1 Timothy 2:12-15
Introduction
While I
won't be presenting on 1 Timothy 2:12-15, a friend of mine encouraged me to go
ahead and discuss this second verse on my blog. This
will take several entries.
First, while 1 Corinthians 14 clearly cannot prohibit women from prophesying in
the Christian assembly (=church), 1 Timothy 2:12 sure sounds like it does:
"To teach, to a women I do not permit, nor to have authority over a man,
but to be in quietness."
Let me say up front, however, that if this means a woman cannot prophesy in
church, then Paul has contradicted himself. And prophecy involves teaching,
since 1 Cor. 14:31 indicates learning as a
consequence of prophecy.
How can we harmonize these two comments--or should we? They do not harmonize
easily. Let me brainstorm what the possibilities are:
1. Teaching in 1 Timothy is not the same as the kind
of teaching that takes place in prophecy.
2. Paul has become hardened as time has passed on this issue, perhaps because
of abuses he has seen, or perhaps environmental factors are pushing in this
direction.
3. Paul is having a moment of hardness on this issue because of things going on
at the time, such as things going on at
4. 1 Timothy is pseudonymous, and the Pauline churches
have become hardened over time for whatever reason, or environmental factors
have pushed the church in this direction.
5. The scope of 1 Timothy 2 is different from the scope of 1 Corinthians 11.
When Paul says he does not allow women to teach or have authority over men, he
means "in general." There are of course exceptional women who rise to
the fore from time to time.
In my opinion none of these are very pleasing for one reason or another. Number
one is the easy answer, but it has all kinds of theological problems. If men
and women both have the same spirit (and we now know their minds are both
potentially capable of thinking and leadership), then why would we arbitrarily
put certain limitations in what God could do through them?
This fact pushes us toward contextual factors: problems within the church or
problems outside the church. As far as problems inside the church, we might
mention the possibility that wealthy women sometimes served as conduits for
false teaching. There is some evidence for this at
Certainly the culture did not smile on women taking leadership and this factor
might have pushed away from the full exercise of the Spirit in the church. 1 Timothy marks a definite move toward institutionalization
in its rules about bishops and deacons, and Paul is looking toward a church
that does not have him around to give it direction. All these features might
contribute toward an explanation of hardness on Paul's part.
This explanation will be more satisfying than the idea that 1 Timothy is
pseudonymous, which means that it was written under the authority of Paul's
name as a representation of his voice to the church, but some time after he had
died. In other words, some individual with authority would have attempted to
present Paul's voice to the next generation, what he thought Paul would say (I
presume it would be a he). We have many Jewish and non-Jewish examples of these
kinds of writings in the ancient world.
The majority of evangelical scholars do not believe there are any writings of
this sort in the New Testament. In contrast, the majority of non-evangelical
scholars--since they do not find the practice problematic--almost assume
without argument that 1 Timothy was not written by Paul. Most evangelical
scholars have difficulty concluding that a pseudonymous writing could be
anything but a lie: "It says Paul wrote it; Paul must have written
it." The possibility is thus eliminated regardless of what evidence there
might be.
What we find is that both sides largely have formed their conclusion before
they even read the letter. Non-evangelicals presume Paul didn't write it
because that's what they've been taught. Evangelicals presume Paul wrote it
because he has to have written it.
I will also take the position that Paul wrote 1 Timothy.
I do, however, believe it is possible to
argue that a pseudonymous writing could be "honest" in that day
though we would consider them wrong today. There are some evangelical scholars
who argue that pseudonymity need not be lying. For
example, the recent NT introduction coauthored by Joel Green of Asbury
Seminary, Paul Achtemeier of Union in Virginia, and
Marianne Thompson of Fuller argues that it would have been lying for someone not to put Paul's name on a writing
if they thought it represented his teaching (I myself find this particular
argument somewhat of a stretch). Nevertheless, I personally submit to the
broader evangelical judgment that pseudonymous writings cannot be in the New
Testament.
Of course whether 1 Timothy was pseudonymous or not,
it is in Scripture, and we must take it seriously. God allowed these words to
be in His Word, so we must treat them as an authority over us in an appropriate
way.
The scope argument seems another viable possibility in interpretation. This is
the idea that statements like 1 Timothy 2:12 were
never meant to exclude exceptional women who we immediately recognize have
God's hand on them. It's the idea that most biblical comments are meant on the
level of "in general this, but there are exceptions."
