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We Think We Know
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Deborah P. Brunt
Eying me quizzically, my friend Pam read aloud the title of the book I'd just handed her: "I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!" Then, smiling, she said, "Dr. Seuss."
Pam opened the book, wherein the Cat in the Hat talks to a young cat about reading. She continued to read aloud. Since we're both from Mississippi, we laughed when she read, "I can read Mississippi with my eyes shut tight!"
"Mississippi, Indianapolis and Hallelujah, too!
I can read them
with my eyes shut!
That is
VERY HARD
to do!"
Though the Cat in the Hat can read with his eyes shut, he doesn't advocate it. In fact, he advises against it: 
"There are
so many things
you can learn about.
BUT . . . you'll miss
the best things
if you keep
your eyes shut."
Finishing the book, Pam closed its colorful cover. "Do you know when we read with our eyes shut?" she asked.
Then she answered her own riddle: "When we think we know what it says."
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Obvious?
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We think we know what it says.
We read 1 Timothy 2:12-15, and the meaning seems obvious: "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing - if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety" (NIV).
Simple enough, right?
- Women are not to teach or have authority over men (v. 12).
- Women are saved through a two-part process: bearing children and then continuing in faith, love and holiness (v. 15).
Ah, I see those hands. You're questioning that last bullet point. You're saying, "No, women are not saved by having babies and living good lives. Women, like men, are saved by believing in Jesus Christ as Lord."
But 1 Timothy 2:15 is Scripture. So I ask: "Why do you not accept at face value what Paul said there about women being saved?"
In answer, you'd probably refer me to the entire New Testament.
No Christian I know accepts the "obvious meaning" of Paul's statement in verse 15. We do not believe or teach that women are saved through childbearing. Why, then, do so many of us dogmatically assert that the meaning of verse 12 is "obvious"? Why do we insist women are not to teach men or to have authority over them?
With regard to women and salvation, we judge one or two puzzling verses in light of the whole New Testament. With regard to women and ministry, we do just the opposite: We let one or two puzzling verses blind us to the overwhelming testimony of the whole. Throughout, the New Testament declares the authority all believers have in Christ Jesus and the responsibility to speak in his name.
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Included
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Previous articles in the What About Women? series have explored some of what the New Testament says about women. To summarize: Numerous passages - including extensive passages in Paul's letters - speak inclusively of people, male and female, serving in ways that involve speaking and leading.
Jesus himself taught and traveled with women disciples. At Jesus' command, the women announced his resurrection to the men. Don't skip over that. The women were sent by Jesus himself to teach the 11 apostles the central tenet of the faith. Further, the women instructed the men what to do in response.
At Pentecost, the Spirit and the Word affirmed that both women and men can speak authoritatively under the New Covenant. Filled with the Spirit, Peter said, "This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy ... Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy'" (Acts 2:16-18).
In Acts 18, a woman named Priscilla, along with her husband Aquila, instructed the well-known teacher, Apollos. Priscilla also co-led a house church. That does not mean she acted as hostess while Aquila did the teaching. In Romans 16, when Paul greeted and commended the two, calling them "my co-workers in Christ Jesus" (v. 3), he named Priscilla first, thus publicly affirming her and indicating she held the lead position on that ministry team.
Paul greeted a number of Christian co-workers in Romans 16, both men and women. In 1 Corinthians 16:16, Paul told the church how to treat such workers: "submit to such as these and to everyone who joins in the work and labors at it." Some English translations have inserted gender-specific words that indicate otherwise, but Paul instructed believers to submit both to male and female leaders.
Paul instructed Timothy, "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others" (2 Tim. 2:2). Paul himself called for the training of reliable anthropos - humans, men and women - as teachers. Regretfully, many English translations insert the word "men" in place of "people," thus implying that women aren't included among those qualified to teach.
Sadly, we can miss much of the stunning gender inclusivity of the New Testament because of the stunning tendency of Bible translators to let gender bias against women skew their translations. The paragraphs immediately above show two examples. Other articles in this series give other examples. From the time of Jerome forward, even those who've provided us the Scriptures in our language have sometimes read with their eyes shut.
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Bias?
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Jerome was born about the year 342. He died in 420. As noted in the article, "Waylaid by God": "his Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate, was the official translation used by the church for 1,000 years. It was the translation read by Martin Luther and other fathers of the reformation, who in turn still influence us today."
