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” (1 Timothy 2:11-12; KJV).  

These two-verses, attributed to the Apostle Paul, is the basis upon which untold numbers of woman of Faith over the centuries have been denied the opportunity to serve the Body of Messiah: to exercise their God-given gifts and talents of teaching, preaching, prophesying and leadership in both Christian and Messianic Communities.  

A simple plain reading of these cited verses, through the lenses and filters of our 21st century western sensibilities and understanding, could (on the surface) certainly lead us to think that for whatever reason, Paul set out to finally put women into their proper place at home and in the church.  

However, when one takes this passage in context with the whole of the New Testament writings, something seems amiss. For in other places of scripture, we find Paul lovingly endorsing and certifying the offices and works of women leaders, preachers, teachers, prophets and at least one apostle in the various assemblies of the Body of Messiah.  

So what’s up with Paul and his seeming two-faced view of women in Faith?  

Well, as we found in our study of 1 Corinthians 14:34 and 35, that which we at first brush think Paul said about women in the Faith may not be what Paul actually meant when he wrote this letter to Timothy.  

In this 10th-installment of our multi-episodic series on Paul and Hebrew Roots, we will attempt to answer the question: What did Paul actually mean when he wrote that women must learn and live in silence? This is content you won’t likely find anywhere else in the Hebrew Roots/Messianic Faith Community. 

 

 

Now, what we’ve tried to do in this series is to take some of the Apostle Paul’s most difficult; seemingly contradictory; most challenging writings and see if we can make any real sense out of them from a contextual—socio-cultural-historical-Hebraic-spiritual perspective. And not rely on the conventional wisdom and widely accepted, churchianity-based talking points that most of us have been raised and taught to accept as the basis of our Faith.

 

(And of course I invite you to check-out the previous nine-parts to this series if you are led to do so. In particular, I would point you to the installments of this series having to do with Paul and women in the Faith. They will serve as an excellent primer and bring you up to speed to better receive this 10th-installment.)

 

Most of us now recognize, having come out of churchianity in one form or another, that the writings of Paul have been improperly used by churchianity to create a religion that has very little resemblance to the Faith that our Master Y’shua Messiah founded and His anointed disciples turned apostles built upon.

 

 Purpose

 

My purpose here today in this and succeeding additions to this series is to bring the discussion regarding women’s so-called roles in the “church” and in the Body of Messiah back to center and back to Spirit and Truth by examining another one of Paul’s most challenging and widely misunderstood writings found in 1 Timothy 2.

 

 Complex Subject

 

Because of the complex nature of the content I have to share with you, I will break up our discussion on this particular Pauline passage into smaller, easier to consume units.

 

Bear in mind that my studies on just this Pauline passage alone has taken me several months to complete. And for me to try to feed the whole of what I’ve learned and the conclusions I’ve drawn into a single post would be spiritual abuse.

 

So I’ve determined the best way to present this content to you is to do so in bite-size, easier  consume installments that I will try to keep as close to an hour in duration as I possibly can.

 

Today, I want to look at our focus passage—1 Timothy 2:9-15—from the standpoint of its widely accepted conventional interpretation in churchianity and in some Hebrew Roots/Messianic communities. I want to also begin to look at this passage from a contextual perspective as well as break it down into component parts so as to set the table for further examination of the passage in future installments of this series.

 

So what do you say we get started with our study.

 

III. Main Discussion—Our Focus Passage and Why It’s Important to Have an Accurate Understanding of it 

 

Our Focus Passage in Light of Biblical and Extra-Biblical Context

 

Our focus passage for this study is located in 1 Timothy 2:9-15 and it reads as follows:

 

“In like manner women also in decent apparel: adorning themselves with modesty and sobriety, not with plaited hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly attire, but as it becometh women professing godliness, with good works. Let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to use authority over the man: but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed; then Eve. And Adam was not seduced; but the woman being seduced, was in the transgression. Yet she shall be saved through childbearing; if she continue in faith, and love and sanctification, with sobriety” (DRA).

