Cheryl

Lew,

You are welcome! If I can help you in any way, please let me know.

Regarding Hebrews 5:12-14, the Greek is plural masculine but this does not mean that women are not in the group. The masculine grammar is the default position with generic passages. For example:

Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
Matthew 16:25 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

“Anyone” and “whoever” are singular masculine. Are only men allowed to come after Jesus? Are only men required to take up their cross and following Christ? No, not at all. All of the salvation passages are in the masculine grammatical form, but all of them include both men and women. If we exclude women in Hebrews 5:12-14 regarding the believers who should be teachers, then is it true that the solid food is only for men and only men can be mature? Hardly! These passages are regarding both men and women and women too should be striving to rightly divide the word of truth:

2 Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

If we leave the accurate handling of the word of God to the men alone, then we are leaving women as children relying on the men for maturity instead of working hard to be mature themselves in the truth.