Last month the messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention gathered in New Orleans, where they voted to approve a change to Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the SBC Constitution. The amended item stipulates a cooperating SBC church “affirms, appoints, or employs only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.”
I am not one of those messengers, nor am I active within a Southern Baptist Church. I am an ordained minister of the Assemblies of God. However, I did spend my childhood in the local Baptist Church, which was of the SBC. Many of my relatives and friends are still actively committed to their local Baptist Church of the SBC. I care deeply about my spiritual sisters and brothers within that denomination and tradition. As I have heard and read about the vote of the messengers in New Orleans, I have tried to listen carefully to their logic, their interpretation and their application.
One of the leading supporters of the amendment is prominent SBC theologian and seminary president Albert Mohler. During the convention, he argued that the Bible restricts the role of pastor to men only. In his podcast of May 10, 2019, President Mohler said,
"The issue of women serving in the pastorate, is an issue of fundamental Biblical authority that does violate both the doctrine and the order of the Southern Baptist Convention." “It’s a question of authority,” Mohler said. “I think that’s what makes people nervous, but the apostle Paul makes that argument ‘I forbid a woman to have authority over a man.’ This is where you go back to the original controversy in evangelicalism and in Southern Baptist life. What really was the key issue is biblical authority. Did the Holy Spirit inspire Paul to say that or not?”[1]
Additionally, Mohler stated, “If the Holy Spirit did inspire Paul to say that, then it’s the word of God,” Mohler said. “It’s not just written to one place and one time. The very fact that he’s writing to Timothy in a general epistle means this is clearly for the entire church.
I read through some of Mohler’s blogs, then followed links to similar statements from other SBC leaders. One of the most frequent words they use is “authority.” My browser lets me search key words in the text, then highlights that word, so that it jumps off the page. It makes quite a visual impression to see “authority” highlighted so much! So much that I can’t just let it go. While Mohler made a number of points to which I would like to respond, today I will only to tackle the SBC emphasis on the word “authority”.
I began with a survey of the primary passage that the Baptist messengers seem to be standing upon »
1st Timothy 2:11-12. I appreciate how translators have wrestled with the Greek text.
11 A woman is to learn quietly with full submission. 12 I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; instead, she is to remain quiet. [CSB]
11 Women should learn quietly and submissively. 12 I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly. [NLT]
11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. 12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. [KJV]
11 Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. 12 But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness. [ASV]
11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. [NIV]
12 διδάσκειν δὲ γυναικὶ οὐκ ἐpιτρέpω οὐδὲ αὐθεντεῖν ἀνδρός, ἀλλ᾿ εἶναι ἐν ἡσυχίᾳ. [Koine Greek UBS]
All of these translations are trying to determine what English meaning to assign to the Greek verb authenteiv. Each of these Bible versions translates authenteiv with some aspect of “have authority” or “have dominion” (KJV emphasizes “not to usurp authority”).
If the apostle Paul was intending to write about authority in this verse, he did not use the most frequent New Testament Greek term for authority, which is exousia [a noun that appears 102 times in 93 verses]. The noun exousia does in fact mean authority, in the sense of having the responsibility to fulfill a mission or task, having been granted the necessary tools or powers to get the job done, with that authority legitimately handed down by a superior (in different contexts = ability, might, power, capability, human authorities, spiritual authorities).
First, let’s consider some significant examples. When Jesus wanted to show that it required about the same amount of effort on his part to heal a paralytic or to forgive a sinner, he said, “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has exousia on earth to forgive sins. . . .” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home. And the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such exousia to men. -Matthew 9:6-8
Jesus concluded the Sermon on the Mount with the parabolic description of the wise and foolish builders. “When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had exousia, and not as their teachers of the law.” Matthew 7:28-29
When the centurion put his trust in Jesus to heal a servant, the centurion reflected on the power within a chain-of-command, “For I myself am a man under exousia, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” - Matt. 8:9
When Jesus revealed that he was the good shepherd who was willing to lay down his life for the sheep, he said, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have exousia / authority to lay it down and exousia / authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” - John 10:18
Summoning the Twelve, he gave them power and exousia / authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. - Luke 9:1
Paul was quite familiar with the word and uses the term exousia freely in his other letters:
2Cor. 10:8 For even if I boast somewhat freely about the exousia / authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than pulling you down, I will not be ashamed of it.
2Cor. 13:10 This is why I write these things when I am absent, that when I come I may not have to be harsh in my use of exousia / authority —the exousia / authority the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down.
Col. 2:10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and exousia / authority.
Col. 2:15 And having disarmed the powers and exousia / authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
2Th. 3:9 We did this, not because we do not have the exousia /right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow.