 

A Plain Reading of our Focus Passage

 

A basic, plain read of this passage, especially when read by itself—absent chapter 1 and verses 1 through 8 of the 2nd chapter—has the natural tendency to appear as a rather harsh and overbearing indictment against women of Faith by the one-time orthodox Pharisee turned apostle to the Gentiles.

 Areas of Concern

Now, I quickly identify  at least 7-areas of concern regarding women of Faith that Paul puts forth to his reader in this letter: 

1. Women’s dress (ie., apparel or attire).
2. Women’s deportment (ie., behavior or manner).
3. The need for women to learn in silence and be under subjection. To whom they must be subject to, Paul does not state.
4. A prohibition against women teaching. Why? Paul does not state in that verse, but maybe when he gets into the whole Adam and Eve discussion, we get the answer as to why the prohibition against women teaching in the body and assemblies of Messiah. (At least the generally accepted convention wisdom as to why.)
5. Women must not use or usurp authority over (the) or a man. This seems to suggest that women should be precluded or prevented from taking away or intruding into men’s honored role of teaching or preaching in the body and assemblies of Messiah and in the family.
6. Women are considered to be secondary to men because the creation order, as recorded in Torah, says so.
7. Women’s salvation comes, not from the work of Y’shua Messiah and the grace of YHVH, but through childbearing as long as they behave themselves. Why the huge conflict Paul?

Related or Similar Pauline Passages 

It should be readily recognizable to you that this passage is somewhat similar to other Pauline writings regarding women of Faith within the Body and Assemblies of Messiah:

 

1 Corinthians 14: 34, 35—Recall that we examined this passage in detail in parts 8 and 9 of this series. I would highly recommend you take the time and review those posts as a great amount of the content we looked at in those posts will bleed-over into this one. The passage reads: “Let women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted them to speak, but to be subject, as also the law saith. But if they would learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church” (DRA).

 

I concluded in part 9 of this series that this particular passage in no way was prohibiting women of the Body and Assemblies of Messiah from preaching, teaching, leading, prophesying or publicly praying. For we learned, based upon a great many factors that included the Greek words Paul in this passage, that Paul was simply saying to the Corinthian women: “Hey ladies, when you come to worship gatherings, stop the chattering; don’t try to over-talk the teachers and speakers; and don’t disrespect your husbands by questioning them about things of the Faith in the midst of assembly services. In other words, be respectful of others during assembly gatherings.

 

Titus 2:3-5—”The aged women, in like manner, in holy attire, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teaching well: that they may teach the young women to be wise, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, sober, having a care of the house, gentle, obedient to their husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed” (DRA).

 

Certainly, on the surface, these passages give the reader the sense that Paul requires women to assume the very role that they did under Orthodox, Rabbinic Judaism. And that role, which we discussed in earlier installments to this series, was one of subservient dedication to their husbands, children and their homes. Beyond that, they were to be seen and not heard in Jewish society.

 

Now this is not meant to be an attack on Judaism. Indeed, rabbinic Judaism has her share of faults and her treatment of women back in the day, in my opinion, is one of those faults. But, rabbinic Judaism, for all things considered, has served a righteous purpose through the ages: she maintained the oracles of YHVH for the world. And what are those oracles: Torah and the prophets and the writings—the Word of YHVH. And we cannot marginalize the greatness of that God-ordained achievement and purpose.

 

Important Considerations Related to our Focus Passage

 

In getting to the heart of our focus passage, there are just a few considerations that we all must be cognizant of if we are to be true to our studies: 

1. 1 Timothy, simply put, is a copy of a personal letter that is widely believed to have been sent from the Apostle Paul to his young protege Timothy, somewhere between 58 to 65 C.E.

We’ll certainly talk more about this in the posts ahead. 

