Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.

What is this passage of scripture saying? We must remember that it is just as sinful to bind more than what God has revealed in the inspired word, as it is to tolerate less than what is commanded.

1. Does this statement forbid a woman from all teaching?
2. Does this context forbid women to ask or answer questions in a public adult Bible class?

We must be careful to not be more lenient that God intended nor should we be too strict.
One error is as wrong as the other. Some have taken extreme positions concerning this verse, which do not harmonize with other verses in the New Testament.

What is meant by: "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection"?

This reveals a difference in roles of men and women.
There is an equality in the inheritance of men and women but we do not have the same role.

Even the men in the church do not have equal roles.
All are commanded to submit to the rule of the elders, if the local church has them.

KJV: "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection."

NASV: "Let a woman quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness."

Hesuchia is also used in 2 Thess. 3:12

Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.

Paul says while you're at work, you remember that you're not the boss, you are the employee. That puts you in a submissive role. You may be a equal human being with equal rights, but at work, you don't possess an equal role along with the boss.

Does that mean that while at work you cannot say anything? That you can't make a sound?
No one teaches this! It just means that we are to remember that we are to work "with quietness". We aren't to act as one in authority when we are not!

Women must accept their role in the body of Christ as those who learn "in silence (quietness) with all subjection."

But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

Just as God the Father is the head of Christ in the scheme of redemption, man is the head of women. Even though Christ is equal to the Father and possesses the fullness of the Godhead, (not some kind of lesser god) He still humbled himself under the authority of the Father, and is not cheated or less holy for doing so!

Likewise the women, though they are equal members and joint heirs of the blessings in Christ, are instructed to humble themselves according to God's will under the authority of the men.

Let a woman learn in silence [hesuchia].with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence [hesuchia].

Does this passage forbid all teaching? NO! The emphasis is: "over the man"

The woman's authority to teach has only one exclusion: they are forbidden to teach "over the man", but they are still are to teach!

The Bible doesn't reveal that to us, but at age 12, Jesus is called a "child" by the Holy Spirit.

And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy [child- KJV] Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and His mother did not know it.

Just because one is baptized does not make one a man or woman.
To say that a woman cannot teach a boy is to bind where God has not bound.

"Teach" is from "Didasko"

Jesus had didactic discourses with them in order to instruct them.

1 Tim. 2:11-12 does not forbid a woman from asking or answering a question in a public adult Bible study. Some teach that this verse prohibits a woman from doing either, because in doing so, they might actually teach a man something pertaining to the will of God. It is important that we harmonize this verse with all the other verses of the N.T., and that we also understand the definition of "teach."

There is a difference in what is told to men and women.

Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.

Titus could publicly speak, exhort, and rebuke both men and women with "all authority," but a woman is not authorized to do so "over a man", because Paul said that she was not "to exercise this authority over the man."

However, asking and answering questions, as well as making comments in a public adult Bible study where men are present, does not violate this passage of scripture. While participating in these activities, she is not taking the leading role over the men as the instructor, the teacher, or the one who is exercising authority over the men, but she is remaining in her submissive role under the men. The argument that she may not teach anything in any way (i.e. read scripture, ask or answer a question in a Bible class) in the presence of a man because she would be doing some teaching, is not consistent with the teaching and admonishing (Col. 3:16) which she does in songs and hymns and spiritual songs in the public church assembly.

When a woman submissively asks or answers questions, or makes comments in a Bible study (where men are present) she is not dominating or taking over the class, but is simply a participant in the class that is being led by a teacher.

This is why a woman can "teach and admonish" men in her singing. When doing this she is not leading or domineering over men, although she is participating in the teaching process.

If and when she attempts to take over or to lead the class, and becomes domineering in any of our worship activities, then we would have a problem!

This is what the women in Corinth appear to have begun to do in the assembly in 1 Cor. 14:34-35; some became a domineering factor in the church. But the women weren't the only ones out of order; several of the men were guilty of disorderliness as well.

If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent.

But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God.

These instructions were given to accomplish the goal given in verse 33 and 34

For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

The context indicates that both men and women were out of order in the church.

Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.

1. If a woman is literally forbidden to speak at all, how can she sing?

2. How could she confess Christ before the assembly prior to her baptism?

3. How could a woman confess her public sins?

4. How could a woman tell her children to be quiet?

5. How could she say "amen" at the close of a prayer?

Paul is referring to a problem in Corinth. He is not speaking to all women in 1 Cor. 14:35.

And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.

