Studies in 1 Timothy: 2:8-15
Sermon preached at Barclay Church, Edinburgh by Rev. Sam Torrens
5 October 2005
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8. I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.
9. I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes,
10. but
with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.
11. A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.
12. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent
13. For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
14. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner,
15. But women will be saved through childbearing – if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.
New International Version.
These are very, very difficult verses to interpret.
A little section of Scripture that is like gelignite it is
explosive, before we come to look at it let us seek God’s help.
Loving Heavenly Father we do thank for your word, we are committed to the whole of scripture for all of God’s people and we would pray that you will help us here to understand your word for us today and we ask it in the Saviour’s Name. Amen.
Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost and he explained all that was happening on the day of Pentecost by referring to the prophet Joel. In the last days God says I will pour out my spirit on all people, your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams, even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophesy.
Both men and women will prophesy/preach
It is therefore with deep sadness that some of the finest female servants in the Christian church have felt second class citizens, simply because of their gender. Who among us has not been inspired by the story of Gladys Aylward. In the 1930’s, a time when women missionaries in Britain were still barred from the mission field unless they were volunteering as nurses or schoolteachers, Gladys Aylward felt called to go to China, she saved up from a meagre income to buy a one-way ticket to China. She got there, she set about sharing her faith, she got embroiled in the Japanese invasion of China and set about rescuing dozens of Chinese orphans leading them across hazardous mountainous terrain to safety.
It’s a story immortalized in the film “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness” starring Ingrid Bergman. Yet that wonderfully courageous women felt a second class servant of God simply because of her gender.
In Phyllis Thompson’s biography of Gladys Aylward, “A Transparent Woman”, Gladys Aylward is recorded as saying this. “I was not God’s first choice for what I have done in China. There was somebody else. I don’t know who it was, God’s first choice, but it must have been a man. A wonderful man. A well educated man. I don’t know what happened, perhaps he died, perhaps he wasn’t willing and God looked down and saw Gladys Aylward.
I just felt somewhat sad when I read that and I feel
somewhat sad when Christian women have been made to feel less than best within
the Church and the passage before us this morning has served in reaffirming that
attitude and creating that feeling but its not an easy passage, that is 2nd
Timothy verses 8 – 15, to interpret, and so, as we approach this passage, I
want to make five very quick statements, personal statements before we come to
the text itself.
Statement No. 1 – and these are personal statements…
I belong to the rare breed of evangelicals who hold to the full authority of scripture yet believe that women and men equally under the authority of Scripture can be called and equipped to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. A woman is not barred from preaching because of her gender.
Statement No. 2.
I believe there is room within the church of Jesus Christ
for different interpretations sincerely held on this subject.
For example our brothers and sisters in Bruntsfield Evangelical Church
hold to the full authority of scripture just as we do,
they hold to the central teachings of Jesus Christ, just as we do yet
they differ in their attitude to women in leadership and teaching from us in the
Church of Scotland, yet we are still brothers and sisters in Christ.
And I know also that even within the Church of Scotland as a
denomination, there are friends of mine who don’t share my interpretation of 2nd
Timothy Chapter 2.
Statement No. 3
I believe that the male domination of women is a reality in the world but a symptom of human fallenness and therefore not a product of the creative order. For we read in Genesis Chapter 3, verse 16, that two things would happen to women following the fall, firstly they would suffer pain in bearing children and secondly they would be dominated, they would be ruled over by men. But just as we seek today to alleviate pain in childbearing, we also seek to eliminate the male domination of women. For it is a consequence of human fallenness and not a product of God’s grace in a redeemed life.
Statement No. 4
I believe that even though the twelve were all men, yet
there was an emerging band of disciples who were women. For example in Luke Chapter 10 at the very end of the Chapter
we find Mary and Martha at home together in Bethany and Jesus is in the home.
What is Martha doing? She’s
out in the kitchen preparing the meal.
What is Mary doing? She’s
sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to her Lord. Why is Martha so
annoyed? Well we usually think it’s because Mary is sitting in the
living room at the feet of Jesus while she’s out there in the kitchen doing
all the work preparing the meal.
But there is another explanation, and I am very grateful to
Elaine Storkey for this.
Mary is being taught. She
is being given a theological education at a time when women were denied any
education. She’s in the school of
Jesus Christ. She’s sitting at
his feet taking the place of a disciple for disciples would sit at the feet of
Jesus and listen to his teaching and there she is, at the feet of her Lord.
Martha’s representing the domestic role that it was assumed women would
take. Mary is representing the role that Jesus Christ would give to them as
disciples and followers and learners.
Statement No. 5, one more statement and then we come to the text.
