56 Craig,

Boy it has been a long time since I have been going through an trying to pick up comments that I need to answer on my blog. I don’t have a lot of time these days but I am mostly in doors and that is giving me the opportunity to take breaks during the day.

You said:

Craig: You may be correct, but I think the normal way of understanding “anyone” includes both men and women. The context would have to clearly indicate otherwise, and it doesn’t. I’ll check on the blog and see if there are any other arguments just from 1 Tim 3 that really favor an egal interpretation.
Thanks again everyone.

The normal interpretation would be that “anyone” refers to men or women unless there is a strong indication otherwise. And in this case it would have to be a strong indication because you can’t say that women are forbidden from desiring to be an overseer and then use a general term allowing anyone to desire that work. If there is going to be a prohibition the prohibition must be clear because disregarding God’s prohibition is a sin. Since God is very interested in exposing sin and making us fully aware what is to be avoided as a sin, then we would expect that if 1 Timothy 3:1 was the start of a universal prohibition for women, then specific language would occur that would not only disqualify women but also forbid them. The fact that there is no prohibition against women desiring to be overseers is a huge hole in comp arguments.

The next hole in the comp argument is that “women” are to be qualified too and in their qualification which is an addition, there is also a confirmation that Deacons are to be the “husband of one wife”. If Deacons have the qualification and there was listed a woman Deacon (specifically using the male grammar) then whatever “husband of one wife” should be seen to mean, it cannot mean that Paul is excluding women for if one work is qualified with the exact same qualification as another work and women are qualified to do the work of Deacon, then no one can disqualify them from desiring to do the work of an overseer.

I believe that 1 Timothy 3 greatly enhances the egalitarian argument because deacons and overseers are similarly qualified and no Scripture forbids women from doing the work of a Deacon and thus being the “husband of one wife” or faithfulness to one spouse in marriage.