Primary Passage: 1 Timothy 2:8–15
Related Passages: 1 Corinthians 11:2–16; 14:26–40; Acts 18:24–28; Romans 16:1–16; Titus 2:3–5
Topic: Women, Teaching, and Ministry in the Church
Women, Teaching, and Ministry in the New Testament
Few New Testament teachings have produced more disagreement than Paul’s words about women teaching in the Church. Some readers make his restrictions so absolute that they conflict with ministries he expressly recognizes elsewhere. Others minimize the restrictions until they have little practical meaning. A sound interpretation must allow all the relevant passages to speak—and must distinguish among Christian witness, prophecy, personal instruction, diaconal service, and the authoritative teaching and governing office of the assembled Church.
“I Don’t Permit a Woman to Teach”
1 Timothy 2:11–15
11 Let a woman learn in quietness with full submission. 12 But I don’t permit a woman to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man, but to be in quietness. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 Adam wasn’t deceived, but the woman, being deceived, has fallen into disobedience; 15 but she will be saved through her childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with sobriety.
The first command deserves notice: “Let a woman learn.” Women are disciples and are to be instructed in the faith. The disputed words concern teaching and exercising authority over a man. The surrounding verses address conduct in worship, and Paul grounds his instruction not merely in a local Ephesian problem but in the creation of Adam and Eve.
A. T. Robertson (1863–1934) was a Southern Baptist theologian who taught New Testament at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for nearly fifty years. One of the leading Greek scholars of his generation, he wrote the monumental Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research and the six-volume Word Pictures in the New Testament. Robertson understands Paul to mean teaching “in the public meeting.” He explains the rare verb translated “exercise authority” as acting as master or autocrat—domineering over a man. Yet he candidly acknowledges that “something is not expressed here to make it all clear,” since Christians have commonly recognized legitimate teaching ministries for women.1
St. John Chrysostom (about AD 347–407), Archbishop of Constantinople, was one of the greatest preachers and biblical interpreters of the early Church. His name means “Golden-Mouthed,” a tribute to his eloquence. Because he was a native Greek speaker living much nearer the apostolic age, his understanding of Paul is especially valuable. Chrysostom reads Paul’s restriction firmly, but defines its boundary carefully. He refers to the bema, the raised platform, or teaching seat, from which Scripture was read and publicly expounded before the assembled Church:
“He means to hinder her from publicly coming forward, and from the seat on the bema, not from the word of teaching.”2
Chrysostom distinguishes occupying that public teacher’s seat from beneficial instruction in another setting. He immediately cites Priscilla and says Paul did not forbid “private conversing for advantage.” The restriction concerns the authoritative public teaching office, not every occasion on which a woman may teach a man.
Paul’s appeal to Adam and Eve makes it difficult to dismiss the passage as nothing more than a temporary response to uneducated women in Ephesus. Yet it does not declare every man wiser or holier than every woman. Chrysostom’s praise of Priscilla prevents that interpretation. Paul describes order within the Church; he does not confer intellectual or spiritual superiority upon every male Christian.
Women Prayed and Prophesied
1 Corinthians 11:4–5
4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. 5 But every woman praying or prophesying with her head unveiled dishonors her head. For it is one and the same thing as if she were shaved.
Whatever conclusions one reaches about head coverings, Paul plainly assumes that women prayed and prophesied. The question here is how they were to do so, not whether the gifts could be theirs. Chrysostom confirms this natural reading, observing that women possessed the gift of prophecy, as did the four daughters of Philip in Acts 21:9.3 Peter’s Pentecost sermon likewise quotes Joel’s promise that “your sons and your daughters will prophesy” (Acts 2:17; Joel 2:28).
Prophecy, however, was not identical with the settled pastoral office. A prophetic utterance remained subject to the Church’s discernment, while bishops and presbyters bore continuing responsibility for guarding and expounding the apostolic faith.
“Let the Women Keep Silent”
1 Corinthians 14:34–35
34 Let the wives keep silent in the assemblies, for it has not been permitted for them to be talking, but to be in subjection, as the law also says. 35 If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is shameful for a wife to be talking in the assembly.
The Greek word translated “wives” in the WEB can mean either “women” or “wives”; the references to their own husbands lead the WEB to choose “wives” here. In either case, an absolute ban upon every female utterance would contradict Paul’s acknowledgment three chapters earlier that women pray and prophesy. The chapter addresses disorder in worship: speakers must not talk over one another, and questions that disrupt the assembly are to be asked at home.
The commanded silence is therefore contextual rather than perpetual muteness. Chrysostom identifies the problem as unseasonable speech and purposeless talking. Paul’s governing conclusion is, “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40).4
Priscilla Instructs Apollos
Acts 18:24–26
24 Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the Scriptures. 25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
A woman thus participated in the theological instruction of a gifted male preacher. Robertson notes that Priscilla is often named before Aquila and says that they—“particularly Priscilla”—supplied what was missing from Apollos’s knowledge. He calls their work “a needed and delicate task” and observes that ministers learn through contact with both men and women who are rich in grace and in the knowledge of God.5
This episode illustrates Chrysostom’s distinction precisely. Priscilla did not claim the public teaching seat or pastoral government of the Ephesian church. She and her husband received Apollos privately and corrected him. Her sex did not disqualify her wisdom, nor did it make Apollos unable to learn from her.