2. The original letter, of course, is long lost to the ravages of time and space. So what we have now available to us regarding this letter (or book as we customarily refer to it today) is copies of copies of copies of the original letter. And frankly, the oldest complete Greek copy of this and other Pauline letters dates back only to the 4th century C.E. (ie., roughly 1,700-years ago). Needless to say, when those copies of copies were being made, the room for scribal errors was enormous. Not to mention, the opportunities afforded certain ambitious and self-righteous-agenda-driven scribes was wide open, leaving the texts vulnerable to tampering.

3. Speaking of Greek copies of letters: It is widely accepted by most biblical scholars that the letters of Paul were originally written in Koine Greek. There are, of course, some inherent problems with this. The biggest problem being that Koine Greek is a dead language. No one on the planet actually speaks it today. It’s use spanned roughly a period of 600-years (ie., 300 B.C.E. to 300 C.E.). Consequently, the Septuagint, the whole of the New Testament and the works of the so-called early Church Fathers were all written in Koine Greek.

Beyond 300 C.E., Koine Greek gradually fell into non-use by westerners, with the exception of Byzantine official usage until about 1453 C.E. (wikipedia).

 

4. Context—Context—Context. I’ve said it countless times throughout my career here on the Messianic Torah Observer—and I’ll say it a thousand times more: context is king and context must be our primary guide when studying any passage of scripture. And 1 Timothy 2:9-15 is no different a situation. For as we can clearly see in our focus passage, when plainly read by itself, there are a lot of inherent problems associated with it. And if context is properly employed in our studies of the text, it just may help solve and answer some of those inherent problems. 

So needless to say, we’re going to be employing a lot of context to our study of the text and you will see for yourself just how important it is to our arriving at a reasonable understanding of the passage. 

5. And the last consideration I wish to shed light upon is the question of “restrictive” versus “normative” instruction? In other words: is the instructions given in our focus passage by Paul instructions that apply to the Body of Messiah today (ie., normative instruction), or were they instructions that applied to the specific set of circumstances occurring on the ground in the Ephesian Assemblies?

Problems With Interpreting the Passage as Plainly Written—Contradictions Abound! 

So for the remainder of this post, let’s carefully walk through our focus passage and identify the problems associated with a plain read of the text. In so doing, we’ll refer to the King James Version. 

Verse 9 

“In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with boided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array” (KJV).

 

Problem 1—”In like manner…”

 

When we read the phrase “in like manner” in our 21st-century parlance, we generally understand it to mean, “in a similar fashion be.” In other words, Paul is saying to the women: hey ladies, I want you to be just like…I want you to do as…whoever that person or thing is. 

So then, what is that thing or person the women are supposed to imitate or be like? 

Well, that thing or person to be imitated is not found in this verse, is it? Or at least it doesn’t appear to be present. So what do we do about this unknown? It means that we have to step back a verse or two to figure out what that thing or person to be imitated is. And this is the heart of contextual study—acknowledging and understanding that at times we must look verses that come before the passage in question; and at times look at verses that come after the passage in question in order to fully grasp what the writer is trying to say.

 

It is vitally important that we learn what that thing or person is that women must imitate for the sake of all women in the Body of Messiah. If, on the other hand, we overlook context here, we’re sort of forced to either squeeze out a meaning that’s likely going to be wrong; or we’ll simply dismiss that part of the verse altogether and move on to areas of the passage that make better sense to us.

 

We’ll find out what that thing actually is in our next installment to the series.

 

Problem 2—Paul Prohibiting Nice Attire

 

Paul seems to be saying to the reader that women should not wear their hair in braids; nor should they wear gold jewelry or even pearl necklaces; nor nice expensive clothes.

 

As it relates to us living in the 21st-century west, this may seem problematic and a bit off-putting. For it is common for women in this day and age to wear their hair in braids and to wear nice clothes and gold jewelry and pearls.

 

So why would Paul prohibit women wearing such seemingly innocuous things? Is he saying that gold jewelry, nice clothes and braids have some inherent evil associated with them? It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense now does it?

 

We’ll get into some very interesting stuff related to these prohibited items in the next installment of the series.

