Question: Can a woman teach???
Answer: She not only can but she MUST!
Hear the WORD of the LORD:
Tit. 2:3-5 The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
As all can read above,women not only can but MUST teach.
Older women teach the younger women so that the next generation of younger women may be taught these same things by those who were once the younger women of the text. And so on...and so on...and so on.
The question to be asked is who are they to teach,what are they to teach,why,when,how,etc.
Who? Younger women(and children)
What? 'Teachers of good things',i.e. sobriety, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands.
Why? That the word of God be not blasphemed.
When? At all times
How? By example
Furthermore,
1 Cor. 14:33-37 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. Let your women be keeping silent in the assemblies, for it has not been permitted to them to be speaking, but to be subjecting themselves, just as also the Law says. But if they desire to learn anything, let them be questioning their own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for women to be speaking in an assembly. Or did the word of God go out from you? Or did it come to you alone?
If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge what I write to you, that they are commandments of the Lord. But if any man is ignorant, let him be ignorant. Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak in languages. Let all things be done decently, and in order.
Let us carefully examine the meaning of these words.
RE: “keep silence” (verse 34 - KJV) -
The Greek word here for 'keep silence' is SIGATOOSAN, the present, imperative form of SIGAOO.
Three Greek lexicons say?
1) Analytical: 'To be silent, keep silence';
2) Thayer: 'To keep silence, hold one's peace';
3) Arndt & Gingrich: 'Be silent, keep still ... in the senses:
a. say nothing, keep silent ... b. stop speaking, become silent ... c. hold one's tongue, keep something (a) secret.'
A.&G. classify 1 Corinthians 14:34 under meaning:
a. 'say nothing, keep silent'.
Here are all passages in the NT where SIGAOO is found:
Luke 9:36 - "And they kept silence and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen."
Luke 18:39 - "And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent."
Luke 20:26 - "But marveling at his answer they were silent."
Acts 12:17 - "But motioning to them with his hand to be silent..."
Acts 15:12 - "And all the assembly kept silence."
Acts 15:13 - "And after they finished speaking..."
Romans 16:25 - "Kept secret for long ages".
1 Corinthians 14:28 - "But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silence in church" [referring to speaking in foreign languages].
1 Corinthians 14:30 - "If a revelation is made to another sitting by, let the first be silent."
1 Corinthians 14:33,34 - "As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silence in the churches."
The Greek word for 'speak' ("For they are not permitted to speak," "For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church") is LALEIN, infinitive of LALEOO.
This is the common word for 'speaking'. It does not have the special meaning of 'speaking noisily'.
In the text we have laleo directly defined for us: "Let your women keep silent", "for it is not permitted to them to speak".
"Keep silent" – "speak": these are the two opposites; and the one defines the other.
"Not Permitted" - Greek=Epitrepo - (emphatically, in the highest form) not allowed, not turned over or transferred, not given liberty, license, or leave, not suffered.
"Shame" - Greek=alscitron - an indecorum, from a Greek word meaning deformed.
If a woman speaks in the ecclesia, it is a deformity to the beautiful order set out by God.
Paul emphasizes "the commandments of the Lord" concerning the ecclesia that "all things be done decently and in order."
The Greek word for "decently" (euschemon) means "well-formed, noble in rank, decorous, comely, honorable" and the Greek word for "order" (taxis) means "regular arrangement, fixed succession of rank or character, official dignity."
For God is not the author of confusion (disorder).
"It is important to observe, now, that the pivot on which the injunction of these verses turns is not the prohibition of speaking so much as the command of silence. That is the main injunction. The prohibition of speech is introduced only to explain the meaning more fully. What Paul says is in brief: "Let the women keep silent in the churches." That surely is direct and specific enough for all needs. He then adds explanatorily: "For it is not permitted to them to speak." "It is not permitted" is an appeal to a general law, valid apart from Paul's personal command, and looks back to the opening phrase – “as in all the churches of the saints." He is only requiring the Corinthian women to conform to the general law of the churches. And that is the meaning of the almost bitter words that he adds in verse 36, in which – reproaching them for the innovation of permitting women to speak in the churches – he reminds them that they are not the authors of the Gospel, nor are they its sole possessors: let them keep to the law that binds the whole body of churches and not be seeking some newfangled way of their own.
The intermediate verses only make it plain that precisely what the apostle is doing is forbidding women to speak at all in the church. His injunction of silence he pushes so far that he forbids them even to ask questions; and adds with special reference to that, but through that to the general matter, the crisp declaration that "it is indecent" – for that is the meaning of the word – “for a woman to speak in church."