1. Not all of the Corinthian women had husbands (1 Cor. 7).
2. Some of the women who had husbands weren't married to Christians (1 Cor. 7).
3. The questions of even those women who were married to Christians probably couldn't have been answered by some of their husbands, since many were still carnal (I Cor. chapters 1 & 3).
4. We know that even knowledgeable husbands don't know the answers to a lot of things.
5. Logically, the only individuals who would be able to answer all questions about what had been said would be those who had spoken.

For these reasons, we can rationally conclude that in this passage of scripture, Paul was telling the wives of the public speakers to wait and ask their husbands their questions at home.
They were to learn in an orderly fashion by waiting to ask their husbands at home.

May a woman then, play a part in the activities of the church? Absolutely! If she is a faithful Christian, she is as much as a part of the church as the men are. The exception to that rule is that she is not to play a leading, domineering role men are authorized to perform.

Again, to bind more than that is to miss the mark, and to allow or tolerate less than that is to sin as well!

Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.

There is a difference in roles of men and women. Always has been and always will be.

There is an equality in our relationship to God.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Yet there is a difference in roles God ordained for men and women.

1. Both male and female are made in the image of God.
2. Both male and female have dominion over the earth

1. The male is the first to be created (2:7). (firstborn)
2. The garden is prepared for him, and he is placed within it (2:8).
3. The male, not the female, is given the name borne by the human race as a whole: "Man" (1:26-27, 5:2).
4. God speaks to the male (2:16); he is the first to receive divine revelation and instruction. (Just as a CEO or General uses a "chain of command")
5. The animals are brought for naming to the male, not the female (2:19-20).
6. The woman is made from the man, not the man from the woman (2:22).
7. The woman is also made for the man and brought to him. the man was not made for the woman (2:18, 22).
8. It is the man who speaks and makes a theological comment upon the woman's creation, not vice versa (2:23).
9. It is the male who names the female, not the woman naming the man (2:23).

Does the fact that Satan chose Eve for this first temptation imply that women as such are spiritually weaker than men? Do they have some kind of inherent weakness that makes them more vulnerable to temptation and sin, as some think 1 Peter 3:7 is suggesting? (being the weaker vessel)

The question of why Satan chose Eve as the object of his temptation is made all the more relevant by Paul's remark that "it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression" (1 Tim. 2:14) This text does mean something.

Does it mean that Eve was chosen because Satan considered her more deceivable, more vulnerable than Adam? Was Eve the "weaker vessel" - emotionally or intellectually?

The Bible does not reveal Satan's motive for beginning with Eve. It just records the fact that Eve was the first to be tempted and deceived, and the first to sin. We are not told whether it was part of a deliberate strategy of Satan, or if his choice was just random. But the fact that we do not know for sure why Satan chose Eve does not negate the force of 1 Timothy 2:14, which says that Eve's being the one who was deceived does have something to do with women's being prohibited from teaching men and having authority over men in the New Testament church.

The really significant point is that (according to 1 Timothy 2:14) it is not the transgression itself but the deception that is being held against Eve. The fact that Eve was deceived by the Devil is in some way related to the fact that women are not permitted to teach men and have authority over men in the church. We simply cannot deny this connection. The problem, though, is to explain it. Exactly what is the connection?

It is possible that there is something inherent in women's nature that somehow makes them more vulnerable to deception concerning spiritual matters and therefore less qualified to teach men and have authority over men in the context of the church. This would be consistent with Peter's description of woman as the "weaker vessel" (1 Peter 3:7). Peter does not explain the nature of this "weakness," nor does he suggest that it constitutes some kind of flaw or fault in women. Whatever it is, it would be consistent with the role for which God created woman in the first place. That is to say, the characteristics that make a woman more strongly suited for her intended role in the family and church make her weaker with reference to what is required for duties of headship and leadership. Such characteristics probably have to do more with her emotional rather than her intellectual nature.

Whatever this "weaker" nature may be, it is possible, if not likely, that this is what Paul has in mind as underlying the fact that Eve was deceived by Satan whereas Adam was not, and that this is the very same thing that disqualifies women from teaching men and having authority over men. If this is so, then the reason for this disqualification is not Eve's sin at all. Neither is the disqualification some kind of penalty, either for her sin or for allowing herself to be deceived.

It is simply some inherent, created female characteristic that manifests itself in susceptibility to this kind of deception.

1 Tim. 2:13 gives as the primary reason for the prohibition the fact that Adam was first created, then Eve. In other words, the prohibition is grounded in creation, not in some aspect of the Fall. To say that what is true because of creation is also a part of the penalty for the Fall seems inconsistent. But if the prohibition is related to some inherent female characteristic which itself is related to vulnerability to deception, as the first explanation suggests, then 2:14 is also basing the prohibition on human nature as created, and not on the Fall as such.

