A Woman's Place in Church?

A friend of mine recently read an article about women in ministry in the church. She felt it was so bad it "seriously made me want to hurl something at the computer". (Which would be a pretty amusing sight!) I went and had a look at it, and it was an interesting read to say the least.

I think there are several misunderstandings people have about the "women in ministry" debate. Those who support the idea of women in ministry often misrepresent the views of those who oppose it. Those who "oppose" women in ministry do not object to the idea of women taking part in a ministry. What they oppose is women teaching the bible to men. I've never met someone who was opposed to women teaching the bible to children or other women, or who was opposed to women holding roles in many other ministries or other roles within a church service. Just an example of such roles could include leading prayer or worship or doing the bible reading. (Only once have I met somebody who objected to women helping lead a church service in any capacity, and they were visitors to a church that I was visiting, so I'd never met them before and probably never will ever again. They stood up in the middle of the service and condemned everyone there for allowing a woman to read the bible from the front of the church and condemned her for having a short hair cut. They were nutters.)

I'm also often amazed at how readily people will make up excuses for otherwise clearly understandable bible passages. Passages such as 1 Timothy 2:12 ("I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent*") are met with objections such as "oh, that was just the cultural norm of the day" or "oh, that might have just been about women who were preaching heresies". (All English translations of the bible translate this verse almost exactly the same way. If there was potential for slightly different understandings of the original Greek words, our different English translations would reflect these differences, as they do in other parts of the bible. But all our translations agree on the meaning of this particular passage. If you are interested in the Greek words and their definitions, a great online resource is The Online Greek Bible. It has the greek text and each individual word is a link to its definition.)

There is nothing in the passage to suggest it applied only to women who were teaching heresies. In fact, Paul goes on to give a reason why women should not be teaching the bible to men; "For Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became the transgressor". Not "because they are preaching heresies"; not "for they are causing too much noise in the church" (as is another common excuse) - but because Adam was formed first and was not the deceived one, whereas Eve was created after Adam and she was the one who was originally deceived by Satan. (If it was merely a matter of women causing too much noise when they spoke up in church, surely men speaking up would cause just as much disruption and both genders would be told to keep quiet during church?)

(It's also important to note here that Paul is not saying men are more important than women - just that they have different roles in the church.)

1 Timothy 2 also mentions the importance of women learning in church "in full submission", as does 1 Corinthians 14. A woman can't be learning the bible in submission when she's the one teaching it. The Greek terms in 1 Timothy refer to women in a learning capacity, hence the submission thing. In fact, the New Testament often emphasises the importance of women being submissive in many areas of life, not just in church. The idea that women should be submissive to men's teaching in the church is not such a foreign one when you put it beside other instructions for women to be submissive, such as the direction to be submissive to their husbands in Ephesians 5. It comes back to Paul's reason - man was created first, then woman; man was not the original sinner.

(Note that the New Testament authors are not saying women should go along with everything their husbands say, or that husbands are allowed to treat their wives however they like. The bible makes it clear that husbands are priority #2 beside God, and if a husband's instructions are in contravention to his, a wife has every right to disobey her husband. Also, husbands are often admonished in the New Testament to love their wives as Jesus loves the church and to treat her as well as he would treat himself.)

Some people think that Priscilla (Acts 18) is evidence that women were allowed to teach matters of the bible to men. I think there are two parts to this argument that are important to consider. One, I think there is a difference between women having a church-ordained position of biblical authority, and women having a friendly, informal discussion of biblical matters with male friends. I don't think there's anything in the bible to oppose the latter scenario. Two, Acts 18 doesn't actually specify that it was Priscilla who taught their male visitor, Apollos. It simply tells us "When Priscilla and Aquila heard him (Apollos), they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately". Not only does this sound to me more like my "friendly, informal discussion of biblical matters" (nowhere does it suggest Priscilla was in some formal, ordained position of biblical authority over men), but it doesn't actually specify that it was Priscilla who did most of the talking. For all we know, it might have been her husband Aquila and she might have just pitched in from time to time. There's nowhere near enough information in that single sentence to know how that conversation played out.

There are lots of other examples in the bible of women holding significant roles within the church. This is evidence that God values women as much as men and that we are equally as important. There were several important female judges in the Old Testament ("judges" in that context were basically rulers of the people - but not biblical teachers). The New Testament mentions many female prophets and in his letters, Paul often sends greetings to particular women who he identifies as key characters within the church. But he never identifies them as teachers of the bible, much less over men.

I realise the whole concept of women not being allowed to do something men can do is an unpopular one in our culture, especially to people who aren't Christians. But this is not for non-Christians. It's not for culture outside the church. It's for the church, and it's only for a specific role within the church. The important role of women is affirmed in many places in the bible - topics I can cover later if need be.

*An important thing to keep in mind here is that the whole passage is giving instructions on worship, so such directions don't necessarily apply to politics or society outside the church.