parties Two Problems

• Party One Egalitarianism
• Party Two Complementarianism

• Problem One Authority in the home
• Problem Two Authority in the church

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The Egalitarian Party

• Christians for Biblical Equality
• InterVarsity Press
• Gilbert Bilezikian
• Rebecca Merrill Groothuis
• Gordon Fee
• Kevin Giles
• Catherine Kroeger

• Richard Kroeger
• William Webb
• I. Howard Marshall

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The Complementarian Party

• Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
• Crossway Publishers
• Wayne Grudem
• John Piper
• D. A. Carson
• Andreas J. Köstenberger

• Thomas Schreiner
• Robert Yarbrough
• Douglas Moo
• Dorothy Patterson
• Mary Kassian

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What Are They Saying?

• Egalitarianism true equality requires identical
  roles and authority.
• Complementarianism true equality allows
  differences in roles and authority.

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Our Focus Here

• Well ignore the problem of roles and authority
  in the home, and focus on roles and authority in
  the church.
• First, well take a brief retrospective.
• Second, well look at a key passage.
• Third, well examine attempts to circumvent this
  passage.

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Part One

• A Brief Retrospective

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Did You know?

• Baptist fundamentalists used to accept and employ
  women preachers?
• For a detailed discussion, see Janet Hassey, No
  Time for Silence.
• Ill give you a bit of information about a female
  preacher whom Hassey does not mention.

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Amy Lee Stockton

• First student at Northern Baptist Seminary
  (1909).
• Licensed by Wealthy Street Baptist Church in
  Grand Rapids, Michigan.
• Accompanied by musician Rita Gould, also licensed
  by Wealthy Street.
• Often spoke at Maranatha Conference Ground near
  Muskegon, Michigan.

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Stocktons Backers Included

• Oliver W. Van Osdel (founder of the GRVBA and the
  GARBC)
• H. H. Savage (Pontiac, Michigan)
• T. T. Shields (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
• David Otis Fuller (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
• John Marvin Dean (Northern Baptist Seminary)

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When Criticized . . .

• . . . Stockton could be quite blunt.
• Example M. R. DeHaan of Grand Rapids.
• Stocktons reply I dont see that he has set
  Grand Rapids on fire or accomplished enough to
  make us want to follow his methods.
• Stockton was not exactly passive or weak-willed.

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Whats the Point?

• This controversy is not new.
• Some of the same arguments were used then (on
  both sides) that are being used now.
• It is part of our past its not just the
  liberals who have wrestled with this question.

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Part Two

• A Key Passage

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2 Timothy 211Let the woman learn in silence
with all subjection.12But I suffer not a woman
to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man,
but to be in silence.13For Adam was first
formed, then Eve.14And Adam was not deceived,
but the woman being deceived was in the
transgression.15Notwithstanding she shall be
saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith
and charity and holiness with sobriety.
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Preliminary Remarks

• We do not have time for a detailed exegesis.
• We will not ask every question or examine every
  possible answer.
• This will be a survey of what I think is the best
  interpretation.
• For details, see Thomas R. Schreiners article on
  this passage.

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What Is the Context?

• The letter is partly a response to false teaching
  (see ch. 1).
• In 21-7 Paul is emphasizing that Gods wish or
  desire is for all to be saved.
• Verse 8 is transitional, requiring all the men to
  pray (for the salvation of souls?).
• This is probably a reference to house churches
  meeting for public worship.

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The Discussion of Modesty

• 28-10 is probably directed specifically at
  public worship, though applicable elsewhere.
• Paul is as concerned with womens adornment and
  behavior as with mens prayers.
• Women are to reject ostentatiousness and
  flirtatiousness in favor of modesty.

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Incidentally. . .

• This is a principle that can be applied to men
  with equal relevance.
• Pauls specific prohibitions are probably
  reflective of meanings that are at least partly
  culturally bound.
• There is not necessarily a timeless prohibition
  of all jewelry, but there is a timeless
  requirement of modesty.

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Verse 11

• Enjoins all women to learn. There is no sphere
  of biblical or theological knowledge that ought
  to be withheld from women.
• What Paul requires is not absolute silence
  (sige), but rather a quiet demeanor (hesuchia).
• Their submission is most likely to those who hold
  teaching authority in the church.
• This is still good counsel for men, too.

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A Note on Structure of 11-12

• In Quietness
• Let women learn
• With all subjection
• Women not to teach
• Or to grasp authority
• But to be quiet

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How About Verse12?

• There are two basic prohibitions and one positive
  exhortation.
• Women are not to didaskein men. This is the
  basic word for teach.
• Women are not to authentein men. This word means
  to exercise authority over.
• Women are to be quiet.

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The Heart of the Controversy

• Women may not teach men.
• Women may not exercise authority over men.
• But which men? Where? And doing what kind of
  teaching?
• The context has been one of the church assembled
  for public worship. Therefore

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What Is Not Forbidden

• Women discipling men outside of public gatherings
  (e.g., Priscilla and Apollos).
• Women teaching women or children within public
  gatherings.
• Women teaching men in a non-authoritative (i.e.,
  non-pastoral) way.
• Women prophesying or praying (1 Cor. 11).
• Women exercising non-pastoral authority (e.g., in
  business, politics, etc.).