The
Place of 1 Timothy 2:12-15 in the Letter
There are two things you should have on your mind
after you have finished reading 1 Timothy. The first is false teaching; the
second is church order. These two emphases are not unrelated, for sound
leadership and orderly structures are some of the best protections against
false teaching.
I find the comments directed at Timothy directly in the letter to be very
helpful in unfolding the import of this letter:
1 Tim. 1:3: "Just as I urged you to remain in Ephesus when I was going
into Macedonia, command certain individuals not to teach false things..."
1 Tim. 1:18: "I am enjoining this command to you [to stop false
teaching?], Timothy my child, according to the preceding prophecies about you,
so that you might fight the good fight [foretold] in them.
1 Tim. 3:14: "I write these things [about church order] to you hoping to
come to you soon. But if I am delayed, I write them so you may know how it is
necessary for the house of God to conduct itself, which is the church of the
living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth."
1 Tim. 4:6: "If you point out these things to the brothers [about false
teaching], you will be a good servant [diakonos] of Christ Jesus,
nourished on the words of the faith and the good teaching that you have
followed..."
1 Tim. 6:2: "Teach and urge these things [duties of widows, elders,
slaves]..."
1 Tim. 6:11: "But you, O man of God, flee these things [false teaching,
love of money]..."
1 Tim. 6:20: "O Timothy, gaurd the deposit [that
which Paul is leaving Timothy, particularly in regard to sound teaching]."
A quick glance at these references shows that 1 Timothy looks to a time when
Paul will not be there to direct the church at
The verses with which we are concerned, 1 Timothy 2:12-15, arguably appear in
the middle of a block of teaching about the orderly conduct of the church:
2:1-3:13. This section is immediately preceded by direct comments to Timothy
regarding prophecies that apparently foretold that he would fight false
teaching one day (1:18-20). Immediately following this section Paul gives the
whole purpose of the letter: in case he is delayed, he wants Timothy to know
how God's house, the church, should conduct itself.
The section in which these verses appear, therefore, does not directly address
false teaching, although it is no doubt a guard against such. Paul presents a
picture of the honorable church. False teaching may stand somewhere in the
background of what Paul says, but these are general
statements about what the ideal church looks like.
So, "first of all," Paul urges that the
This thought about women continues. Not only should they "adorn"
themselves with good deeds (2:10), but women should learn in subjection in
quietness (2:11). Again, the worship setting seems primarily in view. It is at
this point that the verses in question appear. Paul will not allow wives to
teach or exercise authority over their husbands, but to be in quietness (2:12).
It is a point of debate whether women in general or wives in particular are in view.
But this is a matter for the next entry.
The remainder of the section relates to the appropriate characteristics for
overseers and deacons in the church, as well as for their wives (3:1-13).
Our verses thus seem to be about the honorable conduct of wives in the typical
A
Close
So 1 Timothy 2:11-15 appear in the context of a discussion about the honorable
conduct of worship. We notice right off the bat that we are in different
territory than we were in at
It seems to me that Paul's comments in these verses are meant to present
honorable behavior with a view to the husband-wife relationship in particular.
These verses are usually discussed in terms of all women and all men,
but it is not clear at all to me that this is the best way to read them. The
word for "wife" is of course the same as the word for
"woman" in general (gyne), and the word for "husband" is
also the word for a male (aner).
The context must determine whether a marital relationship is in view.
The presumption would of course be that most men and women are married.
Therefore, when Paul says "women dress modestly," we might just as
well say "wives dressing modestly." This seems to be the way Paul is
thinking here. He is not thinking of women as women, as independent beings the
way we would think of them. The underlying thought of the passage is that women
are wives. Women are individuals who are subject to a husband.
The explicit mention of subjection in 2:11 confirms that wives are primarily in
view, for I can think of no biblical passage that speaks of women being subject
to men in general. Genesis 3:16 says that as a consequence of her sin, Eve's
desire is to her husband, and he will rule over her. Similarly, the Adam-Eve
relationship Paul will mention in 2:13-14 is a husband-wife relationship.
2:11-12: "Let a wife learn in
quietness in complete subjection, for I do not permit a wife to teach or have
authority over a husband, but to be in quietness."
