May women lead and teach in the church?

Hard question · Acts and the letters · raised by 3 of the lists sceptics circulate

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The passages

Acts 18:24–26

Priscilla and Aquila take Apollos aside and expound to him the way of God “more perfectly”.

And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.

Romans 16:1–2

Paul commends Phebe, “a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea”.

I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.

1 Corinthians 11:5

Paul assumes that women pray and prophesy in worship, with heads covered.

But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.

1 Corinthians 14:34–35

“Let your women keep silence in the churches”; let them ask their husbands at home.

Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.

1 Timothy 2:11–12

“I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man”.

Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

Acts 21:9

Philip had four daughters “which did prophesy”.

And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.

Judges 4:4

Deborah, a prophetess, “judged Israel at that time”.

And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.

The objection

Priscilla helped teach Apollos, Paul commends Phoebe as a servant (Greek diakonos) of the church at Cenchreae, women prophesied, and Deborah judged Israel. Yet Paul tells women to keep silent in the churches and says, “I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man”. Which is it?

The answer

Paul plainly did not think these passages clashed, for the apostle who wrote 1 Timothy 2 also greeted Priscilla as one of “my helpers in Christ Jesus” (Romans 16:3) and commended Phoebe to the church at Rome. So the restrictions cannot mean that women had no ministry. Women prayed and prophesied in the gatherings (1 Corinthians 11:5; Acts 2:17–18; 21:9), older women were to be “teachers of good things” to younger women (Titus 2:3–4), and Priscilla with her husband explained the way of God to Apollos in private, taking him aside (Acts 18:26). Deborah’s calling as prophetess and judge (Judges 4:4) was an exceptional one in Israel’s history.

Nor can ‘keep silence’ in 1 Corinthians 14:34 mean that women may never speak in church, since three chapters earlier Paul assumes that they pray and prophesy aloud. In context it concerns a particular kind of speaking: many take it to mean the weighing of prophecies (14:29), others disruptive questions (14:35). The clearest restriction is 1 Timothy 2:12, on teaching men with authority. Most Christians through history, and many today, read it as reserving the office of pastor or elder to men while welcoming many ministries of women; others read it as a rule for a particular problem of false teaching at Ephesus. On either reading the passages describe different activities and do not contradict one another.

Still open

Christians who hold the Bible to be without error still differ over what 1 Timothy 2:12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34–35 require today: complementarians hold that the office of pastor or elder is for men, egalitarians that the restrictions met local problems. Whether Phoebe held the office of deacon, and whether Junia was “of note among the apostles” or well known to them (Romans 16:7), are also debated.

From the classic commentators

women of grace, knowledge, and experience, though they are not allowed to teach in public, yet they may, and ought to communicate in private, what they know of divine things, for the use of others.John Gill, Exposition of the Bible, on Acts 18:26 (1746–1763)

Women may say, ‘But if we do not understand something, may we not ‘ask’ a question publicly so as to ‘learn’? Nay, replies Paul, if you want information, ‘ask’ not in public, but ‘at home’Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary, on 1 Corinthians 14:35 (1871)