If God is good then 1 Timothy can't be bad

1 Timothy 2:11-15

11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

First things first. I'm no theologian but I'm grateful to the many amazing voices and brains who've dedicated time, faith and energy to the Word. Second thing... This passage is HARD so the second thing is actually the most important thing. When reading passages like this, which on the surface really seem to subjugate women, we have to remember the premise which underwrites everything we know. God is good. That's it, full stop, no "God is good... but...", Psalm 107:1 says "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever". Not for a short time, or a specified time, but forever. And if we are to hold up a standard of what good is, then we need look no further than God, as Jesus said, in Luke 18:19 that only God is good. It is his interpretation of scripture we look for and his context, not the frailty of humanity, when we look to the texts and wonder, when we see verses like these, can this really be good for women?

11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.

Strange as it may seem, this first verse actually causes me the least angst. First of all it bucks all the norms of 1st century living. Women didn't learn, or if they did, it was only to know enough to serve the family and husband. Paul commanded that women learn. Jesus regularly encouraged women to learn and be discipled by him. All of us must learn the Bible in full submission to God. This was completely counter culture to the prevailing society norms of the first century and so as it stands it's probably one of the more feminist statements in the New Testament. Women should learn.

12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.

We need to go back to the Greek to get to the bottom of this commonly quoted by complementarians verse. The word authority in this context and in this verse is 'authentein' or 'authenteo'. It is used only once in the bible. Yet the word 'authority' in the widely accepted form, often in the context of the 'authority' of God, is used multiple times throughout the bible, suggesting in this context that Paul was addressing a singular and specific issue. So what is different here? 

First turn to context. What was happening that caused Paul to write to Timothy at this time? Timothy was a young leader and Paul was helping him to navigate leadership. There was some indication that his youth was serving as a barrier to some of his congregation. This was a young (early) church with a gifted, but young leader. Paul also started his letter with an admonishment to deter 'certain people' from teaching false doctrine, myths and promoting 'controversial speculation' (1 Tim 1:3-4). Ephesus was a society with deep roots in mysticism and the goddess Artemis. The Artemis priesthood was dominated by women, with men even having to denounce their masculinity to participate. As we know, the issue with deeply held beliefs is that they can be hard to break. This culture had some deep-seated beliefs about the dominance of women over men in the religious context which needed to be addressed. So in his letter Paul was teaching into a specific context. In this context, the word 'authentein' is describing a negative connotation of the word. It is authority in the worst sense, that the target of such authority are being forced and authority has not been granted in the proper way. In Greek history it is a violent and even murderous word. It is about domination and control, rather than the proper authority of God, who is good. As believers, both men and women should never seek to exert 'authentein'.

And what about quietness? Again this verse is out of step with the majority of Pauls teachings and so we must consign it to the specific context of this chapter. There is no suggestion, even using these verses, that Paul is opposed to women in leadership, or to teaching, speaking, prophesying, praying or worshiping out loud in the church. But as seen, all must do so in full submission to one another and to God.

13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.

I don't want to sound like a broken record but, you guessed it. Context. This society was female dominated. It is thought likely that this early church had successful and high profile women in the church who probably thought that their status in the culture equalled status in the church. These women were also spreading deception within the church. So a reminder of the earliest deception, pointing to the frailty of humanity and thus the arrogance of their assertions was timely and also, context bound. 

As for the order of importance, we don't see this elsewhere either. Joseph was the youngest yet heard clearly from God, became a ruler in Egypt and saved his people from starvation. Esau was the older twin but Jacob got the blessing. David was the youngest (not the first). These are just a few examples.

These verses speak to the context. The people were arrogant, they valued hierarchies, myths and goddesses. Paul had to cut right through these beliefs, remind them of their humanity and of the only order that matters, God.

15 But she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

Not to get caught up in the pronoun quagmire here, but the 'she' here refers to Eve from the previous verse. She is the only one in the whole Bible to whom this specific verse refers to and it takes us right back to Genesis and the result of the fall. Eve, and indeed all of humanity were saved through her offspring which ultimately resulted in Jesus. The 'they' refers to the rest of the offspring (i.e. us) and we must continue first with faith (by which we are all saved).

I've read numerous explanations of this last verse, ranging from gross misrepresentation of the scriptures, through to the absolute confusing (to me), deep theological intricacies, but this was my take on those collective readings. My conviction is however, that there is only one way that we are 'saved' and that is through Christ. To say otherwise is heretic.

If God is good then 1 Timothy can't be bad

Historically this has been a set of verses which I have shied away from because I read it through a lens of expecting the worst. The teaching I heard over the years had done nothing to disavow me of that conviction. The failure here was twofold. A failure to be taught that we must question what we are reading. After all Jesus was not short of questions and challenges. He also in his teaching provided his listeners with greater context for the ancient texts. Jesus was not afraid of challenge because the word stands up to scrutiny and is not found wanting in the area of humanising women. 

The second part of the failure was mine. Despite being a questioner my whole life, I failed to question and I failed to consider context and language, elements I consider first in pretty much all other aspects of life. But most of all I failed to remember the goodness and consistency of God. The most surprising thing about revisiting this tricky passage therefore is the recovery of the joy and peace to be found inside the goodness of God.

Reading sources

Cynthia Long Westfall

The Junia Project

CBE International

Marg Mowczko

DesiringGod.org