Continuing to Piece Together the Whole Picture for Women

There is so much I can share on this next part, especially with the pagan cultural lens. Paul’s first letter to Timothy includes correcting issues arising in the Ephesian church stemming from the toxic syncretic cocktail of pagan cults, proto - gnostics and other harmful influences shared in PART 2. Timothy is ministering with many new believers that converted from the pagan cults (Acts 19), yet some still cling to their old beliefs and practices (1 Tim 1:6,19-20, 2:9-15, 3:2,12, 4:1, 7, 5:13, 15, 24, 6:3-5,20-21) bringing this syncretism into the family of God, and it is causing problems, especially with certain people (1 Tim 1:3, 19-20, 2:12-15). 

Pagan Practices Infiltrating New Churches in Ephesus

GENERAL PROBLEM: Men were angry (Greek orges is a violent anger) and quarreling / fighting / complaining with others. For some unknown reason, possibly related to how the new believers had worshipped Artemis in the past, some had a bad attitude and did not raise their hands in prayer. 

UNIVERSAL CORRECTION: Paul is encouraging the men to pray with a humble, honoring, respectful attitude, including giving them permission to lift their hands as the Jewish people everywhere did regularly. The OT is full of God’s invitations for us to lift our hands in prayer and worship. The Hebrew yadah literally means to extend the hands. Something we are all invited to do in our worship and prayers. Strong's Hebrew: 3034. יָדָה (yadah) -- To give thanks, to praise, to confess used over 100 times in the OT! God, in His Word, gives everyone, men and women, permission to worship in a variety of ways that includes a physical expression of raising our hands! How beautiful is that!

Along with that, there is a powerful unity in Spirit, when we pray together. There is a stat that the divorce rates drop from 1 in 2-3 marriages to 1 in ten thousand when couples consistently pray together! Another stat indicates it’s about one in a thousand - Which is still amazing!  Praying together brings beautiful unity as not only as husband and wife, but also as brothers and sisters in the Lord! 

There were women with the Disciples in the upper room. Jesus’ mother Mary, Peter and the other disciples had to work it out between them after Peter denied Jesus and all the Disciples abandoned Jesus, but Scripture tells us they were in one accord.

GENERAL PROBLEM: Wealthy women wearing expensive clothes, jewelry with elaborate hair (1 Timothy 2:9-10)

This is how wealthy women, priestesses and devotees would worship Artemis, especially in her festivals and processions to her temple, with much regalia, it seems some of the new converts continued to do so, possibly including when the Way gathered for worship. 

UNIVERSAL CORRECTION: Likewise, the women along with the men are to have a humble, honoring, respectful attitude, without competing for superiority over the men (possible problem for the new converts from Artemis & other goddess cults). In addition, Paul is also encouraging women to dress in normal clothes, not to show off their wealth, or wear seductive clothing similar to what was worn by temple priestesses, prostitutes, devotees, because as Christians it’s about our heart and character, not outward appearance. 

There are many different views on these verses of how to practically apply this for today, as people tried to understand it without awareness of the pagan cultural context. You can read more about the cultural context here.

GENERAL PROBLEM: New converts were not ready to teach, lacked understanding of the truths of the Scriptures and the law (1 Tim 1:7, 3:6 &10).

SPECIFIC PROBLEM: A certain woman wanted to teach and/or was teaching in some manner, but needed to learn more first (1 Tim 2:11-12).

 Note that Paul switches from plural women in v9-10 to a singular woman in v11-12. This specific woman is reasonably likely one of the “certain people” in 1:3 that Paul is specifically addressing in this letter. She’s not named, unlike the two men in 1 Tim 1:19-20, but she is a problem for a specific man (per v12 & possibly her husband) and for Timothy. This is the only imperative command in this section.

UNIVERSAL CORRECTION: Paul is very careful with the words he chooses. In addition to that, he is writing under the inspiration of Holy Spirit. Amazingly, Paul’s solution was giving permission for this woman to learn! Paul commands Timothy to give her opportunities to learn about her new beliefs & faith, in a calm and quiet manner (not silence/speechlessness per a number of translations) if she is willing to humbly cooperate and let others teach her, as is the appropriate manner for anyone learning. 

This is a profound and significant shift, challenging traditional views on gender roles and the church structure. so beautiful and encouraging, especially for women back then as men thought it was a waste of time to teach women. 

This calm, humble, respectful attitude that we all should have in the learning process is possibly the opposite of an arrogant, angry (including violent per v 8), competitive, ecstatic, frenzied, noisy chaos this woman (and man per v12) might have experienced in the pagan cults, especially if they were new converts and if this specific woman had been in a pagan priestess position of power (I am not including the link to support this, because it includes other dark and disturbing practices).

BIG PROBLEM: Now we get to verse 12 that traditionally is the key verse to limit women in teaching and positions of authority especially, but not exclusively, in the Church. 

BIG PROBLEM: Now we get to verse 12 that traditionally is the key verse to limit women in teaching and positions of authority especially, but not exclusively, in the Church. 

1 Timothy 2:12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; she is to remain quiet.  This verse will get at least one entire post on its own, maybe more, as so much debate with this verse has happened over the last 2000 years. I pray it will be helpful to take a deeper look at it with the information from historical sources now accessible with the internet. Personally, it has been a rich treasure hunt.

Also please note, and a reminder from PART 1, the rare Greek word authentein translated as “usurp authority” / “authority” / “exercise authority” / in modern translations (last 510 years since Erasmus) is only used this one time in the NT and its limited use through history has become quite muddled as the meaning has morphed over the ages. This added much confusion over this verse. It might seem clear in today’s English, but this rare word adds a very different context than the commonly used “exousia” used around 100 times in the NT for authority.  This long, long history of authentein will probably get its own post, or be a supplement with a shorter summary posted.