I Suffer Not a Woman

Clark Kroeger Richard

Description

Solid scriptural and archaeological evidence refutes the traditional interpretation used to bar women from leadership.

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 février 1998
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441206183
• Langue: English

Extrait

© 1992 by Richard Clark Kroeger and Catherine Clark Kroeger
Published by Baker Academic a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4412-0618-3
For
Mary,
Marjorie,
Elizabeth,
Robert,
Paul,
and Margaret,
without whose patience
and support
this book would never
have come into being
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction: Problems with a Traditional Interpretation
Part 1: Approaching the Text in Its Context
1. Approaching the Bible with Faith
2. The Pastoral Epistles: Who Wrote Them and Why
3. Destination: Ephesus
4. Identifying the Problem: Evidence from the Pastorals
5. An Examination of 1 Timothy 1:3–2:11
Part 2: The Prohibition (1 Tim. 2:12)
6. A Closer Look at Our Target Verse
7. That Strange Greek Verb Authentein
8. Is Another Translation Possible?
9. The Feminine as Primal Source
Part 3: The Prohibition’s Rationale (1 Tim. 2:13–15)
10. Condemnation or Refutation? (2:13–14)
11. How an Important Bible Story Was Turned Upside Down
12. New Stories for Old
13. Of Jewish and Gnostic Heroines
14. The Great Goddesses and Eve
15. The Veneration of the Serpent and Eve
16. Considerations of Childbearing (2:15)
Epilogue
Appendices
1. Could Authentein Mean Murder?
2. A Lesson in Greek Grammar
3. Sex Reversal and Female Dominance
4. Sex and Death in Ancient Novels
5. The Curse Tablets of Cnidus
6. Gnostic Use of Sex
7. Alternate Versions of the Creation Story
Endnotes
Index of Authors and Subjects
Index of Scripture, Apocrypha, and Pseudepigrapha
Back Cover
Abbreviations ANET Ancient Near Eastern Texts , ed. J. B. Pritchard b. Babylonian Talmud BG Codex Berolinensis Gnosticus frag. fragment Gk. Greek Heb. Hebrew LB Living Bible Mish. Mishnah NHC Nag Hammadi Codex NIV New International Version PG Patrologia Cursus, series Graeca , ed. J. P. Migne PL Patrologia Cursus, series Latina , ed. J. P. Migne SIG Syllogue Inscriptionum Graecorum , ed. W. Dittenberger (1915–24) TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament , ed. G. W. Bromiley y. Jerusalem Talmud
Preface
A physician in family practice was summoned to her pastor’s study and there was informed that her chosen medical specialty is outside God’s will for her life. The pastor insisted that only two specialties are open to her: obstetrics/gynecology and pediatrics. The electrified young woman asked why God could not see fit to use her gifts in implementing healing for families. The answer was that 1 Timothy 2:12 forbade her having any authority over men, and that therefore she could not enter into a patient/physician relationship with a man. The woman left the church, went to a developing nation, and took up service as a missionary doctor, ministering in Jesus’ name to all who came to her clinic.
A beautiful and obviously intelligent young woman lingered somewhat shyly after we had given a lecture on an alternative interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:12. She approached us after most of the others had left, and her first few words evinced a deep desire to serve Christ with all of her talents. She was a member of an active but conservative church that severely restricted the scope of her Christian activities. “Maybe I shouldn’t say this,” she murmured. “But I have been absolutely clobbered by that Bible verse!”
An attorney was told by certain members of her family that according to 1 Timothy 2:11–15 she should be a waitress rather than a lawyer.
A church magazine announced that a dedicated laywoman would take over the leadership of a ministry to nursing homes in the Milwaukee area. [1] An indignant reader responded, “Exactly how does the ‘headship’ given her square with 1 Timothy 2:11–15?” [2]
If there is one verse in the Bible more than any other which is used to disbar women from proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ and exercising their talents for his glory, it is 1 Timothy 2:12. Within its context this verse reads, according to the King James Version,

