Cheryl Schatz

Craig,

1. Paul’s words “I am not…” is the main key that the prohibition is a local situation since his prohibition is not tied to any law instituted in the OT. Since God’s laws are always clear, always have a second witness and never stated as an origin of man i.e. “I am not…”, Paul’s words to a single individual regarding a known problem in a church cannot be stretched to match any of God’s laws therefore they cannot be universal indicting all godly women.

2. The words “I am not permitting…” present tense cannot in and of themselves show whether or not the prohibition was time limited and would end. The context must show the context of limiting the application to confirm that this is what is meant. The fact that one of the prohibitions is a negative action that is never given as permission to any Christian to act upon would show that at least one of the prohibitions cannot be time limited and then it is okay to act in this way.

Some egalitarians say that Paul was not prohibiting two things but only one thing – a type of teaching that is domineering. If these same egalitarians teach that the prohibition is only for a time, then their argument is self refuting as it would make Paul agree that domineering teaching will be okay in a bit. That just doesn’t make sense.

3. The term “I am not permitting” does not have a grammar qualification that makes it automatically a time limited prohibition. While it can be limited by the context, it is never assumed to be that way without context proof.

4. If authentein is an admirable action that is allowed for Christian men but denied for Christian women, Paul made a huge mistake by never using the word again thus no foundation is ever set for a good and moral activity. One thing we can be sure of and that is that a woman is never denied something in the term authentein that a man is given because of his gender.

It sounds like you are on the right track. Your questions really caused me to think especially with the thought that there would be allowance for a woman to do something seriously negative to a man. That doesn’t make sense.

I appreciate it when people pick up on something that didn’t readily come to my mind. Good job!