It would be impossible for the apostle to speak more directly or more emphatically than he has done here. He requires women to be silent at the church meetings; for that is what "in the churches" means, there were no church buildings then. And he has not left us in doubt as to the nature of these church meetings. He had just described them in verses 26. They were of the general character of our prayer meetings. Note the words "let him be silent in the church" in verse 30, and compare them with "let them be silent in the churches" in verse 34. The prohibition of women speaking covers thus all public church meetings – it is the publicity, not the formality of it, which is the point. And he tells us repeatedly that this is the universal law of the church. He does more than that. He tells us that it is the commandment of the Lord, and emphasizes the word "Lord" (verse 37)." (B.W.)
1 Tim. 2:11-14 Let a woman be learning in quietness with all submission. But I do not permit a woman to be teaching, nor to be exerting dominance over a man, but to be in quietness. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman, having been deceived, has come to be in transgression.
"Suffer not- KJV" - Greek=Epitrepo (emphatically, in the highest form) not allowed, not turned over or transferred, not given liberty, license, or leave, not suffered. This is the same word translated "not permitted" in 1 Corinthians 14:34.
"To Teach" - Greek=Didaske - to teach - this is the common word for teach.
A woman may be wiser, more capable, and better versed in the Scriptures than some men. But this is not the point.
These verses direct the women's sphere of influence to its rightful place - the home and family - where great good may be accomplished in bringing up children, showing hospitality, and working quietly to comfort and relieve the sick and sorrowful, and many other good works. Women have just as much responsibility and obligation as men to "always abound in the work of the Lord," and to give their whole lives in total, loving service.
"Usurp Authority" - Greek=Authenteo - to grasp, to seize wrongfully, to act of oneself.
This is exactly what happened to Eve in the Garden. She acted of herself which resulted in sin and grief. Eve should have looked to Adam (for whom she was made) for spiritual judgment, rather than acting on her own.
"The passage in 1 Timothy 2:11. is just as strong, although it is more particularly directed to the specific case of public teaching in the church. The apostle had already in this context (verse 8, "the men," in contrast with “women” of verse 9) pointedly confined public praying to men, and now continues: "Let a woman learn in silence in all subjection; but I do not permit the woman to teach, neither to rule over the man, but to be in silence." Neither the teaching nor the ruling function is permitted to woman. The apostle says here, "I do not permit," instead of as in 1 Corinthians 14:33., "it is not permitted," because he is here giving his personal instructions to Timothy, his subordinate, while there he was announcing to the Corinthians the general law of the church. What he instructs Timothy, however, is the general law of the church. And so he goes on and grounds his prohibition in a universal reason which affects the entire race equally.
What must be noted in conclusion is, that the prohibition of speaking in the church to women is precise, absolute, and all-inclusive. They are to keep silent in the churches –and that means in all the public meetings for worship; they are not even to ask questions. The grounds on which the prohibition is put are universal and turn on the difference in sex, and particularly on the relative places given to the sexes in creation and in the fundamental history of the race (the fall).
Perhaps it ought to be added in elucidation of the last point just made that the difference in conclusions between Paul and the feminist movement of today is rooted in a fundamental difference in their points of view relative to the constitution of the human race. To Paul, the human race is made up of families, and every several organism – the church included – is composed of families, united together by this or that bond. The relation of the sexes in the family follow it therefore into the church. To the feminist movement the human race is made up of individuals; a woman is just another individual by the side of the man, and it can see no reason for any differences in dealing with the two. And, indeed, if we can ignore the great fundamental natural difference of sex and destroy the great fundamental social unit of the family in the interest of individualism, there does not seem any reason why we should not wipe out the differences established by Paul between the sexes in the church – except, of course, the authority of Paul. It all, in the end, comes back to the authority of the apostles, as founders of the church. We may like what Paul says, or we may not like it. We may be willing to do what he commands, or we may not be willing to do it. But there is no room for doubt of what he says. And he certainly would say to us what he said to the Corinthians: "What? Was it from you that the word of God went forth? Or came it to you alone?" Is this Christianity ours – to do with as we like? Or is it God's alone, receiving its laws from him through the apostles?" (B.W.)
There is congruity in all the ways of God when the relations established by His law are observed. Man is the head, but only for nurture and protection and honour of the woman. Woman is man's equal fellow-heir of the salvation that is offered in Christ, but not to usurp the position that belongs to a man both by natural constitution and divine appointment. When both are conformed to the image of Christ, the two form a beautiful unit - "heirs together of the grace of life."
