How restrictive are those verses in the title? Does the Greco-Roman household offer any guidance for reading them? What about other verses in the New Testament relating to women’s ministries? (I updated this post yet again!)

The Christian Post reported in August 2022:

Most pastors responded that women at their churches may teach coed adult Bible studies (85%) and serve as deacons (64%). In comparison, a slight majority (55%) stated that women can become senior pastors at their churches.

Only 1% of the sample led churches that forbid women from serving in all of those roles. (Source)

These results tell me that things are changing, yet certain pastors and teachers with large ministries tell us these results are unbiblical. Women are not allowed to teach men or become pastors in any circumstance.

As for Titus 2:3-5, many churches say that women can teach only young women–or they bend the rules a little (as they read things) and permit the older women to teach all women of any age, even though the biblical text literally says “young women.”

Therefore, should a female youtube teacher announce disclaimers in every video before her teaching begins that men and women her age or older must never “like” and “subscribe” because she is allowed to teach ‘only’ young women? “Click out now, women my age and older! Men of all ages, click out now! The Apostle Paul said so!”

For the record, the title is wrong. The older women are called “teachers of virtue,” and are said to “advise” “urge” or “encourage” young women “to be prudent” or “to be of sound judgment.” Does this imply that women can teach a general audience but exhort younger women? Is the compound word (in Greek) “teachers of virtue” a title?

Let’s look into this.

As usual, I write to learn for my own growth and clarity.

If you would like to see other translations, please go to biblegateway.com.

This post is divided into these main sections:

TRANSLATION

COMMENTARY

REPLIES TO OBJECTIONS

CONCLUSION

Let’s begin.

TRANSLATION

I include Paul’s instruction about older men, just for the context. The target verses are vv. 3-5. Paul is writing to his apprentice or helper, Titus, and he was left on Crete to shore up the churches there.

Titus 2:1-5
Greek Text	My Translation
1 Σὺ δὲ λάλει ἃ πρέπει τῇ ὑγιαινούσῃ διδασκαλίᾳ. 2 Πρεσβύτας νηφαλίους εἶναι, σεμνούς, σώφρονας, ὑγιαίνοντας τῇ πίστει, τῇ ἀγάπῃ, τῇ ὑπομονῇ· 3 πρεσβύτιδας ὡσαύτως ἐν καταστήματι ἱεροπρεπεῖς, μὴ διαβόλους μὴ οἴνῳ πολλῷ δεδουλωμένας, καλοδιδασκάλους, 4 ἵνα σωφρονίζωσιν τὰς νέας φιλάνδρους εἶναι, φιλοτέκνους, 5 σώφρονας ἁγνὰς οἰκουργοὺς ἀγαθάς, ὑποτασσομένας τοῖς ἰδίοις ἀνδράσιν, ἵνα μὴ ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ βλασφημῆται.	1 But you, speak what is suitable for sound teaching. 2 (Let) older men be worthy of respect, prudent, sound in faith, love, and endurance. 3 (Let) older women likewise (be) reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not enslaved to much wine, teachers of virtue, 4 so that they may urge young women to be of sound judgment, affectionate (toward their) husband, affectionate (toward their) children, 5 prudent, pure, managers of (their) household, good, submissive to their own husband, so that the word of God may not be profaned.

COMMENTARY

Before we begin to answer the question of women teachers, let’s look at a few words.

First, in v. 5 wives must be managers of their own households, just as male elders are called to manage their own households (1 Tim. 3:4-5). It is a team effort.

Professor Linda L Belleville writes of the Greco-Roman historical context on the household:

[…] the homeowner in Greco-Roman times was in charge of any group that met in his or her domicile and was legally responsible for the group’s activity. Moreover, households in the first century included not only the immediate family and relatives, but also slaves, freedmen and freedwomen, hired workers and even tenants and partners in a trade or craft. This meant that the female head of the house had to have good administrative and managerial skills. For this reason, Paul places great emphasis on a person’s track record as a family leader, as it is an indicator of church leadership potential 1 Tim. 3:4-5; 5:14). (Two Views on Women in Ministry, rev. ed. Zondervan, 2005, pp. 56-57).