Titus 3:1 Remind the people to be subject to rulers and exousia /authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good,
The epistles of Paul include the noun exousia 27 times (Romans 5x, I Cor. 10x, 2nd Cor. 2x, Eph. 4x, Col. 4x, 2nd Thess. 1x, Titus 1x)
If Paul intended to forbid all women from exercising legitimate authority, then exousia would have been the best word to use in his letter to Timothy. Instead, Paul used a verb that does not appear in any other of his epistles, nor in any other New Testament document. This is when you should hear loud bells and whistles go off. No other writer of any New Testament Scripture found that verb to be useful to convey any point. The only occurrence in the whole Bible of the verb authenteo is here in 1st Timothy 2:12. In Biblical studies, we call that a hapax legomenon (a word that occurs only once in a collection of writings), in modern terms, “a one-off.” When a word occurs frequently in the Bible, we can assign meaning by looking in Scripture at parallel passages and verses that use that frequent word in similar and dissimilar contexts. However, with a hapax legomenon we must search outside of Scripture to see how the word was used in the wider culture during the same generation as our Scripture use (as well as previous generations in secular literature, philosophical writings, personal correspondence, theatre, poetry, etc.). The Lord must have had a reason to inspire Paul to use a word that neither he or any other inspired writer ever used in writing Scripture. We must find meaning for this word by carefully examining how this word was used in the wider culture in the years leading up to this letter from Paul to Timothy.
Gordon Fee, in his commentary on 1st Timothy, concludes the verb authenteo carries the connotation of “to domineer”.[2] In 1988, Leland Wilshire, examining 329 occurrences of this word throughout the Hellenistic and Roman culture and its cognate authentēs, showed that, prior to and contemporary with the first century, authentein often had negative overtones such as “domineer” or even “murder” or “perpetrate a crime”; only during the later church patristic period did the meaning “to exercise authority” come to predominate (4th-7th century AD). [3] In Hellenistic poetry, authentein was used to illustrate one person asserting their domination over another, while Hellenistic theatre applied authenteiv when an actor committed acts of violence against another.[4] Since words only have meaning in context (literary, historical, cultural), then the evidence leads me to conclude that Paul seized upon a unique word to convey a unique restriction. There is no example in the Bible or outside the Bible that authenteo and exousia were used as synonyms, or were ever used interchangeably. Paul did not use one of the normal first century words that meant right and proper authority. Instead he restricted the woman from sneaking up behind the man and violently taking something from him, as the antagonist would perform on stage during a Greek tragedy. Based upon this information, it is safe to say that Paul was not talking about normal, regular, proper servant-leadership authority.
I disagree with seminary president Mohler and the majority of messengers who voted in the recent SBC meetings. They use this word in this verse to prohibit all females from pastoral leadership, and then to disfellowship any SBC church that “affirms, appoints, or employs” a female as any kind of pastor or elder in that local church. Instead, Paul was telling Timothy that he was not permitting one particular woman to usurp power, to domineer or to behave in some devious manner to achieve her own personal agenda (completely unrelated to proper exercise of responsible servant-leadership within the church)! Paul wants this woman to attend Bible study, to listen intently, to learn with a teachable attitude, and to let go of the baggage of her previous religious doctrines in order to take up this new life in Christ.
Review carefully Paul’s opening statement of this letter to Timothy.
1Tim. 1:3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work—which is by faith. 5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. 7 They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.
Was Timothy trying to deal with one particular woman who wanted to be treated as a teacher of the law, whom Timothy was convinced did not yet know enough of the truth of Christ (in spite of her self-confidence)? Was she trying to teach false doctrines built upon myths and endless genealogies, promoting controversies? Was Paul giving Timothy advice on how to deal with the controversial woman? I conclude that Paul was not telling all females, in all places, during all times to sit down, shut-up and let the men run the church. He was not talking about proper servant-leadership authority, nor was he writing about pastors.
He was informing Timothy that he was not permitting a teacher of false doctrine (who happened to be a woman) from making a controversial power grab that would undermine God’s work. Paul did prefer for that woman to attend Bible study, to learn the truth and to do it with a teachable attitude. The grammar and the context support this interpretation.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qacXhJo-94E (linked Wednesday June 21, 2023)
[2] Gordon D. Fee, New International Biblical Commentary: 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus (Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers, 1984), 73.
[3] Leland Wilshire, “The TLG Computer and Further References to Authenteo in 1 Tim. 2:12,” New Testament Studies 32 (1988): 120–34.
[4] Linda Belleville, “Teaching and Usurping Authority: 1 Timothy 2:11–15,” in Ronald Pierce and Rebecca Groothuis, eds., Discovering Biblical Equality (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 2004), 205–23, at 214–17.