“I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae, so that you may welcome her in the Lord as is fitting for the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself as well.”
Romans 16:1-2 NRSV
Last post we talked about the different views on women in leadership. We covered some common misunderstandings on this topic and the excesses of both views. We covered how men and women are called into a mutual submission and are considered equal according to scripture.
Today let’s get into that often quoted 2 Timothy passage, one of only a couple of passages in the scriptures which taken out of scriptural and cultural context seem to limit women’s influence in Church.
As always we need context and as I mentioned in my part one article on biblical inerrancy we need to read the Bible through a holistic approach without chapters and verses… as an interconnected book that repeats and cross references itself on morality and philosophy.
Who is Paul speaking to?
1 Timothy 1:3 says Timothy was serving as a church leader in the city of Ephesus.
What were the issues Timothy had to deal with in the Ephesus church?
Timothy faced many issues in the city of Ephesus and within the Church under his leadership.
False teachers as evidenced in chapters 1:7-11 and 4:1-5
The city was heavily influenced by the temple worship of the goddess Artemis. Before Artemis the city worshiped the mother goddess Cybele. The Temple Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the world… so it deeply impacted the Church at Ephesus as well as we learn in Acts 19:27
The city had a sprawling library and a large teaching hospital, as such it was very well educated.
Here’s how NT Wright describes Ephesus and the Temple of Artemis in the book “Acts for Everyone”. The excerpt below is referencing Acts 19:
“Artemis was indeed great. She (Artemis is her Greek name; her Roman name is Diana) was the most powerful divinity in the place, and had been for a long time. In the distant past a meteorite had smashed into the surface of the earth somewhere near Ephesus, and the local people had regarded it as a gift from heaven, a statue (though presumably not very life-like) of the goddess herself. That’s what the town clerk is referring to in verse 35. The temple of Artemis was massive, and her cult — run entirely by female officials — was the religious centre of the whole area. Images of Artemis, large and small, dominated the city. Archaeologists have found dozens of them, with the distinctive mother-goddess feature of multiple breasts. What was once manufactured as an object of religious devotion is still today manufactured for sale in the area, only as a tourist souvenir.”
With this understanding we are just beginning to comprehend the words of Paul here… and why he appears inconsistent with his support elsewhere (see Romans 16 and Acts 2 & 19) of women in ministry roles… we can clearly see how Paul is instructing young leader Timothy in regard to navigating the Ephesus Church in a manner that separates itself from its surrounding culture. We are not done yet though!
Here is more from Brittanica on Artemis:
“Artemis, in Greek religion, the goddess of wild animals, the hunt, and vegetation and of chastity and childbirth; she was identified by the Romans with Diana. Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Letoand the twin sister of Apollo. Among the rural populace, Artemis was the favourite goddess. Her character and function varied greatly from place to place, but, apparently, behind all forms lay the goddess of wild nature, who danced, usually accompanied by nymphs, in mountains, forests, and marshes. Artemis embodied the sportsman’s ideal, so besides killing game she also protected it, especially the young; this was the Homeric significance of the title Mistress of Animals.”
The Temple of Artemis’s worship service was said to be highly ecstatic, erotic, dance filled, music centric services performed by their priestesses. If sexual acts were performed as part of the service they were considered sanctified (Gritz 1991: 40-41). Artemis worshipers would have been encouraged to refrain from marriage, sexual intercourse, and from having children.
Holy seasons required sexual abstinence for even husbands and wives. On the other hand, erotic sexuality was also a part of the worship of the faithful for those who worshiped Artemis. I have written previously about the influence of Gnostic beliefs in the Church and Artemis worship would have fit nicely into this belief system. Very likely Ephesus culture influenced Gnostic heresies in later years.
In this environment we can see how Paul’s advice to Timothy was needed in THIS city for THIS Church… and now we need to start reading this passage from Timothy. As we go through this passage keep in mind that the Bibles overarching message does not contradict itself as discussed in my previous post “Is the Bible inerrant?”. This means if there is a passage that disagrees with another part of scripture or at first seems at odds with Jesus actions or message… there is likely something we do not fully understand or else misinterpreted due to needed context.
When this occurs we must dig deeper!
Here is 1 Timothy 2:8:
“I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarrelling; likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.”
In light of what we have already covered we can see that these verses now have significantly improved clarity. If the local community and culture lived in the shadow of the Temple of Artemis - with its scantily clad, jewelry ordained dominant “Huntress” type priestesses (think of the movie “Wonder Woman”)… it would be understandable that Paul and his protégé Timothy would want to create a local Church culture that was set apart from the decadent Temple of Artemis.
Why?
Consider the difficulties that recent converts would have had in the Ephesus Church. Timothy had the task of teaching how godliness should impact their Christian walk. Paul addressed some housekeeping in this passage that laid out basic expectations for dress code. It was not a demand… it was stating that modesty and self control were desirable traits and that the posture of one’s heart was the most important thing. This stood in complete opposition to Artemis teachings in which the physical body was disconnected from the spiritual… a teaching that still plagues the modern church.
Reading on: 1 Timothy 2:11
“Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.”
This passage used as a means of control by far too many narcissistic leaders and husbands… men who are invested in maintaining a power dynamic. It stands nearly alone in the scriptures in terms of a woman’s position in Church. It stands in contradiction to the Christian teachers of that time - many of whom were women as I will share next post.
So what does this passage refer to?
