Friday, April 1, 2011
Women in Leadership
This article was entitled “Our Journey toward Women in Leadership, Part 2,” and was written by Bob Hyatt, a pastor from Evergreen, Oregon. While most of us have probably read more than we can remember regarding the pros and cons of women in ministry, I think that Hyatt brings up some interesting points as to why women should be allowed to minister and lead within the church. In this article, Hyatt turns to the difficult and much debated passage 1Timothy 2:11-12. I liked that Hyatt chose this particular passage, as this seems to be the passage most often used to defend the restriction of women from church leadership. In this article, Hyatt offers two contextual background points into what Paul was saying in 1 Timothy 2. The first point is one that is often cited when giving the background for 1 Timothy 2. The church which Timothy was leading was located in Ephesus, which had a large temple for the goddess Artemis. Because women had a prime role in this pagan religion, Paul was warning Timothy that the women should not claim a privileged position in the church. This is why he said that women, much like men, should learn in quietness and submissiveness. The second point was one that I had not heard before, and one I found particularly compelling. Hyatt said that when Paul says “women are saved through childbirth," he is refuting the heretical teaching from the Gospel of Thomas, which taught that women should become like men in order to receive salvation.
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While I may agree with some of the conclusions made in this article, I have to say that the arguments based on the 1 Timothy passage do not hold much weight and fall short of getting us to those conclusions. For instance, the argument that the reference to “women are saved through childbirth” is refuting the heretical teaching found in the Gospel of Thomas has no historical basis. The Gospel of Thomas, which is often given the label of a Gnostic Gospel, was written toward the end of the 1st century according to the most liberal views, but was more than likely written well into the 2nd century. Gnosticism did not become a major threat to the Church until the 2nd century and into the 3rd. The Gospel of Thomas has its earliest reference in Hippolytus of Rome (c. 222-235) and Origen (c. 233). I find it difficult to believe that Paul was combating Gnostic teachings as early as the middle of the first century, as this tendency appears nowhere else in his extant writings and does not come about until decades after him. The phrase, “women are saved through childbirth,” could be an anti-abortion phrase, and I will post the reference to an article once I can find it.
ReplyDelete-Wes Sutermeister
The reference is to Bruce W. Winter's book, "Roman Wives, Roman Widows" (pp. 109-112) in discussing 1 Tim. 2:15a. Excellent discussion of all the issues.
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