Cheryl Schatz

Craig,
You said:

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 don’t see any evidence that there was an “authority” given to “accepted teachers” let alone an authority that could be “usurped”. Since the leaders were to be servants and not lording over the flock, is it their authority to act as a servant that is being “usurped”? It just doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t think that “dominate” exactly fits the meaning either. Authentein appears to have more of a sinister meaning than dominate. I also think that not knowing exactly what the word means is NOT a hindrance to understanding the passage. We can know that the activity is never sanctioned for any Christian brother or sister and that the situation was so serious that Paul drew a link to the very first situation involving deception. I also believe that term authentein is used of an action that is being done by the woman in ignorance not in a deliberate attempt to dominate or tear down the man and destroy him for her pleasure. The fact that Paul is so convinced that her receiving correct teaching will bring her out of her error and to salvation, convinces me that what she is doing is being done in ignorance of the harm that she has connected herself to. The act of domination doesn’t lend itself as much to innocence, but a bad character and perhaps selfishness in sacrificing someone else on purpose. I believe she was deceived. I do not believe that she was a deliberate deceiver nor that she was one who was trying to harm the man on purpose. Paul’s words about who would receive mercy as he did just seem so applicable to her situation.

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.

I believe that if there was a group of women doing false teaching and dominating men, that Paul would have used correct grammar to describe them. The fact that he used the singular and then the plural fits a man and a woman but it doesn’t fit a group of women who would never be called both “she” and “them”. In my desire to be faithful to the text, I am very unconvinced about any argument that would excuse Paul’s writing as bad grammar. It was inspired by the Holy Spirit so the buck stops with Him. He doesn’t make mistakes.

a)Is it really a natural way for Paul to have spoken, without clarifying a little?

It is very natural for Paul. Paul spoke about himself calling himself “a man” when he was not wanting to boast about his spiritual experiences and he also used non specific terms when he spoke about a specific man committing a sin that would eventually find him back in the fold after being disciplined by the church. In both cases Paul had a reason for not being specific and these two other examples show Paul willing to hide the identity of the person for specific reasons. If the Holy Spirit hid names and specific information about these two other instances of real people who are not directly identified, then there is no reason why 1 Timothy 2:12 is not along a similar line. In fact 1 Timothy 2:12 is more understandable with non specific information since it was a personal letter to Timothy who would have known all of the details that we do not know. He didn’t need to know a name. In the other cases where Paul did not reveal names, the letter was written to a much wider audience.

As far as not being accepted easily, that isn’t quite true. I won’t ever forget the very first pastor who watched my DVD set with an open mind even though he was thoroughly convinced that women were not allowed to participate in the privileges that were given by God to men alone. He wrote me that the Holy Spirit convicted him so much so that he repented of his view of women. He was deeply repentant and he confessed his sin. Others has come along the same course but with more skepticism at first and they pursued me with questions. There is a huge set of traditions that we have accepted for so long that these traditions will not easily fall. I myself had to let these traditions go, but I have chosen to only allow accepted traditions to fall because of (not in spite of) the inspired text and grammar. I also am unconvinced by emotionalism or speculation outside the text. This is the reason why I reject some of the things that egalitarians teach. I don’t want speculation but only the truth of God’s Word. It is my desire to help many others to share my strong trust in the Scriptures so that which is only speculation or even deception will not stand when compared to God’s Holy Word. There should be no fear in sticking to God’s Word.

b)Are there Greek experts and other prominent egals who have adopted this view?

I will have to start a blog post one day (!) and send those to the post who have supported me in the past to publicly speak out. And send me all the Greek experts you have and I will dialog with them. Dr. Daniel Wallace who is a noted Greek expert has a copy of my DVDs including the one on the Trinity. Whether he has finished viewing them yet, I don’t know. He is such a busy man, so he is not as easy to get in touch with him. But he has found my writing interesting in the past on a comp blog and he has commended me on my attitude so he gave me his home address to send my DVDs to and I expect sometime in the future to hear back from him. One thing for sure, he has not corrected me to this point and that is encouraging.

(I noticed that your last comments were at 2am and 3am!!)

Yes, I am a bad one for that. I work hard at ministry duties during the day and then later if I can’t sleep, my blog just “calls” me so I read and if needed I respond. Our home does not yet have the siding on the outside so the house wrap flaps in the wind at night and without insulation the noise is very loud and at times drives me to distraction. It helps to wear ear plugs, but sometimes sleep evades me anyway. It is the early morning quiet hours when I can think without distraction and then what comes out of me is usually passionate and I am not worried that I am wasting time that could have been spent in ministry work.

So I may be here and I may not be here until the new Year. And yes, in case you are thinking of asking, I am tired. I truly don’t get enough sleep. But I truly LOVE this topic and I am passionate at wanting people to see how logical Paul is in his hand picked words and his precise grammar. I want to give the apostle Paul a big hug when I meet him in heaven. The more I pick him apart, the more I appreciate him and his love for women. He truly was interested in setting us all free to serve God with our gifts. Praise God for the gift to the church of the apostle Paul!