She goes on to note that the Greek verb for female “head of household” or “manage (her) household” in 1 Timothy 5:14 is oikodespotein, which is much stronger than the verb for a male elder overseeing (prostēnai) (1 Tim. 3:5) his household. Women had to be sharp and exert some level of authority. Here in Titus 3:5 it is oikourgos (literally “household worker”), which means as the lexicons guided me to translate it. These definitions assume, naturally enough, that women worked primarily in the household, so of course Paul would tell the matron to teach young women in the same domestic sphere, in the blocks of houses bunched together in a farming village or apartment blocks in a city.

However, this administrative and management skills spilled over into the church that may have met in her home. She and her husband had to manage the meeting, together. Both were leaders of their house church. In this setting, segregating women and men was hardly logistically doable.

In 1 Corinthians 12:28 Paul uses the noun kubernēsis (“leading” or “administration”), which is related to kubernētēs, which can mean in some contexts the “captain” or “navigator” (of a ship). In 1 Corinthians12:4-6 Paul writes that these gifts are distributed by the Spirit, as God works them in everyone, including women. And so it goes with leadership in 12:28–women may lead, too, because none of 1 Corinthians 12 is gender specific (men only).

Gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 and 12:28

Women Really Did Work as–and Were–Overseers, Elders, Pastors: A Close Look at 1 Timothy 5:9-10

Second, “submissive” is in the middle voice, which means women voluntarily submitted. There is no such thing as submission by coercion. And we learn from Ephesians 5:25: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (See also 5:28 and 33 for a repeated command to husbands to love their wives). Husbands need to work on their love, instead of demanding submission from their wives. 

Now let’s look at the heart of the issue: women teachers and their audience. As usual, I like to number my points for clarity and conciseness.

(1). Titus 2:3-5 does not say that the elderly women may teach only young women. To be even more technical, the compound noun (kalodidaskalos) says that an elderly woman must be a teacher of good or virtue, indicating she was a teacher (didaskalos means “teacher”). The lexicon Liddell and Scott correctly says the compound noun means “a teacher of virtue.” So she had the role or gift of teacher. I believe this compound noun was a title because women actually did teaching as a ministry in the assembly, while the other words in the list are about her being or having the right attitude or demeanor and content of her instruction.

Evidently, those who teach informal logic tell us it is a bad idea to draw a negative inference from a positive statement. “Older women urge young women.” The negative inference is seen in the word not is the negative in the next sentence, as follows: Therefore, they may not urge any other class of women (or men).”  This is the negative inference. Or this is an equivalent fallacy: “Therefore they may teach only young women.” (For more study, google “negative inference fallacy.”)

(2). Now what about women teachers in other verses?

As for women teaching in the assembly, in Colossians 3:16, Paul writes generally of teaching that everyone could do it, potentially (if one understands Greek):

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. (Col. 3:16, NIV, emphasis added).

It’s hard to believe that women could admonish the assembly by writing and singing psalms, hymns, and songs, but not teach more directly or didactically (without singing). The Greek does not allow such a disruptive division into groups of singers / lyricists on the one side and teachers on the other. All may teach and all may admonish through songs, the Greek says in the verbs (often pronouns are hidden within the verb forms). They are not exclusive.

And Paul writes:

When you come together, each one has a song, has a teaching, has a tongue, has an interpretation—let everything be done for edification. (1 Cor. 14:26, my translation, emphasis added)

The “you” pronoun is implied in the verb ending of “come together.” It goes nicely with “each one.” Everything here is generic, not gender specific.

The author of Hebrews also uses the general, inclusive pronoun:

In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! (Heb. 5:12, NIV, emphasis added)

Again, Greek has the pronouns, but they are sometimes “hidden” in the form of the verb.

