Dusman

Agent Starling said,

“The complete list of qualifications for elders depends upon the verb tense of the words “must be”. In Greek it is the word, “die”. It means “must”, or “ought”. That word tells us it is imperative that in order to be an elder, or teaching elder (pastor), one M U S T be the husband of one wife. An imperative is not negotiable. Seems clear to this female reader of the bible.”

A few questions are in order to show the inconsistency of holding this position regarding the Greek word dei (“must”) being used in connection with the phrase “husband of one wife”. If we force the text (1 Tim 3) to say that “husband of one wife” disqualifies women, then we must also consistently disqualify unmarried men. Do we also consistently say that unmarried men who are in the pulpit are sinning against God? What about married males who do not have children? If we consistently apply the text in a wooden way (instead of applying the spirit of the law, which means “faithful spouse”) we would also have to disqualify married men who do not have children since 1 Timothy 3:4 says that the overseer must be “keeping his children under control”. Do we also consistently consider married men in the pulpit who do not have children to be sinning against God? Ah what a tangled web we weave when we leave consistency aside for a prejudiced view of women.