This sentence begins and ends with "in quietness," confirming that
this is a unit of thought. Paul thus details what it might mean to learn in
quietness and subjection--it means not teach or take authority over your
husband. I would not think that this necessarily means absolute silence, but an
attitude of submission to his instruction. It would probably imply not
questioning what he is teaching or presuming to correct his teaching. Paul no
doubt assumes that the husband's instruction is correct instruction, and the
assumption seems to be that the man is better equipped to know true teaching
from false teaching than the woman is.
I feel like I should stop for just a second to point out how foreign so much of
this line of thought is both to our context and to Paul's writings overall. In
our context, women are just as likely to know true teaching as their husbands.
Indeed, this is the implication of us both equally having the Spirit. Except in
1 Corinthians 14 if original, we have never seen Paul say things quite like
this in any of his other writings. His tone and demeanor are different from
earlier. Here we find none of the reciprocity of 1 Corinthians 7 or 11, where
even when he is chiding women he takes time to point out that "the husband's
body belongs to his wife" and "the man comes out of the woman."
Something has changed here, and we do the Bible no service to pretend that it
hasn't. We want the full
witness of Scripture, not just one moment in the symphony of revelation.
Let me say again that we should see the husband-wife relationship in view in
these words, because Paul probably doesn't even consider the possibility that a
woman would be talking to a man who wasn't
her husband. In other words, Paul assumes a woman wouldn't be talking to a man
who isn't her husband. But even in the husband-wife relationship she should
listen rather than speak.
2:13-15 :
"For"
Before looking at these verses specifically, we notice that Paul is about to
defend the charge he has just given in 2:11-12. The following verses are thus a
defense of why a wife should be in quietness and not teach or exercise
authority over her husband.
Defense 1 (2:13): "For Adam was
formed first, then Eve."
This is an argument from "birth order." While in our culture we tend
to feel all children should be valued equally, ancient culture clearly favored
and valued the firstborn over the later born. In general, the firstborn had
authority over all the other children. Paul defends the authority of a husband
over a wife by pointing out the order of creation.
A couple comments in terms of bridging the gap between then
and now. I want to remind you of my sense that the Bible tends to be
more "in general, with exceptions" than "absolutely never."
We remember that in the case of Jacob and Esau, the Bible sanctions that the
younger would rule over the older.
I also note that this comment is in conflict with the spiritual principle of
Galatians 3:28: "In Christ there is not 'male and female.'" I
mentioned earlier that Paul words this oddly. After saying
"neither-nor" twice, he says "not male and female." A plausible
explanation is that Paul is alluding to Genesis 1:27, where God makes them
"male and female." In other words, Galatians 3:28 pictures the
undoing of the male-female distinction made in creation. Thus in heaven we are
like the angels, and we neither marry nor are given in marriage.
Defense 2 (2:14-15): "And Adam
was not deceived, but the woman--having been deceived--has come to be in
transgression. But she will be saved through childbearing, if they remain in faith and love and holiness with chastity."
These are hard words on more than one level. This seems to be Paul's main
argument. Women should not be in the role of teacher because they are easily
deceived, like Eve was. The letter's theme of false teaching here comes into
view. If the wives teach their husbands, we find ourselves in the same
situation that Adam and Eve were in, and we know what happened then. It was not
the husband who was deceived by false teaching; it was the wife who led the
husband astray.
Notice how easily Paul slips from discussing Eve--"she"--to talking
about wives in general--"they." If "in Adam" all die,
"in Eve" all women are subjugated to their husbands. The consequences of Eve's sin was 1. increased
pain in childbearing and 2. subjugation to the rule of
the husband (Gen. 3:16). We see both of these consequences of sin in this
passage.
In a sense, Eve is "saved" from her transgression through
childbearing. The easy switch from "she" to "they" applies
the same to the "Eve's" of Paul's day: wives. They will be saved from
the stain of Eve's sin through their childbearing. But even this is conditional
on them remaining "in faith and love and holiness with chastity."
These attitudes likely relate to being subject to their husbands.
Although I'll deal with the appropriation of these verses at a later time, I
can already see a serious problem when it comes to applying these words to
today. Paul's argument is primarily based on the consequences of Eve's sin.
True, the Lord does not free a woman of painful childbearing when she becomes a
Christian. In that sense women continue to experience the consequences of Eve's
sin.
