May Women Teach the Bible in Public?

Jul 30, 2009 | Articles

The clarity of Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 14:34-36 has convinced many people that women must not speak in the church (assembly), but some of these same people are not convinced that women are forbidden to speak publicly. What about it? May women teach in a public capacity, so long as it is not a church service or a service called by the church? If so, may women teach on the radio, on television, or a street corner somewhere before hundreds of people? I maintain that when a woman teaches publicly, she violates the Scriptures by usurping the authority God gave to men. The apostle Paul wrote:

“Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence” (I Timothy 2:11,12).

Women are not allowed to teach publicly. The word “teach” is from the Greek word “didasko,” defined by Thayer “to hold discourse with others in order to instruct them, deliver didactic discourses.” Women are not allowed to usurp authority over the man. Women are to be in silence. So says the apostle Paul. Those who want to limit 1st Timothy 2:11-12 to church services have no scripture to keep women from teaching on the air or the street corner.

Some want 1 Timothy 2:12 to mean, “I suffer not a woman to teach over the man,” and they, accordingly, allow women to teach publicly in classrooms, but do not allow her to “teach over the man,” whatever that means. But that is not what Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:12! The apostle says,

“But I suffer not (permit not, ASV), a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”

The word, “nor” is from “oude” in the original Greek and Thayer describes it as a negative disjunctive conjunction and states that it “places side by side things that are equal and mutually exclude each other” (Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p. 461). Everett Ferguson, professor emeritus of Bible at Abilene Christian University, admitted in the September, 2001 issue of The Christian Chronicle:

“Where the full construction with alia (‘but’) occurs, both of the first two items are negated and the following positive statement carries the weight of the meaning. An example is Galatians 1:1-apostleship came neither ‘from man’ nor ‘through man’ but through Christ and God. According to this parallel, the command in 1 Timothy 2:12 is for women not to be in positions of teaching or domination of a man but to be quiet learners” (p. 32).

Usurping Authority

What does it mean to “usurp authority”? Strong’s Greek Dictionary of the New Testament defines it “to act of oneself” (p. 17). Vine’s Expository Dictionary states: “Later it came to denote one who acts on his own authority; hence, to exercise authority, dominion” (p. 90). Some might argue that husbands, elders, young boys or other women granted them the authority, but since it puts the woman in an authority role, a role God has reserved for men, it usurps authority from God’s viewpoint. A reading of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 should convince us that God placed leadership and authority in the hands of men. All of the apostles Jesus chose were men, and later all of those chosen to be evangelists and teachers were men. All of the elders and deacons were men. There are no examples of women teaching or praying in public. God clearly placed men rather than women in leadership roles.

What Is Public Teaching?

Many churches feel that it is private teaching when women do their teaching in classrooms. However, when the church calls a group together, that group constitutes a “called” church assembly; therefore, Bible classes are “called” assemblies of the church. They then advertise these classes and invite the public. Everyone in each age group is invited to attend. This is clearly public teaching.

The apostle Paul told the Ephesians that he had taught them “publicly, and from house to house” (Acts 20:20). Since Bible class teaching is not “house to house” teaching, it must be public teaching. Publicly means “in public places, in view of all,” according to Thayer (p. 132). If Bible class teaching were truly private, women would be allowed to teach men, as Priscilla did in Acts 18:26, but that is strictly forbidden by Bible class advocates. We ask, “Why?” Private Teaching

There are others who feel that so long as the church does not arrange biblical instruction and only one particular age or mental group has been invited, it is private teaching. Suppose a woman takes it upon herself to rent a room and invite only women of a certain age to hear her biblical lectures-would that be private?

Look at the example of Joseph and Mary when Joseph erroneously thought Mary guilty of immorality. Matthew records:

‘Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily” (Matthew 1:19).

Would it have been a private affair if Joseph had invited all the women Mary’s age to attend the putting away? And look at the case of Herod and the wise men. Matthew records:

‘Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared” (Matthew 2:7).

Question: Would it have been private if Herod had called all the men in their age bracket? Question: How many women could be invited to such “private teaching? If eighty could be invited, could eight hundred be invited? If eight hundred could be invited, could eight thousand be invited? And if it is truly private teaching, could a man sit in on it? To answer these questions is to see the folly of calling such “private” teaching.

Women Are To Teach

I am aware of the passage in Titus 2:3 in which aged women are instructed to be “teachers of good things.” I am aware also that the phrase in the original text contains a form of the word “didasko.” However, in verses 4 and 5, we see the nature of the “good things” that the aged women are to teach. The apostle says:

“That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”

The word “teach” in verse 4 is rendered in the Revised Version “to train.” Both Vincent and Robertson say that the word means “to discipline.” This type of teaching cannot be done in thirty minutes a week. It is the kind of teaching done by word, example, and influence from day to day. This command to teach is not fulfilled by a lecture in a classroom, but even if it were, it is something that is demanded of all aged women in a congregation and not just one aged woman.

Charles John Ellicott, in The Layman’s Handy Commentary, brings out the sense of the phrase, “teachers of good things,” when he comments:

“This does not mean that these aged women should occupy the place of public instructresses, but that they should, by here and there speaking a kind warning word, and, better still, by the golden silence of a useful honoured life, teach their younger sisters lessons of truth and faith and love” (Titus, p. 19).

About the kind of teaching anticipated, he says,

“Such a reformation, not only in the discipline of the church, but also in the individual life and conversation, as St. Paul desired to see in Crete, would never be brought about by a sermon, or even by many sermons, however eloquent and earnest, from Titus. It would be a matter requiring long time and patience, and would, as observed above, rather follow as the result of patient individual effort and holy example” (p. 20).

Also, in Ellicott’s Commentaries, Critical and Grammatical, he quotes the venerable Beza as saying on “teachers of good things”: “Not by public teaching, but as the context implies by its specifications, in domestic privacy” (p. 200).

Women may teach anyone privately, informally, or in an individual capacity. Where women are allowed to teach, they may teach other women (Titus 2:3,4), children (2 Timothy 1 -5; 3-15), or men (Acts 18:26), but where they are not allowed to teach, and that is publicly, they may teach no one. I have love and admiration for women who zealously serve God without stepping out of their God-given roles. May God bless them and may the church have more of them.

– Johnny Elmore