 

Skipping verse 10 and moving on to verse 11 we find:

 

“Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection” (KJV).

 

Problem 3—Paul Once Again Silencing Women Simply Because They’re Women

 

Well, if you’re familiar with the content of previous installments of this series, you’ll easily recognize the inherent problem associated with this verse. If you’re not familiar with previous content, I’ll let you in on a little secret: The biblical record affirms that Paul certified, endorsed and had mad love for women of his evangelistic team. These women included, as previously mentioned: prophets, teachers, preachers, deacons, matrons, congregational leaders and at least one apostle. And to think that Paul would advocate women be silent—can’t teach, preach, prophesy or pray publicly–and then be in subjection to men (or whoever) simply because they’re female, is contrary to the character and person we’ve all come to know and love.

 

The other problem associated with this verse is key: Where would Paul get the idea that women must be silent and subject to men? Is it a Torah command? Did Y’shua or the Holy Spirit pass that instruction on to him? There’s no indication as to the inspirational source of this instruction.

 

The one cool thing that so many people tend to overlook when reading or studying this verse is Paul’s admonishment that women be afforded the opportunity to learn the elements of their Faith. It’s right there in black and white. Paul says “Let the woman learn.” And what we’ll find as we continue on in our study of this passage is the immense relevance of this verse to the entire passage. For contrary to the conventions of Judaism, which we all know Paul grew-up in; was educated in, and zealously practiced, Jewish women were not afforded formal education opportunities whatsoever. So for Paul to break out and promote female education here is huge! Indeed, he was a revolutionary bar none if not for this one single instruction.

 

Verse 12 reads:

 

“But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence” (KJV). 

 

Problem 4—Women Prohibited from Teaching 

Of course this problem is founded in problem 3 above from the standpoint of knowing that Paul promoted the teaching ministries of a number of women on his evangelistic team. So knowing this fact exists and was well documented by Luke in his Acts of the Apostles and throughout a number of Paul’s very own letters, the question must be asked: how can Paul say here that he doesn’t advocate women teaching, which would by default require women to have some authority over men? You know, the teacher-student relationship requires that the student be subject to the teacher, otherwise, learning would be hampered. So is Paul flip-flopping on this issue? Is he two-faced? It just doesn’t make any sense does it? 

At least in this verse—which I’m happy to point out—Paul gives the source of this prohibition against women teachers. The source is him. For Paul writes: “…I suffer…” which strongly suggests that he was the sole source of this instruction.  

Verses 13-15 reads as follows: 

“For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Not withstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety” (KJV). 

 

Problem 5—Adam and Eve and Salvation 

The whole Adam and Eve inclusion here in this passage is extremely mysterious and problematic on a few levels. 

The first level of concern is that it doesn’t fit. What does the story of Adam and Eve have to do with women teaching or being improperly attired or being in silence? And since there is no obvious reason for Paul to include the Adam and Eve story into his instructions here, people have decided to make up stuff to fill in the missing pieces. One of the made-up things is that Paul used the Adam and Eve story to justify the prohibitions he placed on women here in our focus passage. Okay. If that’s what it takes to get you through a day. 

The other level of concern which is actually the big elephant in the room has to do with Paul’s assertion that women are saved through childbearing which is contrary to what we’ve been taught in other parts of the bible. We know that salvation is a free gift from YHVH and it was facilitated by the sacrifice of our Master Y’shua Messiah. 

It was Paul himself who wrote: 

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23; KJV). 

So how then does Paul get away with stating that female salvation is had through childbearing? What happens to a woman who cannot have children or who sadly dies before even having the opportunity to bear a child? Are these hopelessly lost?

 

Fortunately, I have some answers to these problematic questions. As well as I think I may have some reasonable explanations why Paul included the Adam and Eve saga into this portion of his letter. And those reasonable explanations will have nothing to do with justifying his stated prohibitions against.