And so in the two verses from 1 Corinthians 14 and Hebrews 5, in Greek, “each one” and “you” are generic, which means everyone in the assembly, that is, men and women. The only way that Complementarians (those who restrict women’s full involvement in ministry) can exclude women from those generic words is to presuppose that women cannot be teachers in the first place. But this is the question under discussion, so let’s not assume the answer in advance.

Further, in 1 Corinthians 12:28 Paul lists three gifts to the body of Christ, even numbering them: first apostle, second prophet, third teacher. That verse comes in the context of everyone experiencing the gifts flowing through them as the Spirit distributes them (1 Cor. 11:4-7).

Apostles: Though it may be difficult for some to believe, the Greek is clear about Junia being an apostle within the larger apostolic community, which goes well beyond the twelve:

Yes, Junia Really Was a Female Apostle: A Close Look at Roman 16:7

Prophets: Women could be prophetesses, not only in the OT (Exod. 15:20; Judg. 4:4; 2 Kings 22:14; Is. 8:3; Joel 2:26), but also in the NT: Anna (Luke 2:36); all women (Acts 2:17); Philip’s daughters (Acts 21:9) and Corinthian women (1 Cor. 11:5).

So it is easy to believe that according to 1 Corinthians 12:28. women can be teachers of a broader group than just young women. Priscilla was a teacher, functionally speaking, so her real-life role clarifies Paul’s general instructions in the table, above. Prisca proves that female teachers who clarified doctrines or teachings did exist.

Gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 and 12:28

Women Really Did Work as–and Were–Overseers, Elders, Pastors: A Close Look at 1 Timothy 5:9-10

Are Women Allowed to Teach Men? A Close Look at 1 Timothy 2:11-15

And thus, older women are called to encourage or urge or advise younger women because they occupied mainly the domestic sphere two thousand years ago, so Paul’s counsel to Titus assumes this. The advice is general, not rigidly restrictive. If it were rigidly restrictive, he would have written “only.” Also, since they are called “teachers of virtue,” they can teach a general audience of men and women, if we interpret 1 Timothy 2:11-15 properly.

Are Women Allowed to Teach Men? A Close Look at 1 Timothy 2:11-15

(3). Since these settings were house churches, the lines between the public assembly and the domestic sphere were blurred. It is impossible (for me at least) to believe that a Christian shopkeeper’s wife would never say one word when a customer walked into his shop–the public domain. She may have to instruct the customer on how good the product was. Further, it is impossible (for me) to believe that during the gathering of the church in her house, whether a small gathering or a large one, she did not say one word of instruction or speak a revelation (see Reply no. 1, below). Things were not so restrictively neat and tidy and exclusive in the house church.

(4). Consider what Paul tells Titus what to do in 2:6-8.

⁶ Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. ⁷ In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness ⁸ and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. (Titus 2:6-8)

“Encourage” is in the second person and singular, so he is writing to Titus himself. You, Titus, “encourage the young men.” So is Titus restricted to teaching only young men? No, of course not. Paul said Titus should also teach older men too (2:1), Paul is simply basing his instructions on the household church. Older women are more adept at teaching younger women how to be good mothers and wives of good character, and older men are more adept at teaching younger men to conduct themselves with godliness. It’s cultural, not universal (a command or restriction for all times and in all places).

(5). Now let’s have a little fun–but with a serious purpose–as we interpret Paul’s silence with the modifier “only”; he never wrote the word, but let’s pretend that he did.

A. Consider: if a mature man wanted to listen in on a mature woman teacher, how could this be stopped, practically, during a house-church meeting? And why would it be stopped out of legalism, particularly when she may have been as talented as Priscilla and Junia? Maybe he wanted to listen. Good for him.

B. Further, how rigidly, literalistically, and restrictively do we take Paul’s words “young women”? What if an older woman (say, sixty-five years old) were listening to a mature woman (say, forty-five years old), who was teaching young women in their twenties? Would the forty-five-year-old woman have to shoo away the sixty-five-year old? “Shoo! Go away! I can teach only young women! Paul said so!” “But I’m your mother!” “It doesn’t matter. Paul said only young women! Go away!”

