Cheryl Schatz

Kristen,
“Teach” and “authentein” are both connected to deception. I do not believe that authentein describes the kind of teaching, but that authentein and teaching in this case are both verbs that are showing how deception was being expressed.

For example look at the parallel to Rev. 2:20-

Revelation 2:20 (NAS) ‘But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

Here we see the same construction where two verbs are joined together by a conjunction. Now Jezebel was not teaching in a leading way as if it was okay for her to teach but just not in a leading way. She was teaching immorality and leading in immorality.

God is not saying in Rev. 2:20 that all women are not allowed to teach or lead a congregation. He is saying that the immorality that is expressed in her teaching and immorality was a sin. I believe that Rev. 2:20 has the very same connection to sinful error as 1 Timothy 2:12. The only difference is that the term “authentein” is so unusual a term that it is found only in this verse (1 Timothy 2:12) in the entire Bible so we cannot completely put our finger on what was being forbidden other than the term always has a negative identity in secular sources and the prohibition that includes “authentein” is connected to deception.

Now as far as the challenge that gengwall gave me regarding why Paul would use the term “woman” without the definite article first before he introduced “the” woman in 1 Timothy 2:14, I have found the answer. It is a linguistic term called an anaphoric reference and I just made a new article explaining this here http://strivetoenter.com/wim/2010/08/03/a-woman-anaphoric/

I hope this helps.