 

The Context of 1 Timothy—False Teachings and a Word of Encouragement and Instruction

 

If we are intent on properly interpreting this above passage, we must understand first and foremost that Paul’s concern here was not church organization, nor was it an indictment against women leadership in the assemblies of Messiah. This is a popular teaching in most churchianity congregations and not too few Hebrew Roots/Messianic groups.

 

The truth of the matter, based on context, is that 1 Timothy had one purpose and one purpose only: to address “the teaching of false doctrine by both men and women” (Eddie Hyatt; pg. 88).

 

Consider 1 Timothy 1:3 which reads:

 

“When I left for Macedonia, I asked you to stay behind in Ephesus so that you could instruct certain individuals not to spread wrong teaching” (CEB).

 

Our focus phrase here is “wrong teaching” which in ancient Greek is “heterodidaskelein,” which simply means a “different doctrine” (ibn; pg. 88).

 

Almost right off the bat we find contained here in this single verse a summary of Timothy’s entire marching orders: to confront false teachings in Ephesus. Period.

 

Now, Paul’s marching orders to Timothy was to deal with the ongoing false teachings in the Ephesian Assembly, but the purpose of the letter was to “encourage and instruct him (ie., you Timothy) in his unpleasant task” (ibn; pg. 89).

 

Thus, once we have this essential, foundational information firmly embedded in our noggins, we are better set to accurately interpret what Paul actually meant in our focus passage of 1 Timothy 2:9-15.

 

The established convention of 1 Timothy somehow being a modern day manual for church organization is churchianity pablum, plain and simple (personal). It’s a ploy by the enemy to quash the voices and talents of women in the Body of Messiah. Again plain and simple. And for a long while I fell pray to that pablum. I’ve since repented and have determined to set the record straight as Yah provides.

 

I touched briefly upon the issue of Pauline passages such as 1 Timothy 2:11-15 being the handy-work of ambitious, misogynistic scribes and not that of Paul. Those who advocate such thinking point to the Greek wording in these troublesome texts being noticeably different from Paul’s other writings. Thus a plain read of such passages as 1 Timothy 2:11-15 and 1 Corinthians 14:34,35 on the surface seem to contradict what we’ve already established as Paul’s pro-women position in the Body and Assemblies of Messiah.  

Call To Action: 

In closing I want to leave you with a couple take-aways: 

1. Let this be a primer that helps you to recognize and understand the level of dedication you must have to study scripture; especially study Paul’s writings. Paul’s writings cannot be read in a casual manner as so many within and without our Faith so often do. The man is deep and his writings are as Peter described, at times hard to understand (2 Pet. 3:16). And it is those hard to understand writings that people tend to twist which ultimately has the potential of bringing about their own spiritual destruction.

So then if we are to grasp the great things that Father has for us, especially those things contained in His eternal Word, we must be willing do the hard work of searching out the Truth. And that’s what I’ve tried to do here for you in the hopes that you will in turn take this content where I’ve left it and take it to the next level by conducting your own studies. 

King Solomon wrote: 

“It is the glory of Elohim to conceal a thing; but the glory of kings is to search out a matter” (Pro. 25:2; ASV).  

2. The message of this post—as well as that of the entire series—requires you to do something with it. If you’re a woman of Faith and you know there’s a call on your life to serve the Kingdom of Yah, you must not let anything or any person stop you from fulfilling your call. You must do what you were hired to do. If you’re a man of Faith and you have women in your fellowship, congregation or assembly and you’ve suppressed their voices and their skills and their talents because you bought into churchianity’s erroneous interpretations of some of Paul’s writings and teachings, you need to repent and make it right. Otherwise, of course, you have the freedom to leave what we’ve discussed here today and throughout this series alone and continue the practice of silencing Yah’s people. But at the end of the day, we all have to account for our deeds and what we’ve done for the Kingdom.

And last, have a blessed but powerful week in Y’shua Messiah my friend in the Faith once delivered. Until next time, may you be most blessed fellow saints in training. Shavu’tov. Take care.