I suffer not a woman to teach--
Let your women keep silent
The answer to 1 Tim. 2:12 and 1 Cor. 14:34 (The Short Version)
by Dianne
D. McDonnell (Arlington, Texas)
A great lie of Satan is that women have limitations on HOW they can serve God. They may
teach children and other women, but not men; do PRIVATE but not PUBLIC teaching. Yet these "rules" didn't come from the lips of Jesus!
Instead
Jesus praised the woman of John 4 who turned the men of her village to Jesus, and helped convert many of them. He reprimanded the
disciples who claimed it wasn't time for the harvest and pointed out that they were reaping where others had sown! The King James
translators realized that this was a vital point and therefore added the word "men" as if men had done this sowing, but most other
versions translate it correctly. "I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered
into their labor. And from that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, 'He told
me all the things that I {have} done.'" John 4:38-39, quoted from the New American Standard Bible.
The primary one sowing these
seeds was a woman! Jesus didn't tell her to stop her public testimony-- our Savior praised her!
Let the Women keep Silent?
The "keep silent" admonition was written to a church at Corinth
that was a short forty mile boat ride away from the world famous Oracle at Delphi. At this temple women priestesses uttered babble
which was interpreted and presented as messages from a pagan god. In 1Cor, Chapter 12, Paul introduces the subject of "spiritual gifts"
and then he reminds church members they were once running after dumb idols themselves. Someone in the group had delivered an especially
shocking "message" while claiming to be speaking under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
1Cor 12:3 Therefore I make known to
you, that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed"; and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy
Spirit. (NAS)
So we have Paul defending spiritual gifts in this chapter while saying that this particular "prophet" was not being
directed by the Holy Spirit! Again the KJV adds maleness to this person while the Greek says "no one". Later we learn these false
prophets are female just like at Delphi! As we examine chapter 14 we find many references to speaking in languages (tongues) and the
prophetic gift. Paul scolds the disrupters and demands that prophets keep control over their own spirits. Paul finally makes a ruling
affecting the entire ekklesia, a word that means "the converted true believers, the called out ones": A clear translation is, “Letthose women keep silent among the called out ones.”
The New American Standard: Let the (THOSE) women keep silent in (AMONG) the
churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but let them subject themselves, just as the Law also says.
Let those women--who
are not yet a part of the converted membership-- keep silent among the called out ones--the ekklesia -- and subject themselves to
their poor embarrassed, converted husbands. Rather than participating in services as the converted women do, they are to ask their
husbands to instruct them at home. The KJV adds several words to this verse that are not in the Greek manuscripts, adding "your" to
women, and the phrase "they are commanded". These added words make it sound like a universal ruling against ALL the women when it
is not.
THOSE and AMONG written in all capitols are alternate translations of the Greek words. To find hoi/hai (male/female forms
of the same word, Strong's 3588) translated as THOSE see Matt 8:33, 9:12, 10:36, and 12:3 in the New King James. The Greek en is frequently
translated as AMONG, see Matt 2:6, Matt 4:23, Matt 16:8 and Matt 20:26. The word translated as "churches", ekklesia, means the true
believers within the churches, both men and women.
All members participated in services as we see in 1Cor. 14:26 and 31, and
this was to continue, but women attending with converted husbands--wives who were not presently among the "ekklesia"-- were not to
participate as the converted women did.
Reprimanding the False Prophet
One final verse that proves someone was being reprimanded
for saying "Jesus be cursed" is found at the end of the letter. 1Cor 16:22 If anyone does not love the Lord-- a curse be on *him.
Come, O Lord! New International Version
*The word "him"-- in "a curse be on him"-- is taken from a third person verb and could
be "her" just as easily. At the first of this verse the KJV has "If any man" instead of correctly translating "If anyone"--" again
confusing the issue. Paul was correcting a woman! This entire passage is only hard to understand because several key words are mistranslated.
Disruptive women who prophesy falsely are the ones that must "keep silent"-- not believing women!
Fighting False Doctrines
Paul
left Timothy behind in Ephesus to stop false teachers; 1Tim 1:3. The church there was fighting many false doctrines from the religion
of Artemis because Ephesus was the world center of her worship. The mystery religions and Gnostic beliefs shared many of these same
beliefs.
Here are five of these false doctrines widely believed in Ephesus:
1. Eve was created before Adam and received "special knowledge" when she ate the forbidden fruit.
2. Female "Mediators" passed this "special knowledge" on to men during sexual rites featuring intercourse.
3. Mediator women mixing sex with worship were called "Authenia" from the Greek word "Authenteo".
4. Warrior women called Amazons, who were superior to men, founded the city of Ephesus and set up the
worship of the fertility goddess Artemis.
5. Artemis, whose name meant SAFE,
could keep a woman safe during the dangers of childbirth.
Paul is arming Timothy against every one of these evil doctrines! He
warns him in 1Tim 1:20 against two teachers who blaspheme, one a female named Hymenaeus meaning "Wedding Song" and the other a male
named Alexander. The doctrine of female Mediators is countered in 1Tim 2:5, "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and
men..." A few verses later Paul moves to stop female teachers such as Hymenaeus by instructing, "I do not permit a woman to teach
or to "AUTHENTEIN" a man, but to be in silence."
A Woman is not to Teach What?!
The entire King James phrase "to usurp authority
over" is incorrectly translated from one Greek word, "AUTHENTEIN". This word is used only once in the New Testament, and is called
by an early instructor, "a coarse word". The "ein" ending tells us that it is the "to" form of a verb made from Authenteo, Strong's
831. A noun form of the same word is "Authenia" which is the term for the women "Mediators" mixing intercourse with religion! Paul
is saying he won't allow women to teach or to ____ a man! Insert a coarse sexual word, which is our closest word to the Greek word
"Authentein". At the time of Paul it meant to have sex as a part of worship--a joining of a man with a female mediator who represented
the goddess being worshipped.
In the very next verse Paul stops the doctrine of Eve being created first, "For Adam was formed
first, then Eve." Next he points out that Eve was deceived, not given special knowledge. The final verse proves that Paul is countering
evil doctrines!
Safely through Childbirth
1Tim. 2:15 should be translated "But she (a woman) will be safe throughout the childbearing
if they (her and her husband) continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control." Paul uses the word "safe" not the word "saved"
as it is usually translated. The Phillips Bible comes closest with, "Women will come safely through childbirth..." Remember the meaning
of Artemis' name? It meant SAFE. Paul is making a play on words that God keeps women safe-- not Artemis!
We have studied the
context, the backgrounds of Corinth and Ephesus, the evil doctrines, and peeked into the Greek text with modern software. The simple
conclusions are that in Corinth Paul was stopping pagan women from posing as prophets and demanding that they keep silent, and in
Ephesus he was fighting women "Mediators" teaching evil doctrines. Neither of these two passages of scripture can rightfully be used
to limit Christian women serving God however He directs them.