One other point must be noted concerning the sin itself, namely, the connection between Adam's responsibility for that sin and the fact of the male headship that was already established in Genesis 2. Both the Genesis context and Biblical teaching as a whole seem to point to the fact that Adam, the male, bears a greater responsibility for the first sin than Eve. This is exactly what we would expect if Adam was already the appointed head of that two-member family.

Following the sin, when God came to confront his human creatures in their guilt, he specifically addressed the male:

Why does God first of all specifically call Adam into account for the sin? Because he is the appointed head. As the head of the human family he had the greater initial responsibility for righteousness and thus received the greater blame for the sin.

God didn't call both of them together, but he called the head. As the God-appointed head, Adam bore the primary responsibility for their actions. Adam held the position of being responsible for sin entering the human race even though Eve sinned first.

The New Testament confirms this understanding. It reveals that Adam is the one who is singled out and held responsible for the consequences of the Fall for the human race.

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.

Why is such responsibility laid on Adam? The only thing that can explain the clear teaching concerning Adam's greater responsibility is his immediate headship over Eve and his ultimate and representative headship over the entire human race.

She sinned first, but Adam was held accountable because he was the one ordained by God to be the head. The relationship of men and women are not just for marriage. There is a special relationship within marriage, but the difference in roles are for all men and for all women.

Verse 15 She shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.

She is not to seek the role of the male, but role for which God created her.

The N.T. teaches a difference in the roles of men and women. The differences of roles are based on God's choice of creation. God chose to make men and women different and they have different responsibilities as they work together to serve God.

But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man... For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man.

Feminism has been one of the most successful social movements in our nation.
Although there have been some legitimate goals, one of the results of this movement is to influence our culture to ignore the fact that there is a difference in the roles of men and women.

The Bible teaches an equality of men and women. Both men and women:

1. Are made in the image of God
2. Have dominion over the earth
3. Are joint heirs in Christ.

The early leaders in the feminist movement recognized this.

After their views became more accepted, others have tried to interpret the Bible to fit their views.

This is similar to what happened with the issue of evolution. Before Charles Darwin and Charles Lyell, no one ever thought that the Bible taught any evolutionary origins of life. After Evolution became accepted by many in society, religious people tried to bend and twist the Bible to fit evolution rather than allow the Bible to mean what it says. Result - the acceptance of the day-age theory and the gap theory. Neither of these ideas come from a careful reading of Genesis, but they are an effort to force Genesis to match the beliefs of the world.

The same has happened with the roles of men and women. Much of what is being promoted today does not come from a careful reading of the Bible, but is an effort to make the Bible to fit the views of the culture in which we live.

The feminist movement of the nineteenth century effectively began July 19-20,1848, at a women's convention that was held in the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York. About 300 attended.

Elizabeth Stanton wrote the "Declaration on Women's Rights," and it was signed by 68 women and 32 men. The Declaration began as a parody of the Declaration of Independence and said,

Much of the "Declaration" was a listing of the different ways the current laws were different for men and women.

The early feminists viewed the Bible to be degrading to women because of what it teaches concerning the sin of Eve and the role assigned to women in both the Old and New Testaments. In their response to the Bible, three different views developed.

In order to neutralize the influence of the Bible, Elizabeth Stanton and other women wrote "The Woman's Bible" to show the world what the Bible is really like.

While Stanton allowed the moderate members of the project to express their ideas and to present the "correct" interpretations of various Bible passages as they saw them, she repudiated the moderate approach. She wrote,

The Woman 's Bible is actually a commentary rather than a translation. It is not a commentary on the whole Bible, but only on texts referring to women

Writing about the account of the widow's mite in Mark 12:41-44, Stanton criticizes the church for promoting self-sacrifice instead of self-development on the part of women.

The final statement in the Woman's Bible:

(The Bible does not hold Eve responsible . In Adam all die 1Cor. 15:22.
As the head, the man is held responsible)

Not all of the early feminists accepted the views taught in the Woman's Bible. There was open debate over it at the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in of 1896. During this debate, Susan B. Anthony was one of Stanton's strongest supporters.

The first wave of feminism ended in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which recognized the right of women to vote. This right had already been won on the state level in nearly 20 states, beginning with Wyoming in 1890. An amendment on the federal level, called the "Anthony Amendment," had been submitted since 1878 but was defeated by both the House and the Senate up through World War I. The active role of women in the war effort turned the tide in their favor, and the renewed influence of the National American Woman Suffrage Alliance (with over two million members in 1917) made a difference.

The amendment was passed by the House in January 1918 and by the Senate in June 1919.

In August 1920 Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify it, making it a part of the Constitution.

