Transcript Revisiting Biblical Womanhood

Revisiting Biblical
Womanhood
What Every Pastor Needs to
Know
My Job?
To discuss the question of female
preachers and pastors.
This has become one aspect of
a larger debate over evangelical
feminism.
Two Parties; Two Problems
• Party One:
Egalitarianism
• Party Two:
Complementarianism
• Problem One:
Authority in the home
• Problem Two:
Authority in the
church
The Egalitarian Party
• Christians for Biblical
Equality
• InterVarsity Press
• Gilbert Bilezikian
• Rebecca Merrill
Groothuis
• Gordon Fee
• Kevin Giles
• Catherine Kroeger
• Richard Kroeger
• William Webb
• I. Howard Marshall
The Complementarian Party
• Council on Biblical
Manhood and
Womanhood
• Crossway Publishers
• Wayne Grudem
• John Piper
• D. A. Carson
• Andreas J.
Köstenberger
•
•
•
•
•
Thomas Schreiner
Robert Yarbrough
Douglas Moo
Dorothy Patterson
Mary Kassian
What Are They Saying?
• Egalitarianism: true equality requires
identical roles and authority.
• Complementarianism: true equality allows
differences in roles and authority.
Our Focus Here
• We’ll ignore the problem of roles and
authority in the home, and focus on roles
and authority in the church.
• First, we’ll take a brief retrospective.
• Second, we’ll look at a key passage.
• Third, we’ll examine attempts to
circumvent this passage.
Part One
A Brief Retrospective
Did You know?
• Baptist fundamentalists used to accept
and employ women preachers?
• For a detailed discussion, see Janet
Hassey, No Time for Silence.
• I’ll give you a bit of information about a
female preacher whom Hassey does not
mention.
Amy Lee Stockton
• First student at Northern Baptist Seminary
(1909).
• Licensed by Wealthy Street Baptist
Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
• Accompanied by musician Rita Gould,
also licensed by Wealthy Street.
• Often spoke at Maranatha Conference
Ground near Muskegon, Michigan.
Stockton’s Backers Included:
• Oliver W. Van Osdel (founder of the
GRVBA and the GARBC)
• H. H. Savage (Pontiac, Michigan)
• T. T. Shields (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
• David Otis Fuller (Grand Rapids,
Michigan)
• John Marvin Dean (Northern Baptist
Seminary)
When Criticized . . .
• . . . Stockton could be quite blunt.
• Example: M. R. DeHaan of Grand Rapids.
• Stockton’s reply: “I don’t see that he has
set Grand Rapids on fire or accomplished
enough to make us want to follow his
methods.”
• Stockton was not exactly passive or weakwilled.
What’s the Point?
• This controversy is not new.
• Some of the same arguments were used
then (on both sides) that are being used
now.
• It is part of our past; it’s not just “the
liberals” who have wrestled with this
question.
Part Two
A Key Passage
2 Timothy 2
11Let
the woman learn in silence with all
subjection.
12But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to
usurp authority over the man, but to be in
silence.
13For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
14And Adam was not deceived, but the woman
being deceived was in the transgression.
15Notwithstanding she shall be saved in
childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity
and holiness with sobriety.
Preliminary Remarks
• We do not have time for a detailed
exegesis.
• We will not ask every question or examine
every possible answer.
• This will be a survey of what I think is the
best interpretation.
• For details, see Thomas R. Schreiner’s
article on this passage.
What Is the Context?
• The letter is partly a response to false
teaching (see ch. 1).
• In 2:1-7 Paul is emphasizing that God’s
wish or desire is for all to be saved.
• Verse 8 is transitional, requiring all the
men to pray (for the salvation of souls?).
• This is probably a reference to house
churches meeting for public worship.
The Discussion of Modesty
• 2:8-10 is probably directed specifically at
public worship, though applicable
elsewhere.
• Paul is as concerned with women’s
adornment and behavior as with men’s
prayers.
• Women are to reject ostentatiousness and
flirtatiousness in favor of modesty.
Incidentally. . .
• This is a principle that can be applied to
men with equal relevance.
• Paul’s specific prohibitions are probably
reflective of meanings that are at least
partly culturally bound.
• There is not necessarily a timeless
prohibition of all jewelry, but there is a
timeless requirement of modesty.
Verse 11
• Enjoins all women to learn. There is no
sphere of biblical or theological knowledge
that ought to be withheld from women.
• What Paul requires is not absolute silence
(sige), but rather a quiet demeanor
(hesuchia).
• Their submission is most likely to those
who hold teaching authority in the church.
• This is still good counsel for men, too.
A Note on Structure of 11-12
• In Quietness
– Let women learn
• With all subjection
– Women not to teach
• Or to grasp authority
• But to be quiet
How About Verse12?
• There are two basic prohibitions and one
positive exhortation.
• Women are not to didaskein men. This is
the basic word for “teach.”
• Women are not to authentein men. This
word means to “exercise authority over.”
• Women are to be quiet.
The Heart of the Controversy
• Women may not teach men.
• Women may not exercise authority over
men.
• But which men? Where? And doing what
kind of teaching?
• The context has been one of the church
assembled for public worship.
Therefore…
What Is Not Forbidden
• Women discipling men outside of public
gatherings (e.g., Priscilla and Apollos).
• Women teaching women or children within
public gatherings.
• Women teaching men in a nonauthoritative (i.e., non-pastoral) way.