I believe that the word ‘head’ (‘kephale’ in the
Greek) used in Ephesians Chapter 5 and 1st Corinthians Chapter 11 is not meant
to be ‘head’ in terms of chief, or superior or leader, but ‘head’ in
terms of source. For example, a
well head is a source of water or a source of oil.
You see Paul often used the Septuagint
(the Greek translation of the Old Testament) in much of his exegesis and
most places where kephale is used in the Greek Old Testament is used to describe
a source. And Adam was the head of
Eve in the sense that he was the source.
Eve was taken out of Adam. “Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman for she was taken out of man.”
Adam was the source. And
the husband is the head of the wife in the sense that he is the source, the
source of love and affection and provision and for his wife, he loves her as
Christ loves the Church and gave himself up for the Church.
Christ the head of the Church is the source of her life and her love and
her provision and her security and the Church has come out of him.
And I’m on pretty strong ground there because Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria and other ancient writers understood ‘head’ in that sense and I know that this may not be of interest to you but these statements have to do with the whole package of gender issues.
And so we come now to the text; 1st Timothy, Chapter 2 verses 8 to 15. Follow through these verses with me.
Verse 8. Paul writes to Timothy who is in Ephesus, and he says this –
I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer without anger or disputing.
Now I would say immediately from this little verse that the
men are probably predominantly Jewish because the Jews would lift up their hands
in prayer. So here are Jewish men
lifting up their hands in prayer, but they seem to be angry and they seem to be
arguing about something and there is anger in their hearts and there’s
disputing going on within the Church, and Paul wants to put an end to these
disputes and he wants these men to pray with holiness of heart and of life and
without anger and without argument.
What are they angry about? And what are they arguing about?
I would suggest in the context of this passage – women, women in the Church.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ has created a very interesting
situation, a rather radical situation, in Ephesus, because the Gospel is given
to everyone. Paul says
earlier on that he wants all men, all people to be saved and come to the
knowledge of the Truth. Paul
preached to the Jews and Paul preached to the Greeks or the Gentiles, who were
predominantly pagan and under the influence of Artemis the Goddess of love. He had seen the Church grow from out of the Jewish
synagogue and from out of paganism. From
Judaism and from paganism come these new converts into the Christian church and
they include women. Women
liberated from Jewish oppression because, to be honest about it, the Jews did
not look very favourably, or at least the Pharisees and the Jewish teachers of
that day, did not look very favourably upon women.
But the gospel of Jesus Christ comes and they are in many ways liberated
and lifted up. They have been used
to taking second place or even having no place.
Then there are women converts from paganism and they are used to having a prominent place because the great temple of Artimis gave rise to what we might call, borrowing from the Di Vinci Code - the cult of the sacred feminine; where femininity was equated with deity.
And there was this glorification and deification of
femininity places such as Ephesus and Corinth. Although it wasn’t widespread across the Hellenistic
world, nevertheless it was prominent in Ephesus and prominent in Corinth.
In Corinth you had the great temple of Aphrodite and the
thousands of temple prostitutes who would come down from the temple during the
night and mix with the inhabitants and there would be a whole cult that was
based upon femininity and sexuality. In
Ephesus you had this same kind of cult activity around the temple of Artemis or
Diana.
Now there are converts from paganism and converts from Judaism, men and women together and the men are somewhat overwhelmed by the women for they are sitting alongside of them.
That would never have happened in Judaism – they are
being taught alongside of the men - that would never have happened in Judaism
– but worse, they are having to cope with converts from paganism.
The dress sense was something else, their hairstyles made anything we see
today look tame and their attitude didn’t help either.
One such woman within this culture, I believe, emerged in
the church of Thyatira not far away from Ephesus we read about it in Revelation
Chapter 2, verse 20 where the risen lord speaks about a woman he calls Jezebel,
who calls herself a prophetess. By
her teaching, women did teach, by her teaching she misleads my servants into
sexual liberality and the eating of foods sacrificed to idols.
I have given her time to repent, not from teaching but from misleading
teaching.
Paul says to the men, overwhelmed by the now new situation of women being in the church, about them being prominent in the church, he says I want you to pray and I want you to get rid of anger and get rid of arguing and disputing. Yes, yes, I know the women are there and yes, yes, I understand that, now let me address them and in verse 9 he begins to address the women, verse 9,
I also want women to dress modestly,
now lets pause at that word ‘dress’, because some of you may be familiar with the old Authorised version and the lovely phrase
`I also want women to adorn themselves modestly’
and I think that the word ‘adorn’ is closer to the original Greek, although not as familiar to us in English, is a much better translation. I also want women to adorn themselves and that word ‘adorn’ means to enhance, to enhance their beauty and within the Christian faith there is room for women, and for men also’ to enhance their beauty.
