Women in Leadership Roles: Elder, Pastor, Teacher, Overseer

WORD STUDIES:

The meaning of “Head” - (Kephale)

The meaning of “Permit” (Epitrepo)

The meaning of “Authority” (Authenteo)

The meaning of “Silence/Quiet” (Hesychia)

The meaning of “Woman/Wife” (Gune)

GREY AREAS:

“One-woman man”

What about divorced? Now Single? Now Remarried?

Evangelical Commentary on the Bible A. Overseers (3:1–7)

Others think it forbids remarriage. But Scripture allows remarriage after the death of one’s spouse (

Single and never married?

Evangelical Commentary on the Bible A. Overseers (3:1–7)

Some hold that overseers had to be married, but the singleness of Paul (

Why can women not be elders, but can be deacons?

Paul references women as disqualified from the office of elder. What are the two main qualities of an elder? Authority and Teaching. Deacons are given similar qualifications (husband of one wife), however they are not in authority or given the task of teaching.

What is the reach of Paul’s authority then and now? Is he setting up the global church, or are his commands specific to the churches he is writing to at that time?

Was Paul writing with a Graeco-Roman perspective that is irrelevant to today?

The Pastoral Epistles About Women

All this teaching about women reflects first and second century CE conservative attitudes to women in the Graeco-Roman world. The Roman Empire, like other empires, was created through war and was retained through military power, diplomacy and slavery.

RESPONSE:

Seems like this is correct to the “ethos” of that time. However, I’m not sure you can argue that “because Christ came women can/should do everything that men do.” This type of argument seems to be misusing “God’s purpose for humanity.”

Women could serve in the life of churches - absolutely! Christ used Mary and Martha, Paul commended all of the women in Romans 16, and women were even used in the Old Testament (the lineage of Christ as four women included that were “unlikely candidates” to a royal bloodline (Matthew 1)

Military Ethos of Genesis - seems a bit misleading to suggest that 1 Timothy is reverting back to a “military ethos” even though this was written after Christ’s ascension.

The Pastorals’ blindness - this seems to me

Does priority in creation mean priority in authority?

Genesis 1:26–28 ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Genesis 3:14–24 ESV

“The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken;…”

Saved through childbearing?

The Pastoral Epistles About Women

. The expression ‘saved through childbearing’, however, has puzzled commentators because ‘saved’ in the Pastorals usually refers to God’s saving people from sins through Christ Jesus (e.g.

The Pastoral Epistles About Women

The suggestion, most recently made by Knight (1992), that the passage refers to the birth of Christ is unconvincing because such a reference would need to include the name Christ Jesus. The passage, therefore, provides no convincing justification for denying women a teaching role. What 1 Timothy emphasizes elsewhere as essential to a saved life, however, is expressed by the final clause: women’s continuing in faith and love and holiness with chastity.

KEY PASSAGES:

1 Timothy 2:8-15

English Standard Version Chapter 2

8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; 9 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, 10 but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. 11 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

1 Corinthians 4:17 ESV

That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.

Related to Elders:

James 5:14 ESV

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

1 Peter 5:1–2 ESV

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly;

Requirements of Elders:

Titus 1:5–9 ESV

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

1 Timothy 3:1–7 ESV

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

Paul’s Setting Up of the Global Church:

1 Timothy 3:15 ESV

if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Why does Paul give these instructions?

The Pastoral Epistles About Women

All this is encouraged ‘so that the teaching of God may not be slandered’ (cf.

1 Timothy 5:14–15 ESV

So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. For some have already strayed after Satan.

1 Timothy 6:1 ESV

Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.