1 Timothy 2:11-14: Let the Woman Learn in Silence
2021-09-18
1 Timothy 2:11-12
Is it possible that we read our culture and values into Scripture? This is one of those passages that tests us for sure. God does not change, for He is good. We change the further we get from God. We do not get to decide what God is like. He decides what we should be like.
Twenty years ago, I wrote a term paper on this passage in Bible college. This topic was controversial back then, and it still is today. In our modern era, a great many things have occurred in the advancement of women’s rights. When we read passages like this, we get uncomfortable. What does this passage mean? First, let us talk about what it does not mean.
First, it does not mean that women cannot be leaders in all situations. There is no prohibition of women being leaders in this business world. Lydia was an entrepreneur from Thyatira (Acts 16:14). No one who has a boss who is a woman should disrespect her authority. We have a woman as the Vice President of our nation, and no one should undermine her authority. The newly saved eunuch would not have gone back to Ethiopia to disrespect his boss, Queen Candace (Acts 8:27).
Second, this passage does not mean that all men are qualified to be teaching elders of a church. There are stringent qualifications enumerated in the next chapter to ordain teaching elders over the local church. There are many men in pulpits across the world today that should not be there.
Third, this passage does not mean that women should not teach. Many women are gifted teachers, and they should not be sitting on the sidelines. My wife teaches children’s Sunday school. Women teach women’s Sunday school. Philip, who was one of the original seven deacons in Jerusalem, “had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy” (Acts 21:9). Since Philip was an evangelist, he taught his four children everything he knew about sharing the Gospel, and they too shared the Gospel everywhere. Preaching the Gospel is teaching. Women singing in the choir is teaching (Colossians 3:16), as would be women hymn writers.
I believe this passage pertains to women having teaching authority over men in the local church, and specifically serving in elder teaching roles in the local church. There is a reason why this passage immediately precedes the qualifications of elders and deacons. Let us examine this a piece at a time.
The command is for women to learn: “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection” (1 Timothy 2:11). Everyone needs to hear and learn the Word of God. There is also an emphasis on subjection and silence to the teaching. This is not unique to the woman. Everyone who is listening to the teaching must submit to the Word and listen quietly. In 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 might be a rewording of this (though I was criticized in my original term paper for tying 1 Corinthians 14 with 1 Timothy 2!). Women should not be publicly challenging or interrupt the teaching authority of the elder. Orderly worship is important and is the focus here.
He continues, “But I suffer not a woman to teach” (1 Timothy 2:12). Learning is the commandment, but teaching is not permitted. This teaching is clarified: “nor to usurp authority over the man.” Teaching with authority in official local church capacity is in sight. Women should not be teaching elders or have teaching authority over men.
There are instances such as these: “Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly” (Acts 18:26). Priscilla’s teaching of Apollos was good and helpful.
The mentioning of silence again shows its emphasis. There was a concern for order in the church for sure. In the previous chapter, there were all manner of people teaching the Law and men who had to be excommunicated for blasphemous ways. Order is essential in the local church.
1 Timothy 2:13-14
Because this passage can bring much contention, there is a tendency for people to want to make this something that only happened in ancient culture or limit it to a specific time and place. People might say this was for the immediate audience back then, but it does not apply to our time. First Timothy 2:13-14 debunks this, because he goes back to Adam and Eve, the progenitors of the entire human race, to support the timelessness of the doctrine. A similar device is used in 1 Corinthians 11:1-16 concerning headship.
“For Adam was first formed, then Eve” (1 Timothy 2:13). This appeals to a headship order. The commandment of the Lord pertaining to the trees was given to Adam before Eve was created (Genesis 2:16-17). Immediately after, we read the narrative of how Adam was alone and needed a suitable helper, and therefore, created Eve. Do not miss this subtlety: the Word of God was entrusted to Adam, not Eve. It was the job of Adam to give the commandment to Eve.
“And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (1 Timothy 2:14). The word was remembered incorrectly at some point, because when the serpent asked Eve about it, she got it wrong (Genesis 3:3). She was deceived, ate the fruit of knowledge, and persuaded Adam to eat it also. Eve took the authority into her own hands to reinterpret God’s Word and took that bastardized version of the command and persuaded Adam to do Satan’s will over God’s will. The role of trustee of the commandment was reversed. The argument seems to be that history will repeat itself if women receive teaching authority over men in the local church. The local church is the closest to Eden we have on earth.