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What Is Forbidden

• Women preaching to mixed audiences.
• Women teaching the Bible to mixed audiences in a
  church setting.
• Women exercising authority as pastors, elders,
  and bishops.

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Pauls Reasons

• He has already alluded to one womens decorum is
  linked with Gods desire for all people to be
  saved.
• The order of creation indicates male headship.
  Adam was formed first.
• The order of the fall reinforces Pauls
  reasoning. The woman was deceived.

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So the Woman Was Deceived?

• Both Adam and Eve were together during the
  temptation.
• The serpent singled out Eve.
• Rather than deferring to Adam, Eve took it upon
  herself to reply for both (and Adam allowed it).
• This constituted an inversion of the created
  order that resulted in disaster.

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Saved Through Childbearing?

• Not that childbearing is a means of salvation.
• Childbearing is a station in life in which only
  some people are involved. How you fulfill your
  station in life shows how you are working out
  your salvation.
• The question is whether a stay-at-home mom has
  the same shot at exhibiting salvation as the
  public preacher and teacher (or anyone else).

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Saved Through Childbearing?

• Childbearing stands as a synecdoche for
  domesticity (rearing kids, keeping the house).
• The heresy in Ephesus downplayed this-worldly
  activity and probably showed special contempt for
  maternity and domesticity.
• Paul is elevating maternity and domesticity to a
  position of dignity alongside any other calling.

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Part Three

• Attempts to Circumvent This Passage

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1. Rejection of Authority

• Some attempt simply to reject the authority of
  this passage.
• Mainline liberals do not feel bound by the
  propositional authority of biblical statements in
  the first place.
• Some evangelicals (Paul King Jewett, for example)
  see this text as a reflection of Pauls rabbinic
  prejudice.

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2. Trumping the Authority

• Some claim that the Holy Spirit is the authority
  behind Scripture and is free to make exceptions
  to its rules.
• Some may appeal to putative prophecies (Cindy
  Jacobs).
• Van Osdel appealed to the experience of effective
  ministry (the Holy Spirit was obviously blessing
  Amy Stockton, so He had clearly made an exception
  for her).

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It Is Worth Remembering That. . .

• God does bless His Word when it is preached and
  taught.
• This blessing does not depend entirely upon the
  worthiness of the preacher or teacher.
• If a womans preaching gets good results, we can
  rejoice in those results without approving the
  method.

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3. Appealing to Variety

• Some simply look away from this passage to other
  passages that emphasize gender equality.
• The major passage is Galatians 328.
• The result is sometimes a kind of Pick Your
  Favorite Passage hermeneutic.
• Others emphasize the difficulty of interpreting
  all the passages.

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Our View of Scripture. . .

• Admits multiple human perspectives.
• Insists upon a single divine author.
• Refuses to concede any final contradiction within
  the text.
• Forces us to study the passages until we are able
  to reconcile each with all, when they are
  properly interpreted.
• Doesnt allow us to ignore disputed passages.

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4. Limiting the Situation

• The Ephesian situation had specific problems that
  limit the applicability of this passage.
• Specifically, women teachers were deeply involved
  in communicating heresy.
• The verb authentein reflects an abusive exercise
  of power.

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Concessions

• Women may have been teaching heresy in Ephesus.
• Authentein is a NT hapax legomenon, the meaning
  of which is disputed.

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Nevertheless

• The best studies indicate that authentein means
  to exercise authority over, especially in this
  context .
• We know that males were teaching heresy.
• Paul does not forbid men from teaching or
  exercising authority.
• Paul does not make any exception for women who
  teach orthodoxy.

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5. The Tu Quoque Fallacy

• Most complementarians agree that the activities
  of v. 9 are not universally proscribed.
• Egalitarians accuse complementarians of doing the
  same thing in v. 9 that they want to do in vv.
  11-12.

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Is That a Problem?

• The prohibitions of 9 are grounded in the
  cultural meaning of the things prohibited.
• The prohibitions of 11-12 are grounded in the
  creation order.
• If both sets of prohibitions should be treated
  identically, it is more likely that we should
  recognize those in 9 than to dispense with those
  in 11-12.

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6. Trajectory Hermeneutics

• Argues that Scripture, read diachronically, sets
  a trajectory that extends beyond the text itself.
• An earlier text takes a particular position on an
  issue. A later text is either more or less
  restrictive. The final position follows that
  trajectory.
• Proponents R. T. France, David Thompson, I.
  Howard Marshall.

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6a. Redemptive Movement

• Advocated by William Webb.
• Similar to Trajectory Hermeneutics.
• Point A is the perspective of the original
  culture.
• Point B is the position that Scripture takes.
• Point C is the conclusion gained by following
  the trajectory from A through B and beyond.

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Slavery and Biblical Trajectory
C. Slavery Abolished Today
B. Slavery Restricted in the New Testament
A. Slavery Permitted in the Culture
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Trajectory for Womens Ministry
Egalitarianism
C
B
Galatians 328
A
Old Testament and Cultural Status of Women
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Does This Work?

• It becomes an extremely subjective method. It
  simply reads back into the trajectory whatever
  conclusion we desire.
• Remember that the Pastoral Epistles are written
  near the end of Pauls ministry, well after
  Galatians or 1 Corinthians. If there is a
  trajectory, it is toward greater restriction upon
  women in the church.