Women Commanded to Teach
Titus 2:3–5
3 Likewise, older women should be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good, 4 that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be sober minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that God’s word may not be blasphemed.
Paul calls older women “teachers of that which is good.” Robertson describes this as “a sorely needed mission.”6 First Timothy 2:12 therefore cannot mean that all teaching is intrinsically forbidden to women. Paul himself assigns women a teaching ministry. The limitation concerns the setting, recipients, and authority of the teaching.
Phoebe, Deaconess of Cenchreae
Romans 16:1–2
1 I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the assembly that is at Cenchreae, 2 that you receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and that you assist her in whatever matter she may need from you, for she herself also has been a helper of many, and of my own self.
The WEB renders the Greek diakonos as “servant.” The same word may mean servant, minister, or deacon. Robertson notes that it might be used generally, but judges that the phrase “of the church” favors its technical sense: Phoebe was a deaconess of the church at Cenchreae. He similarly understands the women of 1 Timothy 3:11 as probably women serving as deacons rather than merely deacons’ wives.7
Chrysostom takes Phoebe’s title seriously:
“He mentions her before all the others and calls her ‘sister’ … and he adds to her status by calling her ‘deacon.’”8
The ancient Church knew an actual order of deaconesses. The Apostolic Constitutions directs a bishop to ordain a faithful and holy deaconess for ministry to women, particularly in connection with women’s baptisms. It also distinguishes her ministry from the sacramental responsibilities of presbyters and male deacons: she does not offer the Eucharist or perform priestly functions.9
Phoebe is not presented as a female presbyter or bishop. She is, however, decisive evidence that women held recognized, honored, and accountable ministries in the apostolic Church.
Women Who Labored in the Gospel
The New Testament presents many other women as active servants of Christ:
- Mary Magdalene announced the Resurrection to the apostles (John 20:17–18). Orthodox tradition honors her as “Equal to the Apostles,” though she was neither one of the Twelve nor a presbyter.
- Junia is named with Andronicus among Paul’s notable fellow prisoners and apostolic laborers (Romans 16:7).
- Euodia and Syntyche “labored with” Paul in the Gospel (Philippians 4:2–3).
- Mary, Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis are praised for hard labor in the Lord (Romans 16:6, 12).
- Lois and Eunice transmitted sincere faith and knowledge of Scripture to Timothy (2 Timothy 1:5; 3:14–15).
Chrysostom praises such women as “more spirited than lions,” sharing the apostles’ dangers, journeys, expenses, and Gospel labors.10 The apostolic restriction did not reduce women to passive spectators.
Equality in Christ and Distinction of Ministry
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
—Galatians 3:28
Men and women share equally in baptism, salvation, holiness, and the inheritance of God’s promise. This equality does not make every ecclesial function interchangeable, any more than oneness in Christ erased all differences between Jew and Greek or altered every social relationship in the first-century Church.
Paul also guards order from becoming contempt: “Nevertheless, neither is the woman independent of the man, nor the man independent of the woman, in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:11). Chrysostom says Paul adds this so men will not be elevated beyond measure or women unduly diminished: “all things are of God.”11
An Orthodox Synthesis
The relevant passages become clearer when activities too often collapsed into the single word ministry are distinguished:
- Witness and evangelism: Women announce Christ and labor for the Gospel.
- Prayer and prophecy: Women exercise gifts given by the Holy Spirit within the Church’s order.
- Personal and catechetical instruction: Women teach children, other women, converts, and—like Priscilla—men who can profit from their wisdom.
- Diaconal service: Phoebe and the historic deaconesses exercise recognized ecclesial ministry, particularly to women and in works of mercy.
- Authoritative public teaching and pastoral government: Bishops and presbyters bear responsibility for teaching and governing the assembled Church. In the patristic reading, this is the sphere chiefly addressed by 1 Timothy 2.
This understanding avoids two opposite errors. One makes Paul forbid activities that Paul plainly depicts women performing. The other treats every form of Christian service as identical with priestly presidency and authoritative public teaching. Scripture and the Fathers recognize both the breadth of women’s ministry and the order of ecclesial office.
Phoebe provides a fitting final image. Paul does not merely permit her to help quietly in the background. He names her, commends her recognized service to an entire church, and commands fellow Christians to assist her:
I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the assembly that is at Cenchreae.
—Romans 16:1
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB).
1 A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, commentary on 1 Timothy 2.
2 St. John Chrysostom, Homily 31 on Romans.
3 St. John Chrysostom, Homily 26 on 1 Corinthians.
4 St. John Chrysostom, Homily 37 on 1 Corinthians.
5 A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, commentary on Acts 18.
6 A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, commentary on Titus 2.
7 A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, commentary on Romans 16, and commentary on 1 Timothy 3.
8 St. John Chrysostom, Homily on Romans 16:1–2.
9 Apostolic Constitutions, Book III, and Book VIII.
10 St. John Chrysostom, Homily 31 on Romans.
11 St. John Chrysostom, Homily 26 on 1 Corinthians.