Identified as an early Church Father, sainted by Roman Catholics and several other denominations, Jerome was known for his prolific and well-crafted writings, his ascetic life, his bad temper, his scathing sarcasm, his inconsistency - and his incredibly convoluted attitudes toward women.
Jerome said, "Woman is a temple built over a sewer. It is contrary to the order of nature and of the law for women to speak in a gathering."
In her book, After Eve, Jane Barr writes, "It must be acknowledged at the outset that Jerome's attitudes to women accorded, on the whole, with those of earlier Church Fathers." Be aware: These "fathers" were not the apostles, but subsequent generations of theologians and teachers. Often, they were strongly influenced by the dismal Greek view of women.
"What makes Jerome of supreme importance," says Barr, "is that it was his writings that were read so widely, his opinions that were quoted and repeated throughout the succeeding centuries. Also Jerome brought to his thinking about women his own particular personal attitudes, which combined a great need of women's company, and affection for women, with a fear and hatred of their sexuality."
Barr adds, "Jerome, in his work as translator, was influenced by his prejudices, and allowed them to interfere with his accurate translation of the text. This is of course of almost unquantifiable importance."
Even today, we may attribute to Paul and to the inspired Word of God a bias that has actually bled over from Jerome and other translators.
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Snort!
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Only one Scripture other than 1 Timothy 2:12 seems to command women's silence in church, 1 Corinthians 14:34-35: "Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church."
Much in the New Testament, and even much of 1 Corinthians 14, warns us against accepting the "obvious meaning" of verses 34-35. Indeed, Paul literally may have been teaching the opposite of what these verses say. Significant evidence exists that he included these statements, not because they accurately reflected his doctrine. Rather, he quoted what the Corinthians themselves had said - in order to disagree.
As already noted, Paul himself did not practice the "women must be silent" rule. Further, he did not teach it even in the rest of 1 Corinthians. Just prior to the statements that apparently silence women, Paul urged that, when believers gather, "anyone" and "everyone" - not men only - speak in a way that edifies, exhorts and encourages:
"But those who prophesy speak to people for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. . . . So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, 'God is really among you!' What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up" (1 Cor. 14:3,23-26, italics mine).
In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul specifically affirmed women praying and prophesying in public.
Throughout his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul quoted statements the Corinthians had written to him. Then he answered or refuted those statements. It's a similar technique to the one Jesus used in the Sermon on the Mount, when he declared again and again, "You have heard that it was said ... But I tell you ..."
In essence, Paul told the Corinthians, "You have said ... But I tell you ..." Yet, he didn't always say, "You have said." Instead, he simply quoted the Corinthians and then responded. They would have known what they had said. We do not - but the Scripture gives clues. In the book Why Not Women?, David Hamilton explains, "Christian scholars have struggled to determine exactly where Paul was quoting others' words. An important indication that he was quoting another's opinion was his use of a tiny word" - a tiny Greek word that the English often doesn't even translate.
This Greek word looks rather like a small letter n with quotation marks above it. Thus, it resembles a picture of nostrils - and it conveys a snort. Hamilton says this tiny word is "called an 'expletive of disassociation' by Greek scholars," and the closest English equivalent would be, "'What?' or 'Nonsense!' or 'No way!'" It was Paul's version of, "But I tell you ..."
So Paul wrote, "Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says ... it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church." Then, he snorted twice in rapid succession, as if utterly disgusted with such thoughts. And he berated the Corinthians: "[Nonsense! (Snort!)] Did the word of God originate with you? Or [what? (snort!)] are you the only people it has reached?"
Alas, Paul's expletives don't appear in our English translations.
Thus, we've built a whole theology of What Women Can't Do from two lone New Testament passages, both written by Paul. Yet Paul himself snorts at one of our foundational legs.
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Questions
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So what about the other foundational leg, 1 Timothy 2:12-15? Really looking at the passage raises a slew of questions we don't ask when we're reading with our eyes closed. For one thing, if Paul is stating a universal principle that women are not to teach or have authority over men, but to "be silent" - where do we draw the line?
Are women not allowed to speak at all when men are present? Can women speak in every gathering except the church? Can we speak if what we say doesn't "teach"? Can we teach "secular" subjects - but not "spiritual" ones? Indeed, does God compartmentalize life as "sacred" and "secular"?
Can women teach everyone except men? Can women teach only those men who are slaves (a practice allowed and even encouraged by the church in the antebellum South)? Can a woman teach men, as long as she never brings up any matter related to the faith? Is it okay for a woman to teach quantum physics in mixed company, but not to explain the gospel if a man might hear?