Once the vote was won, the original feminist movement fragmented and lost momentum.

The next push for feminism began in 1960's and continues strong into the 1990's

Two of the most influential leaders of this new movement are Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem.

Betty Friedan has been called the "Mother Superior to Women's Lib."

Gloria Steinem, in Saturday Review of Education, cited in the pamphlet, "Do These Women Speak For You?"

The women's liberation movement, is almost altogether the product of women who reject the divine origin and absolute authority of the Bible, and usually the very existence of the God who

reveals Himself in the Bible.

Not all feminists follow the extreme ideas as many of the leaders. Some have tried to blend the goals of feminism (elimination of the roles of the sexes) with the Bible. This will not work.

Just as the general theory of evolution and the Bible cannot be blended together.

It is true that there is special evolution, that is, there is change within kinds. The Bible even gives example of this type of evolution taking place. But the general theory of evolution, that is, the gradual development of all life form rising out of simple organisms completely contradicts what Genesis teaches and these two views cannot be harmonized.

In the same way, there is some truth recognized by feminists. The Bible teaches that God made men and women equal. As long as we recognize that both are in the image of God, both have dominion over the earth, and both share in the inheritance in Christ, there is no conflict.

But, when feminists want to eliminate all roles the Bible give for men and women, there can be no harmonizing of feminism and the Bible.

Many who claim to believe in the Bible have tried to make the Bible fit the teachings of the feminists. Women preachers are becoming more common. Women are taking leadership positions more than ever. This cannot be harmonized with the teaching of the Bible, just as the general theory of evolution cannot be harmonized with the Bible.

Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.

"We the women of Cross City Church of Christ..."

"That is Judy's church"

"She-elders"

Julian Snell's experience

Paul is not teaching the elimination of roles of men and women in the context.

He is teaching that both receive the inheritance in Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

The point of Galatians 3:28 is that all now receive the inheritance if they are in Christ.
A slave was still a slave after conversion and a free man was still a free man after conversion.
In the same way, a man is still a man and a woman is still a woman. That cannot change.

In 1 Peter 3, Peter teaches a difference in the roles of men and women,
but in the context teaches the same thing as Paul.

Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands... as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror. Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree").

They argue that Christ redeemed us from the curse, and since woman was cursed with subjection in Genesis 3:16, she is no longer under subjection since she has been redeemed from the curse.

The curse we have been redeemed from is in Galatians 3:10.

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them."

The curse of the Law is that if you do not obey it completely, there is condemnation.

Salvation but the Law requires perfection, and since none are perfect, all are cursed by the Law. This is what Christ redeemed us from, not from the consequences of sin given in Genesis 3.

To the woman He said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."

Feminists claim that Ephesians 5:21 teaches a mutual submitting of the husband and wife to each other, and that they are to submit equally to each other in the same way.

submitting to one another in the fear of God.

There are six passages in the N.T. that teaches either wives are to submit to their husbands, or that there is a general submission of women to men.

Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says.

The husband is never told to submit to his wife, nor is there any passage that indicates that this is the relationship of men to women in general.

When Ephesians 5:21 says "submitting to one another in the fear of God", feminists assume that this teaching is an absolute equality of submission to one another for everyone.

So, when Ephesians 5:22 says, "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord", they assume that it also means that husbands are to submit themselves in the same way to their wives.

Paul mentions three other pairs in the same context. To be consistent, this idea of mutual submission must be applied to all pairs if it is to be applied to one pair.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother," which is the first commandment with promise: "that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth." And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

Who can believe that the Bible teaches that fathers are to submit to their children in the same way that their children submit to them?

Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.

Are masters to submit to their slaves in the same way their slaves are to submit to them?

This one is the most important because it is the model for the relationship between the husband and wife. The wife is told to submit to her husband "as the church is subject to Christ". (5:24). For the feminists theory of mutual submission to be true, then Jesus must be in submission to the church.

Ephesians 5:21 is not teaching a mutual submission in which both parties submit to one another in the same way as the feminists claim, but it does teaches that we are to submit ourselves to one another where our circumstances call for it. We are to submit to one another whenever our position in life requires such submission, as it does for wives, children, and slaves.

1. If you are a wife, submit to your husband.
2. If you are a child, submit to your parents.
2. If you are a slave, submit to your master.
3. A wife may submit to her husband, but he is to submit to the elders of the church (Heb. 13:17).
4. It would be possible for a slave in the home to be an elder in the church in which the master is a member, with both yielding and receiving submission to each other.
5. Elders, husbands, wives, masters, and slaves are all to submit to the government (Rom. 13:1).
6. No matter what our position is in this life, all must submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He makes the rules, and we must come to Him on His terms.

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