• Women prophesying or praying (1 Cor.
11).
• Women exercising non-pastoral authority
(e.g., in business, politics, etc.).
What Is Forbidden
• Women preaching to mixed audiences.
• Women teaching the Bible to mixed
audiences in a church setting.
• Women exercising authority as pastors,
elders, and bishops.
Paul’s Reasons
• He has already alluded to one: women’s
decorum is linked with God’s desire for all
people to be saved.
• The order of creation indicates male
headship. Adam was formed first.
• The order of the fall reinforces Paul’s
reasoning. The woman was deceived.
So the Woman Was Deceived?
• Both Adam and Eve were together during
the temptation.
• The serpent singled out Eve.
• Rather than deferring to Adam, Eve took it
upon herself to reply for both (and Adam
allowed it).
• This constituted an inversion of the
created order that resulted in disaster.
Saved Through Childbearing?
• Not that childbearing is a means of
salvation.
• Childbearing is a station in life in which
only some people are involved. How you
fulfill your station in life shows how you are
working out your salvation.
• The question is whether a stay-at-home
mom has the same shot at exhibiting
salvation as the public preacher and
teacher (or anyone else).
Saved Through Childbearing?
• Childbearing stands as a synecdoche for
domesticity (rearing kids, keeping the
house).
• The heresy in Ephesus downplayed thisworldly activity and probably showed
special contempt for maternity and
domesticity.
• Paul is elevating maternity and domesticity
to a position of dignity alongside any other
calling.
Part Three
Attempts to Circumvent This
Passage
1. Rejection of Authority
• Some attempt simply to reject the authority
of this passage.
• Mainline liberals do not feel bound by the
propositional authority of biblical
statements in the first place.
• Some evangelicals (Paul King Jewett, for
example) see this text as a reflection of
Paul’s rabbinic prejudice.
2. Trumping the Authority
• Some claim that the Holy Spirit is the
authority behind Scripture and is free to
make exceptions to its rules.
• Some may appeal to putative prophecies
(Cindy Jacobs).
• Van Osdel appealed to the experience of
effective ministry (the Holy Spirit was
obviously blessing Amy Stockton, so He
had clearly made an exception for her).
It Is Worth Remembering That. . .
• God does bless His Word when it is
preached and taught.
• This blessing does not depend entirely
upon the worthiness of the preacher or
teacher.
• If a woman’s preaching gets good results,
we can rejoice in those results without
approving the method.
3. Appealing to Variety
• Some simply look away from this passage
to other passages that emphasize gender
equality.
• The major passage is Galatians 3:28.
• The result is sometimes a kind of “Pick
Your Favorite Passage” hermeneutic.
• Others emphasize the difficulty of
interpreting all the passages.
Our View of Scripture. . .
• Admits multiple human perspectives.
• Insists upon a single divine author.
• Refuses to concede any final contradiction
within the text.
• Forces us to study the passages until we
are able to reconcile each with all, when
they are properly interpreted.
• Doesn’t allow us to ignore “disputed”
passages.
4. Limiting the Situation
• The Ephesian situation had specific
problems that limit the applicability of this
passage.
• Specifically, women teachers were deeply
involved in communicating heresy.
• The verb authentein reflects an abusive
exercise of power.
Concessions
• Women may have been teaching heresy in
Ephesus.
• Authentein is a NT hapax legomenon, the
meaning of which is disputed.
Nevertheless
• The best studies indicate that authentein
means to exercise authority over,
especially in this context .
• We know that males were teaching heresy.
• Paul does not forbid men from teaching or
exercising authority.
• Paul does not make any exception for
women who teach orthodoxy.
5. The “Tu Quoque” Fallacy
• Most complementarians agree that the
activities of v. 9 are not universally
proscribed.
• Egalitarians accuse complementarians of
doing the same thing in v. 9 that they want
to do in vv. 11-12.
Is That a Problem?
• The prohibitions of 9 are grounded in the
cultural meaning of the things prohibited.
• The prohibitions of 11-12 are grounded in
the creation order.
• If both sets of prohibitions should be
treated identically, it is more likely that we
should recognize those in 9 than to
dispense with those in 11-12.
6. “Trajectory” Hermeneutics
• Argues that Scripture, read diachronically,
sets a trajectory that extends beyond the
text itself.
• An earlier text takes a particular position
on an issue. A later text is either more or
less restrictive. The final position follows
that trajectory.
• Proponents: R. T. France, David
Thompson, I. Howard Marshall.
6a. “Redemptive Movement”
• Advocated by William Webb.
• Similar to Trajectory Hermeneutics.
• Point “A” is the perspective of the original
culture.
• Point “B” is the position that Scripture
takes.
• Point “C” is the conclusion gained by
following the trajectory from A through B
and beyond.
Slavery and Biblical Trajectory
C. Slavery Abolished Today
B. Slavery Restricted
in the New Testament
A. Slavery Permitted in the Culture
Trajectory for Women’s Ministry
Egalitarianism
C
B
A
Galatians 3:28
Old Testament and Cultural Status of Women
Does This Work?
• It becomes an extremely subjective
method. It simply reads back into the
“trajectory” whatever conclusion we desire.
• Remember that the Pastoral Epistles are
written near the end of Paul’s ministry, well
after Galatians or 1 Corinthians. If there is
a trajectory, it is toward greater restriction
upon women in the church.