Craig

Hi Cheryl,
I understood TL and Kristen to be agreeing with you that the teaching was false teaching.
Kristen said,

“But a certain woman or women were…… … holding meetings in which they contradicted what the established, trusted teachers (who happened to be all male in Ephesus) were teaching. Paul wanted this to be stopped.”

Two tricky bits are:
1.The exact meaning of “authentein”.
As you said “Paul used a word that is so extremely rare that it is difficult to pinpoint the exact meaning”. Is it
“usurp the authority of an accepted/authorized teacher before you yourself have been authorized”
as Kristen has put forward or to “dominate” as I think you believe.
I think your question

“If teaching in an “authoritative” way was wrong if you aren’t an expert on something, then why were these “women” only restricted from teaching men this way? Why not also stop them from teaching women authoritatively?”

is a good one. I wonder what Kristen and TL would say?

2.Is it a certain particular woman or more than one doing this dominating false teaching? Your view that it is one woman makes a lot of sense of the whole passage, and is very appealing, but it is not easily accepted by others.
In our recent discussions on the Sola Panel some questions were raised about it eg
a)Is it really a natural way for Paul to have spoken, without clarifying a little?
b)Are there Greek experts and other prominent egals who have adopted this view?
When you have more time Cheryl, (I noticed that your last comments were at 2am and 3am!!) I would really appreciate any more thoughts you have on these issues.
Thanks.