TL

“what is absolutely clear is that “the woman” of vss. 14 and 15 is the very same woman in vss. 11 and 12. Logically and gramatically that is the only conclusion that the text supports.”

When I was a new Christian and I first read this section of Scripture, not having been indoctrinated by churchianity, I also read the switch to singular as to a single woman and also read the ‘they’ as to husband and wife. It was later when I heard the things the churches taught, that I became confused. Listening to all the stuff the hierarchalists preach is confusing. My only salvation from their confusion was to divorce the things they said from my brain and start over with the Lord discussing it and researching it with God.

We can do amazingly complex things with small sections of Scripture to confuse. However, when we make a list of everything that Scripture has on the subject we see that the pieces don’t fit in the hierarchalist interpretations. They have to adjust Scripture. They will say things like:

1. “Deborah wasn’t really a primary Judge of the Nation, or she was only chosen because there were no good men, or really Barak did it all she just supported him, or she only made private counsels not public, or she may have made judgements but didn’t teach Scripture.” All of those statements are wrong, but the hierarchalists have to say them in order to support their theory that God doesn’t want women to teach, preach or lead men.
2. “Miriam wasn’t really a leader of God’s people, or she only led the women in worship and didn’t do anything else, or because her brother was the primary leader of the 3 of them she was just following them. “None of those statements is true either.
3. “Abigail was sinning when she went against her husband’s leadership, even though she saved their whole household from death she is not a good example of a godly wife.” Not true because she was praised for her wisdom and godly behavior in spite of the ‘fool’ her husband was.
4. “ Huldah didn’t really lead the nation because her advice was only given to the King. “ What is missed with Huldah is that she was sought out by the King to teach them what the Scriptures meant and what to do about it. She was sought out instead of Zecharia and Jeremiah.

They do the same twisted reasoning with all the women of the NT starting with Anna, the first to prophesy over baby Jesus. The hierarchalist position on women only holds when people do not search the Scriptures for themselves.