Cheryl

Dusman, you said:

Can a woman teach 12 year olds? 18 year olds? 21 year olds? When does it become unbiblical? Some have said when boys start getting hair under their arms.

What you have said should cause us to think hard about all the rules that would be required to interpret the prohibition of verse 12 if God forbids any Christian woman from teaching men. A couple of years ago when I was working on the script for my DVD, I was nose deep in the Talmud and I was appalled at the minuit rules that the Pharisees had regarding when a female was considered “of age”. They had a “two hair” rule and I won’t get into the gory details but the nit-picky rules that came out of trying to regulate their own interpretation of the law literally made me sick. Is this what we have come to now? We now need a Christian Talmud to interpret verse 12. When does a woman’s teaching become a sin and when is it not a sin? I am sure that every woman would need to know because none of us wants to sin against God. For Paul to leave a woman without guidelines so that she can be sure she isn’t sinning would be unthinkable. No, the “simple” meaning of 1 Timothy 2:12 is not the stopping of all godly women teaching correct biblical doctrine to men. The “simple” meaning is that Paul is stopping “a woman” from teaching error to the one whom she was influencing with her error and that is “a man”. She is to learn and then Paul says, she will be saved if she has sincere faith and she holds fast to the truth.

Matt’s treatment of me is the fruit of extreme complementarianism. Although I am not a professional debater and don’t think on my feet as fast as I would like, the treatment afforded me during the debate is the fruit of what this movement brings to women. Women are treated with disrespect as if our words are not worthy of being heard or respected. A woman’s word is without weight because she has no right to speak for God.