On the other hand, the book of Hebrews represents the final word in the Bible
on Christ's atonement and probably takes us one step closer to a full
understanding than even Paul on this subject. While Paul could offer a
sacrifice in the Jerusalem temple even at the end of his ministry (Acts
21:23-26), Hebrews teaches that there can no longer be any sacrificial system
now that Christ has died for sins: "With one offering he has forever
perfected those who are sanctified" (Heb. 10:14).
In other words, it is blasphemy to suggest that there are sins for which
Christ's death did not atone. The idea that Christian women are still held
accountable for the sins of Eve in some way thus contradicts one of the most
important truths about Christ's death. If in Adam all die, in Christ all are
made alive. If in Eve all women are subjugated to their husbands and have
painful childbirth, in Christ there is not male and female and eventually
women's bodies will be transformed to be like Christ's glorious body (1 Cor. 15:49; Phil. 3:21).
Again, our understanding of Scripture is immature if we do not see that some of
the arguments biblical authors make have to do with the thinking of their day.
Take for example Paul's argument in Galatians that the promise to Abraham was
to his seed singular rather than to his seed plural (Gal. 3:16). Paul's point
is that the promise of justification only comes through Christ, the singular
seed of Abraham. Paul's point is true and inspired. Indeed, I have no problem
saying that his argument was inspired.
But Paul was not using the words as they were originally meant, and this
argument would not convince any Jew today. Seed here is used collectively, a
singular that stands for a plurality. Originally, the promise was indeed about
the countless Israelites (plural) who would inherit the promise land. It happened.
My point is that the arguments God might inspire me to use today would not be
the same arguments God would inspire someone else to make in a different time
and place. The conclusion is the point of the inspiration more than the path to
get there.
In 1 Timothy 2:11-15, the point is that the women of Paul's churches, and
perhaps
However, I am overwhelmingly certain that God does not have this message for
His church today. Indeed, I would be so bold as to say that anyone who would
apply these verses directly to today is out of the will of God and is
"kicking against the goads" (Acts 26:13), "happily fighting
against God" (Acts 5:39), with a "zeal without knowledge" (Rom.
10:2).
Examine your heart, anyone who would take this tact, to see if you are in the
faith. God takes His women as seriously as He takes His men. And anyone who
would put a stumbling block in front of any of his children..., well Matthew 18
has some rather scary words involving a millstone.
Placing
1 Timothy
It is not easy to place 1 Timothy in Paul's ministry.
The majority of evangelicals at present would date it to a period of time after
Paul had appeared before the emperor Nero and been freed. This would place the
book after the ending of the book of Acts. The NIV Study Bible has a very
appealing map of a hypothetical "fourth missionary journey" in the
pages of 1 Timothy. This map presents a possible
reconstruction of the things Paul did after release from
This scenario is very attractive for several reasons.
1. If we date Philemon and Philippians to Paul's Roman imprisonment at the end
of Acts, Paul indicates in them that he expects to come visit their locations
soon.
2. Clement of
3. The style, vocabulary, and ethos of the Pastoral Letters, 1 and 2 Timothy
and Titus are much more similar to each other than they are to Paul's earlier
letters. On stylistic grounds, it makes more sense to say they were written at
about the same time in Paul's life than to spread them out at other points of
his ministry. And since 2 Timothy seems to be Paul's "last will and
testament," this would need to be at the end.
You could, of course, say that Paul used the same secretary in the writing of
these three letters and that this person was different from his other
secretaries. This would go some way toward explaining the differences in style
and vocabulary from his other writings, especially if he gave this particular
secretary more leeway in writing (Witherington
suggests Luke, although this seems a stretch to me for a couple reasons).
The letter of 1 Timothy itself has very little concrete to say about its
context. The biggest hint comes at the beginning: "As I urged you to
remain in
Gone are the usual greetings at the end. Dr. David Smith has suggested that the
lack of detail is Paul getting down to business with false teaching.
The end of chapter one mentions two individuals whose faith
had shipwrecked, Hymenaeus and Alexander. Paul
hands them over to Satan in hope they will come running back.
Now to placing it in Paul's ministry in terms of when it was written.
