Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ 1 Timothy

[Felix the Cat]

I have a hard time understanding how modern women can subscribe to a book that contains such blantant sexism as 1 Timothy 2.12.

[jimwalton]

It helps us to understand what's going on in the text. Let me try to help, and then make sure you feel invited to talk about it some more.

1. A biblical view of authority and position has nothing to do with a person's worth.
2. Authority and power in the NT pertain to serving others, not ruling others.
3. All Christians are called to self-sacrifice, self-denial, humility, and mutual submission, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or social standing.
4. The text is clearly contextual to that audience, because Priscilla was a recognized (even by Paul) teacher in the early church (Acts 18.26 et al).
5. The meaning of the word αὐθεντεῖν (translated "to have authority over") is largely unknown. This is its only use in the Bible; it only appears 7 times in all Greek literature before AD 400, and 4 of those 7 are guessed at. We are remiss to put great authority in this translation.
6. The Scriptures elsewhere offer an impressive number of examples of women exercising social or political authority over men without raising any questions as to the propriety of that authority. So the reference here must be specifically to matters of public worship in that particular location.

To understand the Bible, it helps to know a little bit about the culture and the context, and not just make a superficial interpretation. As it turns out, this verse (and the book) isn't guilty of blatant sexism at all.

[Felix the Cat]

I actually do know a little bit about the culture, and it was just as sexist as this verse would make it seem. I cannot speak the the translation of that word in this verse, because I do not have access to the resources I would need to do that kind of research. However there are plenty of other passages in the bible that show blatant sexism, there is no way you could support a claim that the book isn't guilty of it.

[jimwalton]

The culture was definitely sexist, as you as saying, but the church wasn't. It was radically egalitarian in the culture. Allowing women to pray and prophesy along with the men (1 Cor. 11.3-16) was unheard of. Saying in 1 Cor. 11.11 that the woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman was a wild thing to say. Each sex is incomplete without the other? You won't hear that in Greek philosophy or Roman writings.

That spiritual gifts were available to all, and not just the men, was radically counter-cultural. A woman like Priscilla being a respected teacher? Men and women being baptized (Acts 8.12)? Prophetesses like Philip's daughters (Acts 21.9)? On and on it goes. The church was radically egalitarian. Gal. 3.28: "[In Christ] there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ."

> there are plenty of other passages in the bible that show blatant sexism, there is no way you could support a claim that the book isn't guilty of it.

The culture is grotesquely sexist, and the people of the Bible are part of their cultures, to be sure. But the teachings of the Bible show a very different picture of women than the culture at large, protecting them and giving them rights that the surrounding cultures didn't give. I'd be glad to discuss this more with you. By and large, the accusations about misogyny in the Bible are trumped up, misunderstood, and misinterpreted by those who want to find fault and don't look deeply enough to discover the truth. We can talk about it more as you wish.