Women in Ministry

Why I do not agree with John MacArthur’s view that women may not teach or lead in church:

(Article by Bob Edwards. Copied with permission)

This is how the Greek New Testament describes the ministry of women:

• Phoebe: διάκονον (deacon) and προστάτις (leader), Romans 16:1-2

• Priscilla: one of the συνεργούς (co-workers) of Paul, Romans 16:3; ἐξέθεντο (expounded, interpreted) “the way of God more accurately,” to a man Acts 18:26.

• Junia: ἐπίσημοι ἐν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις (outstanding among the apostles), Romans 16:7

My understanding of why 1 Timothy 2:12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 do not prohibit women from teaching, leading, or speaking in church:

1st Timothy 2:12 is not a prohibition against “all” women teaching or leading in the church of Ephesus.  Priscilla taught a man the way of God more accurately, in Ephesus.  

The context of the verse is in a letter against “false doctrines” (1 Timothy 1:3), “godless myths” (1 Timothy 4:7), “opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge” (1 Timothy 6:20).  A woman *engaged in false teaching* should learn before teaching.

I do not believe 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 was a command from Paul telling women they must be silent in church; nor do I believe Paul was saying it is “shameful” for women to be heard in church.  The rabbinical oral law of the day said those things:

“A woman’s voice is prohibited because it is sexually provocative” (Talmud, Berachot 24a).  
“It is a shame for a woman to let her voice be heard among men” (Talmud, Tractate Kiddushin).

I believe Paul’s response to the oral law appears in 1 Corinthians 14:36-39:

“What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only? … Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.”

In other words, oral tradition should not be used to prevent women from expressing their spiritual gifts in church, everyone must simply express their gifts in an orderly manner (see verse 40).

Ministry roles are not given according to gender.  They are given according to spiritual gifting: 

“We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith;  if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach;  if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.” (Romans 12:6-8)  

The Greek word used to describe the gift of leading is προϊστάμενος; it is the verb cognate of προστάτις, the word used to describe the leadership role of Phoebe in Romans 16:2.

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). 

 Paul really believed this.  When Peter related to Gentile Christians differently than Jewish Christians (by refusing to eat with them) in Galatians 2:11-14, Paul rebuked him.  As in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul explained that it is wrong to “force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs” (Gal 2:14).

When John MacArthur tells women that they may not teach or lead in the church, I believe he is acting like Peter in Galatians chapter 2, he is nullifying the word of God by holding on to human tradition (see Jesus’ remarks to the religious leaders of his day in Mark 7:13

Gender Bias in Bible Translations

Different Christians read different Bible translations. Some believe that only one translation is right and condemn other translations as allegedly wrong.

Luther and the translators of the King James Bible included John 8:1-11. They also recognised and translated Mark 16:9-20 as Scripture.

Many modern translators claim that both passages are questionable because they are not found in the supposedly best manuscripts. In some modern translations, the two passages are included but a footnote warns readers that they are not found in some of the best manuscripts. Otherwise they may be omitted but added as footnotes.

I am not a Bible scholar. I studied literature at university. I am interested in the thematic structure of texts.

What are the important ideas in both of these two controversial passages?

In both passages, women are not taken seriously by the spiritual leaders. In both passages, sexist men are rebuked by Jesus himself.

In John 8, pious Jewish men brought to Jesus a woman they had caught committing a sexual sin. They wanted Jesus to order her stoned to death, because the Old Testament law required it.

Jesus was outraged that these men were so unjust. Where was the man who had sinned with this woman?

Jesus exposed this hypocritical injustice, forgave the woman, and saved her life.

Mark 16 tells us that the first witness to Jesus' resurrection was not one of the apostles but a woman, Mary Magdalene. This was certainly no accident. God himself had chosen this woman to be a witness.

Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.

She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept.

And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. Mk 16:9–11 NKJV

In John 8 the unrighteous leaders were religious Jews. In Mark 16, the unrighteous men were the apostles whom Jesus himself had appointed as his leaders!

Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. Mk 16:14 NKJV

In the first centuries after the apostles, who compiled the supposedly best manuscripts of the Bible? The scribes and church fathers. 

There may have been doubts about these passages for two reasons. One is that they may have been added to the original writings of Mark and John. This does not necessarily invalidate them. Deuteronomy was written by Moses, but the last section was added after Moses died.

The other reason is that both passages show how male leaders made unjust judgements against women, and Jesus rebuked the men.

The church fathers and scribes had the task of examining the manuscripts of John and Mark. They had to judge the different copies and decide which versions were authentic.

I think it was inconceivable to some of these men that Jesus would have respected women more than male spiritual leader. That could be precisely why these two passages were omitted from some highly respected manuscripts.

On the other hand, most of the scribes were probably men, and the passages were therefore probably included by men. Sexist distortion of Bible translations can be a problem, but not all male editors or translators twist the text.

The sexism of the early church fathers is not hard to find. In some of the writings of the church fathers, women were openly vilified because of Eve's first sin.

However, there is another reason to confirm the authenticity of these disputed passages, namely the thematic and literary structure of the Gospels of Mark and John. I will explain this in my next blog post.

Luther and the King James translators accepted this passage as authentic. I am not saying that these older translations are better than modern translations in every way. There are other places in the Bible where these old translations are gender biased, but that is not the subject of this post.