The main problem with the "fourth missionary journey" scenario is
that Acts strongly points toward the idea that Paul was in fact put to death at
the end of Acts after his two years of house arrest in Acts. You sometimes hear
proponents say, "Acts was written right after it ends--that's why it
doesn't tell us what happened to Paul. The idea is thus that its hints at some
troubling outcome simply reflect a lack of knowledge of what would happen to
Paul.
This suggestion doesn't really fly for at least two reasons:
1. Acts was likely written after
2. If Acts were some "amicus brief" meant to help support Paul in his
trial (see the NIV Study Bible, 1644), the fatalistic tone of the later
chapters seems inexplicable.
My position is that
1. it is possible that Paul was freed after his first
imprisonment if we see the ending of Acts as a kind of syncopation of Paul's
end. Acts is very, very long. It is possible that the author left Paul's ending
vague because a. Paul reaching Rome fulfilled his purposes in writing (Paul had
reached the ends of the earth a la 1:8) and b. to tell of activities between a
first and second imprisonment would have complicated what is after all a very
beautiful presentation as we have it. He ends Acts in a way that suggests
Paul's eventual death in
2. But ultimately I think Paul probably was martyred after he finally appeared
before Nero. My reasoning is as follows:
1. Luke-Acts is written after the
destruction of the
It thus knows the outcome of Paul's trial.
When we compare the vague wording of the prophecy in Mark 13:14 to the clarity
of Luke 21:20, we get the impression that Luke has "translated"
Jesus' words for us.
Mark 13:14 says, "When you see the abomination of desolation standing
where it shouldn't be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in
The discussion Jesus is having with Peter and others is when the temple will be
destroyed, an event that took place in AD 70. But listen to Luke's wording of
the same passage:
Luke 21:20: "When you see
The simplest explanation of this difference is that Luke is writing after the
prophecy has come true and is giving clarity to how the prophecy was fulfilled.
The abomination of desolation that we might expect to stand in the temple turns
out to be the desolation of
We consider further that both tradition and scholar date Mark to the late 60's.
Yet most would say Luke used Mark as a source for his gospel. This would
accordingly date Luke in the 70's at the earliest.
Of course other hypotheses are possible, but I've seen enough cop-outs with
interpretation to have decided to go in general with the most likely
explanation. After all, am I really interested in what the Bible really meant
or am I more interested in bolstering my pre-conceptions and tradition. How
does an "idea" about the Bible come to take precedence over what the
text of the Bible itself "tells" us?
So I conclude that Luke knew the outcome of Paul's life. On any reckoning, Paul
died at the hands of Nero some time in the 60's.
2. Acts implies that Paul died at its
end and never returned to the east.
The last chapters of Acts have a definite sense of foreboding to them. Here is
a stark example:
“And now, behold, bound by the Spirit I go to
“And now, behold, I know that you all will no longer see my
face—you among whom I have passed preaching the kingdom” (Acts 20:22-25).
Given that Luke knows the outcome of Paul’s ordeals, he
gives us a strong impression that Paul never returned to
So when was 1 Timothy written? If the above reconstruction is correct, we
have a few options:
1.
When
Paul left for
2.
Perhaps
1 Timothy is pseudonymous. This is of
course the option taken by most non-evangelical scholars. There are some evangelical scholars who would
argue that 1 Timothy was written several decades after Paul’s death in the full knowledge of all involved,
thus that no deception was involved.
This option sees this letter as the appropriation of Paul’s authority for
a new generation by an appropriate church figure. The few evangelicals who take this position
would emphasize that no deception was involved and that it is simply a matter
of a genre we are unfamiliar with.
However, the evangelical consensus strongly opposes this
option. It is not, for example, an
option that I believe is appropriate for me to take. What evidence we have indicates that the
church of the late second century opposed the canonization of any writings of this
sort and in fact one elder’s authority was taken away from him for composing
such a writing, despite his protest that his
intentions were good.
3.
That
leaves us with this letter being written some time in between Paul’s arrest in
How does this placement affect our interpretation of 1 Timothy? I would
only suggest that Paul seems to have left
Conflict laden circumstances of this sort might go some
way toward explaining Paul’s harsh words toward women in 1
Timothy. Perhaps we can see them
as some of the catalyzing forces of false teaching and unrest in Paul’s later
ministry there. We remember Paul’s sad
words in Romans 15:23: “Since I now no longer have a place in these regions… I
hope to see you…”