They can wear nice clothes approved by Trindy or whatever you call that woman who looks at your clothes and gives you some advice, they can wear fashionable nice clothes, they can use make up, they can wear jewellery and they can do what is required to enhance their beauty physically.
I am reminded of what W.P. Nicholson once said.
W.P. Nicolson was a preacher in Northern Ireland and preachers in
Northern Ireland could be a wee bit rough and ready from time to time.
He preached in Belfast in the 1920’s and 1930‘s and was once asked on
the matter of women wearing make-up - it was a very puritanical situation that
he was preaching in and people sort of looked down upon folk who went to the
theatre and wore make-up and so on, and W.P. Nicolson was asked on this subject
and I never forgot what he said and I quote ‘I have yet to see a barn door
that wasn’t the better for a lick of paint’.
Profound! And should I
say thank you to Andy McKean and Gordon McLeod for enhancing the beauty of the
front door with a wee lick of paint over the last few days, but women Paul says
are to dress responsibly and appropriately for the culture, dress modestly, not
like the temple priestesses who had their hair in big towers like the Scott
Monument that would have given Robbie Burns plenty material to work on for
months. And they have their
hair filled with all sorts of jewels, but dress responsibly and sensitively to
the people around you.
I remember Jane Grayshon mentioning the
following humorous story. I
think it was in her book ‘Confessions of a Vicar’s Wife’.
Jane is married to a vicar in the Church of England, an evangelical vicar
and remembers an occasion when she unwittingly offended some of her
parishioners. How? Well, she hung
her small black nightie on the washing line not realising that it would attract
the attention of some of the older, more easily shocked members of the Parish
who couldn’t quite cope with the images of their vicar’s wife in such a
nightie. When she heard that
this gossip was going around the parish she was absolutely overwhelmed and went
straight down to Laura Ashley’s and she bought a neck-to-toe nightgown and
every time she did the washing on a Monday she hung out this ‘neck-to-toe’
nightgown and dried her wee nightie inside.
She thought it better not to be offend.
– enough
about dress.
Paul also mentions expense and maybe that’s an issue for
us in our world today - expense, not perhaps on one item of clothing but the
expenditure on lots of items of clothing.
Some years ago we went to the United States and we were having a summer house swap with a family and we went with three suitcases – one for me, one for Minnie and one for little Rebecca – it was kind of Daddy bear, Mummy bear and little baby bear – and we met our counterparts at the airport in Glasgow. - our travelling times allowed us to meet in. The family of four coming from the States appeared three trolleys carrying ten suitcases of luggage…. I nearly died because I had no idea how all these suitcases were going to get into the car that I had provided for the family. When we got to Pittsburgh where we were going we thought there would be plenty of space in the house for our luggage because ten suitcase loads had been taken away, but when we opened the wardrobes they were full of clothes!
and you know I have to look at my own wardrobe ….. its
getting fuller by the day, the expenditure on clothes………
Moving on, because there’s really some more verses here aren’t there, of course Paul says, “There is another form of beauty, verse 10, good deeds. You know if nature has not been kind to us, if we aren’t physically beautiful, nevertheless grace will give us an inner beauty, an inner beauty that is deeper than the physical, goodness carries a beauty that shines brighter than what we wear or how we do our hair…..
But on to verse
11, a woman should learn in quietness, and full submission.
“I do
not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, she must be
silent.”
Now let me explain that word ‘authority’, it’s only
used one place in the New Testament and it’s here in 1 Timothy Chapter 2, its
‘authentein’ in the Greek. Everywhere else where the word authority is used
it is ‘exousia’. For
example Jesus says all authority, all ‘exousia’ is given unto me in heaven
and in earth, go and make disciples of all nations. There it is ‘exousia’,
but this word ’authentein’ has to do with dominating and taking over or
usurping the authority that has been given to others.
When Paul says I do not permit a woman to teach or to have
authority over a man, he is saying I do not want women to dominate a man or to
bully a man or to usurp authority that has legitimately been given to a man.
I think Paul would also say it the other way round.
I don’t want men to dominate or bully or usurp the authority of women
either.
We go on to silence here.
Silence. Is this
silencing of the women linked to creation or to something else? Because if its linked to creation, then it is a creation
principle, and if it is a creation principle then it does not change with
culture. Marriage is a
creation principle ‘therefore a man will leave his father and mother and will
cleave to his wife and the two shall become as one flesh’.
Marriage is a Christian principle that is consistent through all the
changes in culture.
