Today there are several ways of understanding the place of women in the Church. Some Churches reserve pastoral ministry for men. Others open it to women. All of them rely on two passages from Paul that need to be read carefully.
The two texts
The first is found in 1 Corinthians 14, in the middle of instructions on order in worship, tongues and prophecy: “the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says” (1 Corinthians 14:34).
The second is in 1 Timothy 2: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet” (1 Timothy 2:12). Paul justifies this by recalling that Adam was formed first, and that Eve was deceived (1 Timothy 2:13-14).
Reading in context
These letters were written almost 2,000 years ago, in a world different from ours. We must not read them as if Paul had addressed them to us last week.
- The Church was not a building. The word ekklesia refers to the assembly of believers. When Paul speaks of keeping silent “in the churches”, he is speaking of the gatherings, often held in homes.
- Worship was participatory. Each person could contribute a hymn, a lesson or a revelation (1 Corinthians 14:26).
- Paul is responding to specific situations. He applies the teaching of Jesus to concrete cases, in particular Churches.
We do not always know these situations in detail. So we must sometimes acknowledge that we do not understand everything. When our conclusions rest on hypotheses, we must avoid turning them into absolute rules for all Churches.
The situation in Ephesus
For 1 Timothy, one thing is certain. The letter responds to the problems of the Church in Ephesus. From the outset, Paul asks Timothy to stop certain people from teaching “any different doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:3).
According to one interpretation, women were particularly affected by these deviant teachings. Paul does indeed warn against certain young widows who go about from house to house, “gossips and busybodies” (1 Timothy 5:13). He may have formulated a general rule in reaction to the behaviour of a few of them.
Paul and women in ministry
Paul has nothing against women. He commends Phoebe, “a servant of the church at Cenchreae” (Romans 16:1). He greets Prisca and Aquila, his “fellow workers” (Romans 16:3). He speaks of women who “have laboured side by side” with him “in the gospel” (Philippians 4:3). He also accepts that a woman may pray and prophesy in the assembly (1 Corinthians 11:5).
Finally, he writes: “there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). There is therefore a real tension between these passages.
The weight of culture
One possible explanation is cultural. In the Greek world, there were prophetesses, but the idea of a woman teaching was still poorly accepted. Paul did not want to shock outsiders, who often already had a negative image of the Church.
This was a missionary strategy. Paul and Jesus did not ask slaves to revolt. They respected the customs of the time while sowing principles that would gradually transform them. Paul writes: “Give no offence to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God” (1 Corinthians 10:32). In Galatians, he expresses an ideal of equality. In 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy, he takes account of a patriarchal social reality.
The limits of this explanation
This cultural reading, however, is not entirely sufficient. In 1 Timothy 2:13-14, Paul does not rely only on the customs of his time, but on the order of creation.
The position of this course is that man and woman are equal before God. Neither is worth more than the other. But they are not made in the same way, either physically or psychologically. God may have entrusted them with different functions, without any superiority or inferiority. If he has given a form of authority to the man, it is not to crush the woman, but to protect her and watch over her.
What Paul really forbids
The vocabulary of 1 Timothy 2:12 deserves attention. Paul writes “I do not permit”, in the first person and in the present tense, and not in the form of a general commandment. According to Walter Liefeld, this may indicate a practice specific to Paul rather than a rule for all Churches.
The word “teach” also had a strong meaning. It implied a relationship of authority, like that between a master and his disciple. Some understand it as the function of “teacher” in the formal sense. What Paul refuses is that the woman should take authoritative ascendancy over the man. At a time when there was not yet a complete New Testament, the truth rested on a few teachers who had to be chosen with care.
This subject therefore calls for faithfulness to the text, humility and respect towards the Churches that understand it differently.
Key points
- 1 Corinthians 14:34 and 1 Timothy 2:11-12 are at the centre of the debate on the place of women in the Church.
- These letters respond to concrete situations, which we do not always know in detail.
- Paul acknowledges women active in ministry, such as Phoebe, Priscilla or those who prophesy.
- The cultural context explains part of these texts, but not everything, because Paul also appeals to creation.
- Men and women are equal before God, which does not rule out differences of function.
To think about
- How can we hold Galatians 3:28 and 1 Timothy 2:12 together without erasing either text?
- Why should we be careful before drawing an absolute rule from a passage whose context partly escapes us?
Further reading
- Ruth A. Tucker and Walter L. Liefeld, Daughters of the Church, Zondervan, 1987.
- 1 Corinthians 14, 1 Timothy 2 and Romans 16:1-7.