Should Women Teach Men At Church?

For many conservative Christians (including Roman Catholics, Fundamentalists, Landmarkists, traditional evangelicals, Separatists, (I'm not sure about Greek Orthodox), etc.) the answer to such a question is “No, women should not teach men at church.”

Anybody who knows me or even is slightly familiar with my understanding of the Scriptures knows that I believe that the Scriptures teach that women can (and should) be pastors and that the Scriptures teach that women can teach doctrine to men.

I’m not going to give the Scriptural evidence for my belief because I have before, because other have as well, and because I know such evidence will not convince those who refuse to consider or even to look at the evidence.

However, allow me to ask a number of questions to those who do believe that “women should not teach men at church”. Of course, I really don’t believe that those who hold this view will read these questions but I think I have a better chance than simply giving Scriptural evidence. Also, I do believe in the Holy Spirit’s power to reveal the meaning of Scripture to believers. Hopefully, those who read these questions will actually go to Scripture to find the answers to these questions. Yes, I do know the “extreme danger” of asking questions. But if one is afraid to ask tough questions and even more afraid to search for the answers of such questions then they may need to pray about receiving help in their faith. Honestly, if we believe our Faith to be true and that the Scriptures are true then we should not be afraid to ask such questions. Again, I am confident in the Holy Spirit’s guidance in these matters. Furthermore, even if no one else reads these questions, perhaps those of you who do belief that “women should teach men at church” and know the Scriptural evidence for that view can use these questions in good spirited discussions. Of course, no orthodox Christian should hold to this particular view of Scripture simply because they want to or because they like it; no, they should hold to it because they are convinced that this is what Scripture teaches. If not, the are not better than those Christians who hold to the traditional view because it is traditional or because everyone else does. All are bad reasons. Finally, here is the one verse, the lone Scriptural excerpt which the traditional view of “women in ministry” has been based: “I permit not a woman to teach, or to usurp authority over the man, but to keep silent” (Tim 2:12). That’s it. Now here are my questions:


- How should we define “teach”?

- How should we define “church”?

- How should we define “authority”?

- Can a woman teach men outside of church?

- What is God’s reason for this prohibition?

- Why can a woman write on doctrine but not speak it?

- Does the Great Commission only apply to men (Matt 28:19-20) or does it only apply to women when they are not in church? Of course, why do people believe this verse only applies to the church?

- What are the things that males are competent to do but by Scripture says they should not?

- What authority do men have?

- What authority do pastors have?

- Do prophets have authority?

- Where in Scripture does it say that a woman cannot be a “pastor”?

- What should a woman do if she is asked a theological question by a man?

- What should a woman do if she is asked by a man to explain a Christian truth that he does not know?

- Why is woman in the singular and not plural?

- Can a woman “preach?”

- What if a man reads a book while in church?

- Because Paul’s not referring to all women in general, which woman is he talking about in particular?

- What sort of authority do female prophetesses have?

- If it IS wrong for a man to be taught doctrine by a woman’s theology book, who is sinning, the woman who wrote the book or the man who read it?

- We say that the husband is head of the family. If the husband dies, who is head of the family then?

- What is the difference between “teaching” and “witnessing”?

- If Paul meant “authority”, why did he not use exousiazo, his typical word, as in: “the husband hath not authority over his own body, but the wife.” (1 Cor 7:4)?

- Does the traditional meaning of this verse change because Paul uses the verb authenteo in the infinitive, which means to “usurp authority”, rather that exousiazo, “authority”?

- An unbelieving man visiting a local church walks up to a believing woman and asks her a doctrinal question. The believing woman replies that she knows the answer to his doctrinal question but cannot answer him. The unbelieving man asks the believing woman why she cannot answer his doctrinal question. The believing woman replies that she cannot tell the unbelieving man why she cannot answer his doctrinal question because the question of why she cannot answer his doctrinal question is a doctrinal question. The unbelieving man begins to anticipate the problem and asks, “You mean women cannot answer doctrinal questions because they are forbidden to “teach men in church?” The believing woman replies, “Yes,” catches herself, “Oops!” and then excuses herself because she has sinned and must go repent. So what was the believing woman’s sin?