Is this silencing of women linked to creation? – you get the feeling that it is. Look at verse 13, where it says “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 why should the fact that Adam was created first be
grounds for silencing women. My
sister was born first in our home but that didn’t silence me.
Why should the fact that Adam was created first be a reason for women
being silenced. Well one
person has suggested that as Adam was created first he was around longer and he
knew more and he was better placed to teach.
There is some merit in that but what about the succeeding generations
where you would have many women around longer than many a man!
The answer is this. I
don’t believe that the silencing of women is linked to creation, It’s linked
rather to the message they were preaching. A message described earlier as being a departure
from the Gospel of grace into myths and fables.
Scholars Richard and Catherine Kroeger have done a lot of work on the
cult at Ephesus and according their findings one of the chief heresies promoted
by these dominant women in Ephesus was the priority of Eve.
They were teaching that Eve was created first and it was Adam who was
deceived. If
this is the context, and I suggest it is, then Paul is simply correcting the
heretical teaching.
Paul is simply saying, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority, she must be silent because she doesn’t know at this point what she is talking about, for Adam, yes Adam was formed first and then Eve, ( not Eve and then Adam ) and Adam was not the one deceived, ( as the false teachers suggested ) it was the woman according to the story in Genesis. I do not think we can take out of this passage the belief that women are more easily deceived than men.
If we look at the majority of cults that have arisen in recent years, practically all of them were founded by men. Paul is simply correcting a heresy, a non-truth, that was being taught in Ephesus by dominant women converted from under the cult of Artemis that deified the feminine leading to an inflated understanding of their own gender teaching that Eve was first and not Adam. And Paul everywhere seeks to silence heresy.
Earlier on we read of Alexander and Hymenaeus (Chapter 1 verse 20) being put out of the church because they had shipwrecked their faith and weren’t teaching the Gospel of grace and then, later on, in Titus, we read again in Titus Chapter 1, in verses 10 and 11, we read of Paul silencing teachers who were leading people astray:-
10.
For there are many rebellious people mere talkers and deceivers
especially of the circumcision group.
11. They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they aught not to teach and that for the sake of dishonest gain
so a form of discipline within the church was the act of “silencing”..
And it’s coupled with Grace. Let the women learn!
You see the women were behind in Christian education, the
women in that culture where the Church is beginning to thrive and become
prominent were uneducated, and Paul says a woman should learn, or let a woman
learn, let her learn, let her learn in quietness because how can you learn
if you’re always jumping up, contradicting the teacher, as the prominent women
in Ephesus were doing. You
will see also in 1 Corinthians Chapter 14 where silencing is also commanded,
that it is also linked to the need for women to learn.
2000 years have passed, and education of women has been
served greatly by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
They have been deeply educated in the things of God and in the things of
life. Women follow
Jesus. They sit at his feet
and they listen to his teaching and I see no reason why having grasped the
Gospel of Grace, they should not go on to proclaim it in the fullness of the
Spirit.
Henrietta Mears, was author of the classic book “What the
Bible is all about” and a former minister, in Hollywood Presbyterian Church in
Los Angeles. She was one of
those pioneering women ministers in America, who brought many to faith through
her faithful preaching. Among
them a young man called Bill Bright who went on to establish Campus Crusade for
Christ and many thousand of young students on campuses all over America and the
world have come to know Jesus through the impact of Campus Crusade for Christ.
What about Ann Graham Lotz the daughter of Billy Graham?
“Just give me Jesus” is a book of sermons she has preached on
John’s Gospel. The sermons
are marvellous. Her famous father
once claimed that she is the best preacher in the family.
Who will say that these women and others who faithfully
preach Christ should not do so on account of their gender?
Just one very quick closing comment because I know you’ll be looking at verse 15, where it says,
“But women will be saved through childbearing”.
But what happens if you don’t have a child? Strange little verse that. It doesn’t mean that women will be saved through childbearing. It can’t mean that because Paul earlier says “God desires all men everywhere should come to a knowledge of the Truth”, and be saved. There is only one way to be saved and that is to come to a knowledge of the truth.
The Truth in whom? In Jesus Christ – there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. How did this Jesus come into the world? As a child. Allow me to interpret this in the Greek…..as closely to the Greek as I can, Women will be saved through THE child bearing. There is a definite article, through THE childbearing or bearing the CHILD. The child I believe is Jesus Christ and women have played a fantastic role in bearing the Saviour of the World into the midst of the World. Genesis Chapter three speaks about the seed of the woman and that is really what Paul has in mind here, the seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, born to be our Saviour.
We Pray
Father in Heaven,
We recognise that these verses of scripture as so
complex,
Lord where there is not clarity give opportunity for
questions and further study,
In Jesus name.
Amen
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