Is it wrong for women to explain to men the way of God more accurately, as Priscilla did Apollos? Is it wrong for a woman to do as the women did on resurrection morning: tell men what Jesus has told her to tell them?
If so, when does a boy become a man - at age 12? 18? 21? Is it a sin if even one man is present when a woman teaches, if, say, a pastor sits in on a women's Bible study? Is it wrong for a woman to teach a coed Sunday School class, but okay for a well-known woman speaker to teach a mixed assembly? Is it okay for men to come to a woman-led conference, provided the meeting is advertised as a women's event? (You might be surprised where I've encountered such thinking.) Is it wrong for a woman missionary to tell a church gathering about her work? Isn't that teaching? Is it okay for a woman to "give her testimony" in a coed assembly as long as she doesn't use Scripture or make points applying the truth to others' lives? Doesn't a testimony, by its very nature, teach? Is it okay for women to teach as long as it's not "authoritative" teaching? Doesn't God's truth carry authority whenever it is presented? Is it right to restrict women - because they are women - from saying what is spiritually helpful and biblically true? And what about positions of authority? Is it wrong for a woman to serve, say, as prayer leader or worship pastor? Is it wrong for her to take a lead pastoral position, as Priscilla did? Must she "only" lead women and children? What if a woman preschool director asks men to serve in the nursery? What if a women's ministry leader asks men to cook or serve tables for a women's banquet? Aren't such leaders exercising authority over men? Does not a person given any measure of leadership responsibility, including a woman leading other women or children, need to exercise some degree of authority related to both genders? Is it right to invite a woman to serve, but give her a different title than we would give a man doing exactly the same work? If we call her "director" or "leader" instead of "minister," does such word play prevent her from "having authority"? Is it right to give someone responsibility yet - because of her gender - withhold the appropriate authority, thus hogtying the person and hamstringing the work? |
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See!
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When we try to build a theology of What Women Cannot Do based on the "obvious meaning" of 1 Timothy 2:12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, we create confusion and frustration, not peace. We contradict ourselves, the whole New Testament message and the witness of the Spirit at every turn.
As we read and live with our eyes open, we find the Word and the Spirit approving what these verses seem to forbid. Even before we can mentally grasp what God intends these passages to convey, we find ourselves snorting with Paul at the "obvious" meaning: that women hold second-class status in the kingdom and, as such, must ever be wary of speaking or leading, for fear of crossing some invisible and arbitrary line.
In the next Key Truths e-column, we'll look a little more closely at 1 Timothy 2:12-15. We'll ask: If Paul was teaching something different from the "obvious meaning" that most English translations suggest, what might he have been saying? And: How does the best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code, provide surprising support for an alternate meaning of this passage?
My heartcry is not that you and I agree as to the exact meaning of these passages. My heartcry is that you and I learn more and more to read the Word with our spiritual eyes open and our ears attune to God's voice.
In the name of him who alone reveals the Word, I urge you: When you read Scripture, don't assume you know what it says. Give the Lord permission to show you where personal biases or traditions you've inherited have blinded you to things he wants you to see. Be delighted - not defensive - when you find God working in ways and through people you had been told he could not.
"There are so many things you can learn about. BUT ... you'll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut."
You may need to pray: Father, forgive me for reading Scripture with my eyes shut because I think I know what it says. "Open my eyes that I may see" (Ps. 119:18). Then, pursue what God reveals.
"Young cat! If you keep
your eyes open enough,
oh, the stuff you will learn!
the most wonderful stuff!"
Scroll down for links to other articles in the "What About Women?" series
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture references are from Today's New International Version (TNIV). Also quoted: New International Version (NIV).
Dr. Seuss, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut! (New York: Random House, 1978).
Jerome quote: Gene Edwards, The Christian Woman . . . Set Free (Jacksonville, FL: SeedSowers Publishing, 2005), introductory quotes. Deborah Brunt, "Waylaid by God," e-column, May 2007. Jane Barr, "The Influence of Saint Jerome on Medieval Attitudes to Women," first published as Ch. 6, in After Eve, ed. Janet Martin Soskice (Collins Marshall Pickering, 1990), on http://www.womenpriests.org/theology/barr.asp. Loren Cunningham & David Joel Hamilton, Why Not Women? (Seattle, WA: YWAM Publishing, 2000), 190-191. |
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