11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
On the basis of this translation of verse 12 women are denied a vote in church affairs, rejected as teachers of adult Bible classes, kept home from the mission field, disenfranchised from the duties and privileges of leadership in the body of Christ, and forbidden the use of their God-given talents for leadership.
While we were participating in a colloquium on this passage at a conservative theological seminary, a layman rose during the question period. “Is there any other major doctrine in the Bible,” he asked, “which depends on only one verse?” He was assured by a member of the faculty that there is not. The layman persisted further, “And is it true that the understanding of this verse is dependent upon the translation of just one verb which is used only once in the entire New Testament?” Again he was assured that indeed this is so.
Many evangelicals view all biblical passages about the role and ministry of women through the lens of 1 Timothy 2:12. [3] It becomes the key verse on women, the one on which all others turn. Christ’s explicit command that the women should proclaim to the male disciples the news that he had risen is given secondary importance in comparison to this one Pauline mandate. The spiritual leadership of Hulda, Deborah, Miriam, Priscilla, Phoebe, and others is denigrated or denied. Yet it was Priscilla who “instructed Apollos more perfectly in the way of the Lord” (Acts 18:26) at Ephesus, the city to which this command was addressed. The apostle Paul enjoyed warm collegiality in the gospel with the women he called “fellow laborers.”
We cannot ignore the record that it was the judge and prophet Deborah who led the children of Israel into battle and trusted God for a great victory. Nor can we deny that the preaching of the prophet Hulda triggered the great revival under King Josiah, and that her identification of the book which was brought to her as the Word of God began the process of canonization. And what shall we do with the unnamed woman of Abel Beth Maacah who assumed the responsibility to deliver the city from siege (2 Sam. 20:14–22)?
English does not give us the clue provided by Hebrew in identifying the gender of the second person pronoun or of the third person plural. Thus we find, “The Lord gives the Word. Great is the host of women who proclaim it” (Ps. 68:11) and again, “O woman who is herald of good tidings to Zion, lift up your voice with strength, O woman who is herald of good tidings to Jerusalem, lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God’” (Isa. 40:9). Such passages call women to a ministry of proclamation. How does this fit with the commonly accepted translation of 1 Timothy 2:12?
Let us consider a question which God asked through the prophet Micah. It occurs in a passage famed for the question, “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Mic. 6:8). The beginning of the passage sketches a courtroom scene in which the hills and mountains act as judge and jury in litigation between Yahweh and the people of Israel. The Lord reminds Israel of the many acts of kindness and the great deliverance from Egypt and then asks, “Have I not sent before thee Moses and Aaron and Miriam to lead thee?” (Mic. 6:4). God is calling to Israel to give account of herself, and one of the questions at the judgment is this: Is she mindful of the gift of the leadership of Miriam?
What have we in today’s church done with Miriam and with the gifts of so many other talented women? Have we allowed them to be used, or have they been turned away with the use of a particular translation of 1 Timothy 2:12? This verse causes us to ponder whether women are called to silence or to service. It is necessary to compare Scripture with Scripture to find the correct meaning. We must consider all that the Bible has to say about the activities of women committed to God’s will.
For centuries Christians have struggled with this fundamental contradiction between 1 Timothy 2:12 and the passages in which women were bidden to tell of their risen Lord or were called to teach, to lead Israel, to rule over God’s people. Mary Slessor, the great missionary heroine of Calabar, wrote in her Bible beside an apparently restrictive translation of a verse, “Nay, Paul laddie! This will na’ do.” It behooves us to ask, are there other avenues of interpretation, of translation?
For centuries women have raised these questions. A nineteenth-century novelist, Charlotte Brontë, has her heroine declare:

He [Paul] wrote that chapter for a particular congregation of Christians, under peculiar circumstances; and besides, I dare say, if I could read the original Greek, I should find that many of the words have been wrongly translated, perhaps misapprehended altogether. It would be possible, I doubt not, with a little ingenuity, to give the passage quite a contrary turn; to make it say, ‘Let the woman speak out whenever she sees fit to make an objection;’—‘it is permitted to a woman to teach and to exercise authority