C. Consider: now the woman teacher is forty-five years old, and a woman who is also forty-five walks in the room. She may be the twin of the teacher, and the twin was born five minutes before the teacher. What now? She has to get up and leave when her twin, the teacher, stands up to teach. Why? Because Paul said she may teach only young women. The twin in the audience is not young. Now what about a forty-six-year-old woman? She has to leave too! Nor is a forty-year-old or even a thirty-five-year-old young. Do they have to walk out too?

To wrap up this subsection, none of these women have to leave because Paul did not say only. Recall the fourth point above. Paul does not restrict Titus to teaching only younger men. And no doubt he would laugh off these nitpicking interpretations of his general household rules and these absurd restrictions which he never intended. I don’t believe the lines were so rigid in the house churches that women could in no way and at no time teach men and others but only young women. Let’s not be so legalistic and rigid that we try to pick up grains of sand one at a time with tweezers, as we read Paul’s general advice. This over-analyzes his counsel and the cultural assumptions behind it.

Paul allowed women to teach. Priscilla and Aquila, wife and husband, taught the mighty Apollos. No doubt this was done in their house. No doubt she taught with authority.

Here are the verses:

He [Apollos] had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. ²⁶ He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. (Acts 18:25-26, NIV emphasis added)

In the next chapter, the unnamed twelve or so disciples knew (i.e., experienced) only the baptism of John (Acts 19:1-7). Paul explained to them about Jesus and baptized them in Jesus’s name. He laid hands on them, and they received the fullness of the Spirit, complete with the gift of prophecy and Spirit-inspired prayer languages (commonly called ‘tongues’). Conversion to Jesus and water baptism brought with it spiritual experiences and the gifts of the Spirit, not just mere mental assent.

I have learned in my translation and commentary on Acts that Luke omits details because, evidently, he wants us to assume them. The clearest example is his not recording one instance of water baptism in Paul’s and Barnabas’s first missionary journey, even though many got saved (Acts 13-14). Water baptism was simply done. He expects us to fill in this gap or omission.

It is probable that the same thing happened to Apollos. Priscilla led the powerful rhetorician and baptized Apollos to receive more of Jesus and the Spirit with the gift of prophecy and prayer languages. It’s hard to believe that Priscilla kept her mouth closed during this sacred time. No. She taught. With authority. This is teaching with doctrinal clarity and the practice of ministry.

Questions and Answers about Spirit-Inspired Languages

REPLIES TO OBJECTIONS

Some readers may have doubts, so let’s answer them (if we can).

1.. Paul may not have said the actual word only, but he implied it. Why didn’t he just say elderly women can teach whomever they want, even men?

As noted, Paul did not say “teach” younger women but “encourage” or “urge” or “advise” them. I say the door is open to this compound noun being a title for the general assembly of men and women. Further, he was speaking according to the division of household duties. Women primarily oversaw the domestic sphere, and their teaching was done by example and by words to the young ones. In other posts we saw that the door to women being teachers was open to them. He instructed Titus to teaching or encourage younger men, but surely he was not restricted to teaching only them.

Are Women Allowed to Teach Men? A Close Look at 1 Timothy 2:11-15

And we already quoted Colossians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 14:26, Hebrews 5:12, which had generic pronouns (or verb endings) that were not gender restrictive (men only). Priscilla was a teacher, functionally speaking, so her role clarifies Paul’s general instructions in Titus 2:3-5.

2.. But Pricilla’s life is found in descriptive passages, while Titus 2:3-5 is prescriptive. The prescriptive verses issue commands, while the descriptive passages merely describe. The prescriptive passages always trump the descriptive ones.

Some interpreters call the passages where women’s ministry is practiced “descriptive” (e.g. Priscilla, Phoebe, Syntyche, Euodia, Nympha, Junia, et al. See the references below). In contrast, the verses in the objection are often called “prescriptive passages.” They issue commands and instructions. How do we interpret the two kinds–descriptive and prescriptive?