Paul starts with housekeeping. In stark contrast to the boisterous and vocal worship service of Artemis where women overpowered men in every part of the temple worship… Paul is asking women to come into the service with meekness and respect - vastly opposite of the Artemis worship service which was loud and boisterous - women ruled over men and emasculated them according to the teaching of Artemis.
The passage here starts with the word let which is the Greek word “manthanó” which can be translated as “ascertain” or “learn to be”. The word “woman” can be translated and has been in some parts of the New Testament as “wife”, as in Ephesians 5:22 which uses the same Greek word. The word silence is the Greek word “Hésuchia” which means roughly “quietness”. Finally the word submission is “hupotagé” which can also be translated “control”.
Now… considering the context of the scripture in question. Is Paul perhaps talking to married couples here and not to specifically all women in the Church? He is asking the women to learn… to “ascertain”. Why? If women are not to speak or teach why learn? Why learn in quietness?
He goes on:
”I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.”
This is interesting, and it shows how the patriarchy of the Middle Ages affected our modern translations. What did I say earlier? When a passage appears to contradict other passages - dig deeper. Acts 2 says daughters will prophesy, Acts 19 speaks of four daughters of Phillip who prophesied, Corinthians talks of men and women prophesying, Romans 16 mentions several women in Leadership… something needs more clarification!
Here is some thoughts on this from Nijay K. Gupta’s book “Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church”
“consider this: the King James Bible (in the early seventeenth century) translated authenteō as “usurp authority over the man,” taking this verb with a negative meaning. In fact, that has been a more historical approach to the meaning of this verb until the late twentieth century. For example, Linda Belleville has traced a unified reading of this verb through the centuries:
Erasmus (1519): “usurp authority” Geneva (1560): “Usurpe authority” Webster (1833): “usurp authority” Fenton (1917): “dominate” Goodspeed (1923): “domineer” Williams (1937): “domineering” Spanish UBS (1966): dominar”
It is clear that Paul was speaking to Timothy to teach married women to learn, grow in humility and respect for the Church and their husbands… not to usurp authority-to sideline them as they worshiped in Ephesus services. He goes further to say they should remain “Cognate” This Greek word means “descriptive of the life of one who stays at home doing his own work, and does not officiously meddle with the affairs of others”
One can see, in context with the Ephesus church and its cultural challenges how this passage could have proved intensely useful in ensuring that the Christian church was not merely a mirror image of the crazy down the street.
Finally this last part:
“For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.”
Another except from the book by Nijay mentioned earlier:
“On the face of it, it might seem that Paul was saying this: Adam was made first and therefore has superior authority. Eve was deceived, Adam was not, so she shouldn’t have “taught” him. But it is difficult to connect these pieces back to the situation in Ephesus that Paul was addressing. What does Adam’s prior creation have to do with women teaching? And what does Eve’s being deceived and her sin have to do with teaching? Are we to conclude that her sinful choice completely disqualifies all women from teaching men? Paul does not connect the dots by saying women can’t be teachers because they were not created first. What is made explicit in these verses is that Eve fell prey to the serpent’s snare and passed on its lie to Adam. Eve was not immune from accepting and propagating false teaching. This is directly relevant to the situation behind 1 Timothy, where women were the targets of false teaching. Paul wasn’t offering a universal ban on women teachers because Eve was created second. He was humbling arrogant women teachers in Ephesus by reminding them that their foremother Eve was duped. There is a danger in working too hard to universalize Paul’s message about Adam and Eve. After all, Paul casts blame on Adam in other texts (Rom 5: 12-21; 1 Cor 15: 22). The point of calling out Eve’s transgression was that she passed on information without adequate education and discernment, which is what Paul was concerned with in Ephesus as well. As Klyne Snodgrass observes, the only other time Paul mentions the deception of Eve in his letters is also in the context of false teachers devastating the church (2 Cor 11: 3). 44”
Finally… let’s talk about the elephant in the room… “she shall be saved through childbearing”.
Obviously, this can’t be referring to all women of all time - as many women cannot bear children for various reasons.
This is off base from the rest of the scriptures… women were saved the same way men were… by Jesus death and resurrection.
Paul says in Galatian’s 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”.
Considering what we know now about Ephesus and Timothy’s challenges as a leader… why would Paul create this new doctrine… thus adding to the gospel?
It is more likely that Paul was asking the women at Ephesus not to participate in the Artemis influenced cultural rejection of raising families and redirecting the Church culture towards family values. The clear implication here is that there were serious challenges from false teachers specifically targeting women in this city. It makes sense because of what we read earlier (see part one) about women’s roles in the Artemis temple practices.
The scriptures do talk a great deal about submission… and many well meaning Christian leaders have used specific scriptures as clobber verses to gaslight and manipulate women to line up with their perceived authority. It is odd that so few of these patriarchal teachers see the big picture. They skip over Jesus teaching in Matthew 20 where he admonishes his disciples who were arguing who would be greatest:
“It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant”
These teachers ignore passages calling on husbands to offer themselves up in sacrificial caring and gentle love for their wives which are found in Ephesians, Colossians & 1 Peter.
Are there different in roles for men and women?
Yes… often there is… however these roles are not a salvation centric issue and it is certainly not a simple one way submission… it is evident that God is calling for men and women to be submitted to Christ and each other. Jesus words to his disciples can be heard echoing here:
“It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant”
Next post we will look at a number of women who were leaders from both the old and New Testament’s.
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