Download PDF - The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

Timothy 2:12 is not some arbitrary, pharisaic pieceof red-tape. <strong>The</strong> prohibition on women teachingmen is grounded in the created order and in whattook place at the fall (1 Tim 2:13–15). This prohibitionis given because of what we were created tobe and do as males and females. It is good for us. Byheeding it we experience life, joy, and freedom.One implication Hoehner draws from hisquestionable distinction between gift and office—that women can teach men in seminary settings—reduces 1 Tim 2:12 to an unnecessary legislationthat does not reflect what people really need. Infact, if we read 1 Tim 2:12 the way Hoehner wouldhave us read it, the order of creation in 1 Tim 2:13becomes something we have to obey in church, butotherwise are free to ignore. In other words, it is ameaningless formality. But Paul does not indicatethat his prohibition in 1 Tim 2:12 is a meaninglessformality. He grounds the role distinctions betweenmale and female on an appeal to the created order(see 1 Tim 2:13–15).In his commentary on Ephesians, Hoehnerwrites,Some may question the validity of womenpastors or pastor-teachers, but it mustbe remembered that these are gifts andnot offices. Surely, women who pastorshepherdamong women should cause noproblem at all (Titus 2:3–4). But in fact,Priscilla, along with Aquila, taught Apollosthe way of God more accurately (Acts18:25–26) which would indicate that awoman may not be limited to teachingonly women (Ephesians, 546).Hoehner here suggests that women can dowhat Paul forbids them from doing in 1 Tim 2:12.On the basis of an example recorded in the narrativeof Acts, Hoehner is prepared to disregard aprohibition in an epistle written so that its recipientwill know how to conduct church life (1 Tim3:14–15).Aside from the hermeneutical issue of readingthe narrative in a way that contradicts anapostolic prohibition, does this example “indicatethat a woman may not be limited to teaching onlywomen”? For all we know, this conversation withPriscilla, Aquila, and Apollos happened only once,whereas there are clear statements in the New Testamentabout gender roles that refer to the way lifeis to be conducted all the time (cf. 1 Cor 11:3–16;14:29–35; 1 Tim 2:9–15, etc.). <strong>The</strong> incident withPriscilla, Aquila, and Apollos happened in private,and Luke doesn’t tell us who did the instructingin Acts 18:25–26. Priscilla’s husband may havedone most—or even all—of the talking. <strong>The</strong> incidentdescribed in Acts 18:25–26 is a slight, frayingthread holding up the huge weight of Hoehner’sconclusion that “a women may not be limited toteaching only women.”As for the distinction between gift and office,pastors and elders, there may be a word study fallacyin Hoehner’s interpretation, which seems tolimit its consideration of “pastors” to the noun thatmeans “shepherd” rather than also considering therelated verbal forms that refer to the act of shepherding.If the verbal forms are considered, the textsthat indicate that “elders” are “to shepherd” inclinethe interpretation away from Hoehner’s conclusion.Hoehner can only maintain that “pastor-teacher” isa spiritual gift and not an office if a pastor is not thesame thing as an elder, since “elder” is an office inthe church and not just a spiritual gift.But are elders distinct from pastors? In Acts20:17 Paul summons the “elders” of the church inEphesus. He then tells them, “the Holy Spirit hasmade you overseers, to shepherd the church of God”in Acts 20:28. <strong>The</strong> word “overseers” can also be rendered“bishops,” and the infinitive “to shepherd”is the verbal form of the noun translated “pastor.”Thus, in Acts 20, Paul tells the “elders” that they are“bishops/overseers,” and he tells them that they are“to pastor.”Similarly, in 1 Pet 5:1–2, Peter exhorts the“elders” that they are to “shepherd the flock of God”by “exercising oversight.” Here again, an elder is todo what a shepherd (pastor) does, shepherd, and heis to do what an overseer does, exercise oversight.Hoehner’s novel conclusion that “pastorteacher”is a spiritual gift to the exclusion of it beingan office can only be maintained by committingwhat looks like a word study fallacy of focusing on54 JBMW | Spring 2008