Bible Question: A male christian friend thinks that women pastors should not be allowed to preach. I have heard that there is scripture that states that God's word gives the ok for women pastors to preach. Which scripture is this, and what scripture gave him the impression that women should not preach? |
Bible Answer: 1 Timothy 2:12 But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness. Bye now you have recieved many answers. Most of these answers will follow the same rutted path of centuries of repetitive teaching with little dilligent study having gone into their answers on this subject. Though my answers here are not new they are less common among your died in the wool and legalistic denominational views. First of all the most prominent of the verses used by those that say a woman is banned from teaching the Word, is this one 1 Timothy 2:12 But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness. If you read the context and the verse itself, you will notice that there is no such ban here in this portion of the Word. The passage could be said in this way " that a woman should not try and be a bossy nag over her husband. " now this is a truth that all would agree with, it was a problem for women then and it is also still today. This problem has it's roots in fear. The woman who is afraid of adversity will find that she will try to take control by trying to control her husband and her family. This is ban against usurping the authority of the husband, not a ban on teaching the Gospel to all that have hears to hear. All saints are called to teach the Word as the Spirit leads. Now the next passage that is used comes from 1 1 Corinthians 14:34 let the women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but let them be in subjection, as also saith the law. Now I studied this and I did not find this ban in the Law, that they were not allowed to speak in the synagogue. I do know that there were many regulations given in the Talmud, but I cannot imagine Paul calling the Talmud the law. Thus I conclude that he was speaking of the subjection part when he referred to the Law, as Sarah was sumbissive to Abraham. Not that the Law said a woman could not speak in church. I have found almost all main denominations say that I Cor 14 does not mean a woman cannot speak at all in church, but that they think it means a woman cannot preach. However these women were not preaching in 1 cor 14, they were asking questions. Now a common view is that the women were asking in a challenging and disrespectful way. You know, that kind of questioning where when you try and answer they are too busy thinking about how to challenge your answer to care about the answer itself. This is an attitude problem. A shameful and disruptive behaviour that Paul was rebuking them for. However this also has nothing to do with a woman who is humble, submitted to authority and called to minister the Word of God. Some in their ignorant attempts to say that women were not supposed to speak in the church in a ministry capacity howbeit they could speak about other things such as in casual conversation have a hard time reconciling the passage of Acts 15 where the daughters of Phillip prophesied. These Daughters did this prophesying in a church gathering, Paul mentions it as it were a blessing. This prooves beyond a doubt that Paul was not saying in 1 Cor 14 that women could not prophesy. I bring this up to say that many that say there is no New Testament prophets as it relates to forth telling of events, today, that todays gift of prophesy is pulpit preaching must then conclude that women can preach from the pulpit. Or they must retract the statement the the Prophesy Paul tells us all to seek is not pulpit preaching. And they would do well to say so , becuase it is not. However the gift of Prophecy in the church was given to both men and women, as we see in Acts 15, and we also see that according to Acts 1 and 2 that women were among the 120 that spoke in tongues. Some ignorant teachers who are even Doctors in Theology have said that no women spoke in tongues becuase of this passage in I cor 14 that women should not speak. |