One In Jesus

Women or wives?

An alternative translation of 1 Timothy 2:11-15 is to take gune to mean wife and aner to mean husband. As discussed earlier, the words are completely ambiguous in the Greek, and the distinction can only be found from the context.

Because the Greek language uses the same word for woman and wife, Paul sometimes uses the word in both senses in the same context, assuming for rhetorical purposes, as the language assumes, that adult women are married. This leaves the translation of gune in many contexts very difficult, since in our culture such an assumption is not permitted.

Let’s see if we get a better result by translating gune as wife and aner as husband: Continue reading →

The traditional interpretation of this passage is that women may not teach in public but may teach in private. Of course, nothing in the passage mentions teaching in public — rather it appears that all teaching by women is prohibited. But such an interpretation is contradicted by Priscilla’s teaching of Apollos (Acts 18:26). It is often argued that 1 Tim 2 is all about the public worship. However, this would mean that Paul was only concerned that women dress modestly at church or that women may exercise authority over men outside the public worship.

Thus, there are several difficulties with this interpretation. First, we don’t allow women to teach men in Sunday School, even though when we consider 1 Corinthians 14:33-35, we declare that women can ask questions in Sunday School, since it is a “private” setting. How it can be that Sunday School is public in the context of 1 Timothy 2:11-15 and private in the context of 1 Corinthians 14:33-35 is beyond me! Continue reading →

Now we get to the most challenging of the passages. We have shown that the interpretation of Genesis 3 as a curse, and not as a command, results in a sensible, consistent interpretation of many other verses. It all fits together as a logical, unitary whole. Our understanding of even familiar passages is deepened as we see how our marriages fit into God eternal plan for mankind.

But 1 Timothy 2 seems to run contrary to this pattern. Or have we missed the point entirely?

The immediate context.

Before embarking on the study of 2:11-15, let’s first observe something of the first three paragraphs of the chapter. Continue reading →

In the last post, we focused on the meaning of 11:3, dealing with the meaning of “head.” In this post, we consider the rest of the passage.

Man or husband? Woman or wife?

The words translated “man” and “woman” are aner and gune, both of which are perfectly ambiguous as to whether men and women or husbands and wives are under consideration. However, I believe Paul is generally referring to husbands and wives only. Here’s why —

* As discussed in the last post, 11:3 refers to the creation of Adam and Eve. Continue reading →

The first part of 1 Corinthians 11, dealing with veils, hair length, and such, is a puzzlement. No, “puzzlement” is not strong enough. This chapter is a consternation. Commentator after commentator throws up his hands in frustration at trying to reach a clear sense of Paul’s meaning. Our respect for inspiration and the brilliant Paul is too great to even imagine that Paul was unclear to his readers in Corinth, but today the chapter is indeed very challenging-and it is challenging to those who take any position on the women’s issues. It is not made hard by my view of things. It is just hard.

(1 Cor. 11:2-16) I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the teachings, just as I passed them on to you.

Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Continue reading →

We cannot untangle the role of women in the church without also delving into the relationship of husbands and wives. After all, the Genesis accounts that we’ve already studied deal foremost with marriage, not church governance.

Paul’s most thorough discussion of the relationship of husbands and wives is found in Ephesians 5:21-6:9. Because Paul deals very particularly with the subject, we must begin our New Testament study here. Continue reading →