Women Teaching
Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 1:06 am
Hi Steve (or anyone who would like to comment),
I had thought that the passage in 1 Timothy 2:12 where Paul said "I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over a man, but to be in silence" (KJV), even if understood in the strictest sense, did not restrict a woman from teaching other women, as Paul in Titus 2:3-5 seems to indicate:
Titus 2:3-5 (King James Version)
3. The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
4. That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
5. To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
Here Paul appears to instruct the older women to teach the younger, but he does not use the same Greek word didasko that he used in forbidding women from teaching men in Timothy (if that is what he meant). In the passage in Titus, the Greek word in v. 13 translated "teachers" is Kalodidaskalos which has the following meaning:
Strong's Number: 2567 kalodida/skalov
Original Word Word Origin
kalodida/skalov from (2570) and (1320)
Transliterated Word Phonetic Spelling
Kalodidaskalos kal-od-id-as'-kal-os
Parts of Speech TDNT
Adjective 2:159,161
Definition
teaching that which is good, a teacher of goodness
In the context, it seems that the teaching Paul had in mind is as stated in Titus 2:4, which is not exactly expository in nature, but is in regard to their general behavior, and could even include teaching by example. And in v. 4 the word "teach" is the Greek word sophronizo which does not appear to mean "teach" in the expository sense either, but means "admonish", etc., as in later translations:
Strong's Number: 4994 swfroniðzw
Original Word Word Origin
swfroniðzw from (4998)
Transliterated Word Phonetic Spelling
Sophronizo so-fron-id'-zo
Parts of Speech TDNT
Verb 7:1104,1150
Definition
restore one to his senses
to moderate, control, curb, disciple
to hold one to his duty
to admonish, to exhort earnestly
Are there any New Testament texts which support public expository teaching by women, even of other women?
I had thought that the passage in 1 Timothy 2:12 where Paul said "I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over a man, but to be in silence" (KJV), even if understood in the strictest sense, did not restrict a woman from teaching other women, as Paul in Titus 2:3-5 seems to indicate:
Titus 2:3-5 (King James Version)
3. The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
4. That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
5. To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
Here Paul appears to instruct the older women to teach the younger, but he does not use the same Greek word didasko that he used in forbidding women from teaching men in Timothy (if that is what he meant). In the passage in Titus, the Greek word in v. 13 translated "teachers" is Kalodidaskalos which has the following meaning:
Strong's Number: 2567 kalodida/skalov
Original Word Word Origin
kalodida/skalov from (2570) and (1320)
Transliterated Word Phonetic Spelling
Kalodidaskalos kal-od-id-as'-kal-os
Parts of Speech TDNT
Adjective 2:159,161
Definition
teaching that which is good, a teacher of goodness
In the context, it seems that the teaching Paul had in mind is as stated in Titus 2:4, which is not exactly expository in nature, but is in regard to their general behavior, and could even include teaching by example. And in v. 4 the word "teach" is the Greek word sophronizo which does not appear to mean "teach" in the expository sense either, but means "admonish", etc., as in later translations:
Strong's Number: 4994 swfroniðzw
Original Word Word Origin
swfroniðzw from (4998)
Transliterated Word Phonetic Spelling
Sophronizo so-fron-id'-zo
Parts of Speech TDNT
Verb 7:1104,1150
Definition
restore one to his senses
to moderate, control, curb, disciple
to hold one to his duty
to admonish, to exhort earnestly
Are there any New Testament texts which support public expository teaching by women, even of other women?