One interpretation misses things: if we make the so-called prescriptive passages “smack down” the descriptive passages, then we make the women to be transgressors of the prescriptive passages in their active ministries. So something has gone wrong with the interpretation of the prescriptive passages. It is a sure thing that Paul would have laughed it out court because he observed those women in action. (Or if he could time-travel to right now, he may weep from discouragement at modern American, uptight interpretations.) Instead, the descriptive and prescriptive passages are mutually clarifying. Neither one trumps the other.

Women’s real-life ministries are found throughout the NT. Examples: named and unnamed women who followed Jesus to the very end of his life (Luke 8:2-3; 24:10); Priscilla taught the mighty Apollos (Acts 18); Euodia and Syntyche strove alongside Paul in the cause of the gospel (Phil. 4:2-3); Junia was a co-prisoner with Paul and was outstanding among the apostles (Rom. 16:7). Junia cannot have been passive and silent in ministry to land her in prison. Phoebe was a minister of the word (Rom. 16:1-2). Philipp’s daughters prophesied (Acts 21:9). A certain Mary worked hard for the Romans (Rom. 16:6). It is impossible to believe that she kept her mouth closed throughout her hard work.

Do modern Complementarians (those who restrict women’s full participation) really want women not to say one word in church? Those verses in the objection were not written two weeks ago in America (or another nation), but two thousand years ago. Scripture is not flat or one dimensional. It was not written to us, but it was written for us.

This objection sets up a needless dichotomy between the two types of Scripture. Paul wrote that we are supposed to learn even from the (descriptive) stories in the Old Testament:

¹¹ These things happened to them as examples  and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. (1 Cor. 10:11, NIV)

We need both types of Scripture to explain each other. I see both types as essential and part of the inerrant, authoritative word of God. Both types are mutually explanatory and clarifying. Don’t pit one against the other, or else you will turn Priscilla and other women (e.g. in Rom. 16) into transgressors of the “prescriptive” commands of Paul. Bad idea.

By my way of thinking, the only way out of the impasse between prescriptive and descriptive verses is to conclude that the prescriptive verses in Titus 2:3-5 were culturally conditioned stop-gap solutions to temporary and local problems on Crete. They do not apply to every Christian woman throughout the Roman empire (who may have never even heard of Paul’s epistle to Titus).

It is hard to believe that Mary Magdalene, who was the first to see the resurrected Jesus, kept her mouth shut in the assembly, where men were present, as she told her story in Jerusalem and probably up north in Galilee, where she had first met Jesus. The apostles did not stop her when she announced to them the resurrection, the most important event in the Christian faith and indeed in human history. In addition, it is a sure thing that she taught people about the teachings and miracles of Jesus, because she had followed and listened to him from the beginning. She was an early and valuable and reliable and honored first-hand, eyewitness story-teller in the Christian communities in Israel. Did she know about Paul’s epistles to Titus, Timothy, and the Corinthians? Doubtful.

Titus 2:3-5, of necessity, has an original cultural background that must be explored, particularly in the role of women in the church. The background clarifies the “plain” meaning of the text, even more. It is very risky to ignore the cultural background because we can reach needlessly severe restrictions.

Context, context, context!

3.. Once again, the plain reading of Titus 2:3-5 says that elderly women are restricted to teaching young women, even if Paul did not say only. There is no way that the cultural background can overcome Paul’s plain and stark restrictions on an elderly woman’s audience.

No. Paul said “advise,” “urge” or “encourage” younger women. Plus, those verses were written two thousand years ago, in the Greco-Roman world. Neither did Paul  restrict Titus to teaching only younger men. Scripture must not be read as if it is one-dimensional or flat. It is absolutely required to understand those verses in their original context, particularly when women’s ministry is at stake and when women in the Old Testament had powerful ministries in their ancient culture. When a reader turns the pages of the New Testament, women are mentioned in many verses. They are active and involved in ministry. I believe we need to work hard at using the women as examples in order to foster women’s ministries today, particularly their teaching roles, instead of working hard to restrict them. Let’s be generous and open the doors to women’s full involvement in ministry.

