Lin

Jim,

I do recommend Cheryl’s DVD which only confirmed much of what I had already discerned from study. It was like finding an old friend who confirmed what I had found.

There are several, what I call, keys to this passage that clinched it for me in addition to what the entire letter is about. One of them is the actual Greek word for authority used in 1 Tim 2 concerning the ‘singular’ woman who was teaching a man. The word in Greek is Authenteo and is only used once in the entire NT. IT does not mean authority over. It is much more sinister than that…akin to murdering someone with lies.

One early church father, Chrysotem,used this word in a teaching where he said a husband should not do this to a wife. If the Holy Spirit had wanted to communicate that women should not teach men, He would have used plural grammar and NOT used authenteo. There are plenty of Koine Greek words to communicate authority over that are used throughout scripture such as Arche or exousia.

Another ‘key’ to that passage is the part about childbearing. Could it really be true that woman are saved by bearing children? Wouldn’t that negate the wonderous Cross and the sacrifice of our Savior? Is there really a work of salvation for women only? What about serious Christian women who cannot bear children?

The word for childbearing is a noun and refers to THE childbearing of Messiah. Paul mentions Eve because, she too, was deceived like this woman in Ephesus but Paul believes she can be saved by the childbearing of Messiah. (Paul may be referring to the false teaching in the fertility cult in the huge pagan temple in Ephesus…one of the wonders of the world at that time)

There is much more to this that Cheryl painstakingly goes into on her DVD and on this blog. The obvious question is why so many thousands of years of wrong teaching on this passage to shut up over half of all believers from proclaiming the Gospel to any one regardless of gender? Good question. It took thousands of years for many to decide that slavery was evil, too. Even though the scrpture did nto outlaw it (Jesus did not attempt to change civil laws) we know from Philemon that Paul recommended he treat his runaway slave as a brother in Christ. Radical idea for that time.

Scripture read in the light of the 1st Century is pretty radical for women.

And one last point…Why would Paul write a NEW prohibition against women teaching or leading men since there is NOT one in the OT?