Women’s Role in Teaching Men

By Carl O. Cooper

1 Timothy 2:8-10 (KJV)

8 I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and    sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;

10 But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.

Now you really wouldn’t think that there would be any reason to try to make these verses say anything more than what you can easily see that they are telling us. Look at what they say, and try your best not to put any personal predetermined bias on what they mean.

Verse 8 is telling us that anywhere and everywhere you find men and women gathered together and a prayer is offered to God, the men should do the praying. They should offer the prayer without anger in their hearts and with “Holy Hands”. In other words, they should be faithful Christian men whose hands are not covered with sin and anger and they should be men of faith. In reality, this should cover all faithful Christian men of the church.

Where is everywhere? If you look up the Greek, you could substitute the words “all”, “in every place”, “on every coast”, and other words that mean “all inclusive”. Of course, common sense and logic would tell us it is only where men and women are gathered together, otherwise there might not be any men there to lead the prayer. This could be a worship assembly, or a PTA meeting, a sports event, a picnic and many other places where a prayer might be given where men and women are gathered together.

Now that’s pretty simple, you say. So why would anyone want to change that.

Here is what is at stake in the explanation of these verses. It’s all about verse 12. In order to soften the restrictions placed on women in verse 12, about women teaching men, and allow women to teach and evangelize men in every place but the public worship service, the context of 1 Timothy 2 must be fixed to only the public worship service of the church. Do you get that explanation when you read verse 8? Is the context of these verses only about prayer at a public worship service? I dare say that you would never read that explanation into these verses by yourself.

But the dilemma is this, to some. There are women out there who are perfectly capable of leading prayers and teaching men better that most men. But the Bible restricts the role of women in these areas. There are many people who would like to see this prohibition on women lifted or at the least softened in order to broaden the role of women and allow them more freedom to participate in teaching and evangelizing men. So how can we “explain” these verses to set the context to the worship service only?

Some would say that “Because a public prayer is mentioned then the context of the verses has to be a public worship service”. They reason that the only place where public prayers are given would be a public worship service of the church. But you and I know this is not the case. The worship service of the church is by no means the only place a Christian might lead a public prayer. There are many places and we have already mentioned several of them. And let us not forget the words used “Every Place”. I think we have to admit that this covers much more that a “worship service” only.

You would think that the words in verse 8 would be enough to settle the question of the context of the place where the Apostle Paul is telling the women that their role does not include teaching men and leading prayers. But verse 9 needs to be considered in our study as well. For you see, verse 9 also addresses the context of this chapter as to the place where this restriction on women would be expected to be followed. Look again at verse 9.

1 Timothy 2:9

9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and    sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;

The dilemma is this, to some. If the context of verse 8 is “everywhere”, then women should adorn themselves “in modest apparel, with shamefacedness”, everywhere. But if you want the context of chapter 2 to be a “worship service only”, you would have to make verse 9 agree with your explanation and so you will need to restrict “modest apparel” and “shamefacedness” to a worship service only. It’s not so easy to do, is it? If you allow “modest apparel” to be needed “everywhere” then your argument for setting the context to a “worship service only” is compromised and is not credible.

If you look up the Greek words that have been translated “modest” and “shamefacedness” you will find that, just like many English words, they can have more than one meaning depending on the context where they are used. The word translated modest could mean, “Modest by the standards of what is morally pure and decent”, and it could also mean “modest by the standards of what is socially acceptable”. If we only had the word “modest” I think we would still know without doubt that the context of these verses is placed “anywhere, everywhere, and all places”. But we also have the word “shamefacedness”. Do I really need to give an explanation for this word? The Greek word translated shamefacedness is referring to the standards of “what is morally pure and decent”. The meanings have to do with a woman who would dress in such a way that her eyes would have to be cast toward the ground in the presence of men. She would be ashamed to show her face in the presence of men because of improper dress. Somehow, I think this would be much harder today for women to do as compared to the women of the Apostle Paul’s day.

But the part about modesty by the standards of what is pure and decent is not the only thing about women’s dress that Paul references in this verse 9. Paul also gives instruction to a woman who would dress in such a way as to try to be on a much higher social plane than the other Christian women around them. This has always been the case with Christians and it applies to Christian men as well as to Christian women. Look at Matt. 23:5

Matthew 23:5 

5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and   enlarge the borders of their garments,

6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,

We might also want to point out here that this dress and this image are not acceptable with God, anywhere. Nothing about this dress can be said to “set this context” at a worship service of the church.

Carl O. Cooper