Priscilla Teaching Apollos — Private Instruction or Public Authority? (Acts 18:24-26)

Complementarian Attempts to Neutralize Priscilla

1. "It was private, not public teaching." The text says they took Apollos aside (proselabonto), which complementarians use to argue this was informal, private instruction — not public teaching and therefore not a violation of 1 Timothy 2:12. But 1 Timothy 2:12 does not limit its prohibition to public teaching (if read as a universal prohibition). If a woman cannot teach a man, the venue is irrelevant. Either the prohibition is universal or it is not. Private doctrinal correction of a learned man's theology is teaching by any definition.

2. "She taught with her husband, not alone." Mike Winger describes this as "just two well-educated Christians helping a less educated but gifted person to get better theology." But Terran Williams rightly notes this is "disappointingly superficial." Priscilla is named first — Luke signals her as the primary or at least equally active teacher. If the husband's presence sanitizes the teaching, then any woman could teach any man as long as her husband sits beside her. Complementarians do not actually permit this.

3. "This was an exception, not a pattern." The "exception" argument is unfalsifiable. Every example of a woman teaching (Priscilla, Junia, the Samaritan woman, Philip's prophesying daughters) is dismissed as exceptional. If every instance is an exception, the supposed rule has no supporting evidence. The NT consistently shows women teaching, prophesying, and leading — and never once condemns the practice.

4. "Apollos was not yet fully instructed, so this was not authoritative teaching." Apollos was "mighty in the Scriptures," publicly teaching in the synagogue, and "fervent in spirit." He was not a novice. What he lacked was complete Christological understanding. Priscilla supplied it — this is authoritative doctrinal correction by any measure.

The Question Complementarians Cannot Answer

As Cheryl Schatz frames it: "In Acts 18:26 Priscilla is said to have taught Apollos and corrected his doctrine. What scripture explains why Priscilla was allowed to teach Apollos? Was the universal prohibition to stop women from teaching men given before Priscilla taught Apollos or after she taught him?" If 1 Timothy 2:12 is a universal, timeless prohibition, Priscilla violated it — and Luke commends her for it. The simpler reading: 1 Timothy 2:12 addresses a specific situation in Ephesus, and Priscilla's teaching is an example of normative New Testament practice.