4.. Your illustrations about twins and forty-six-year-olds and forty-five-year-olds–all the illustrations–were ridiculous.

Of course they were ridiculous. They illustrated reductio ad absurdum–reducing these too-restrictive interpretations to their absurd conclusions. Something has gone wrong.

If we don’t interpret the verses in their original context, we may miss something, so that we restrict women too stringently today in their God-called ministry.

CONCLUSION

Women teachers existed in the New Testament. In Titus 2:3-5 Paul was writing from a cultural point of view. And in vv. 6-8 Paul also wrote to Titus from a cultural point of view. Women occupied their own household and had to manage it. And older women naturally taught young women how to manage their own household, to love their husbands and children, and develop the virtues, because young women also occupied the domestic sphere. And Titus (and other older men) would be better suited to teaching younger men on such issues. But we must not over-read Paul’s words, when the church met in their households. It is easy to imagine that when the church service was going on, walls of separation between men and women sharing their faith, their songs, their revelations and their teachings collapsed.

Older women are called to be “teachers of virtue” and to urge or or encourage or advise younger women to be prudent or of sound judgment.  I believe that “teachers of virtue” is in fact a title because she actually did this ministry in the context of the house church, as we saw with the other women in Replies to Objections, no. 2. This title does indeed imply that women can teach a general audience of men and women of all ages.

And so when a matron stood up to offer a teaching, it is impossible (for me) to believe that the men filed out of the room or covered their ears with their hands and said “la-la-la-la!” so they could not hear her. It’s even harder (for me) to believe that they told her to sit down and shut up. On the contrary, why wouldn’t a twenty-something grandson listen to his sixty-five-year old grandmother who was sharing an insight or a revelation or a brief (or lengthy) teaching? How far do today’s Bible teachers of the more restrictive variety take restrictive interpretations? They ignore the original context to the detriment of women teachers today.

Paul was merely speaking culturally.

Therefore, I say we should listen to any godly woman in our churches who can offer a teaching to the whole assembly, men and women of any age. If not, then restrictive seminaries should fire every women professor / teacher or exclude men from her classroom. These seminaries should never have hired women in the first place. Moreover, women youtube teachers who decry progressive Christianity (and they should denounce it) must shut down their channel or provide disclaimers everywhere that they can teach only young women. They must give their age at the beginning of each video and announce that any woman who is the same age or older must now click out of their video–now! For sure men, even young ones, must click out immediately. Paul said so, right?

Wrong. This is foolish. The fact that extra-conservative seminaries do not fire female professors (or the seminaries hired them in the first place) shows me that they sense Paul’s words are cultural, not universal.

In my view all of us should work hard to exegete the passages in a way that supports women teachers. “Teacher of virtue” may well be a title. They may teach people of all ages and both sexes. And no, this does not twist the Scriptures, any more than the Complementarians twist the Scriptures (though I believe they often misinterpret them). Let’s be generous and let women exercise the ministry gifts of God, as the Spirit enables them. There is nothing in Scripture, properly interpreted, that prevents them.

On a personal note, this is one major reason why I went from mild or soft Complementarianism to Egalitarianism. I turned the kaleidoscope one notch by looking at the historical and cultural contexts, and things got a lot clearer. Better exegesis from the real experts (e.g. Gordon Fee, Philip Payne and Linda Belleville) also led me to switch.

RELATED

Women Really Did Work as–and Were–Overseers, Elders, Pastors: A Close Look at 1 Timothy 5:9-10

Yes, Junia Really Was a Female Apostle: A Close Look at Roman 16:7

Should Women Not Speak One Word in Church? A Close Look at 1 Cor. 14:34-36

Women, Men, and Five Ministry Gifts in Ephesians 4:11

And no, this is not a post advocating Western, progressive, postmodern feminism. I speak out against it and progressivism generally:

Warning to Evolving, Progressive Churches: Danger Signs

Warning to Evolving, Progressive Churches: Authority of Scripture

Warning to Evolving, Progressive Churches: Marriage and Sex

Warning to Evolving, Progressive Churches: Judgment Is Coming