Female "Pastors", is it Biblical? - Bible Teaching #7
All feelings aside. As always, grab your Bible, read along, pray for discernment and wisdom into the Scriptures.
For this article we will be observing a Thomas Nelson NKJV reference Bible and Strong's Exhaustive Concordance.
I do not think I can add anything particularly new to this topic. But hopefully I can put this in a way that may make sense to you and refute any argument that may rise up against this.
May the Spirit of Truth guide you into all Truth through the beautifully True Word of God.
First lets examine the passages in the Bible against such. Then we will examine some of the popular arguments that female "pastors", or teachers use to justify such, and see if we can make sense of the seeming contradictions or non contradictions.
1 Timothy 2:11-14
"Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression."
1 Corinthians 14:34-38
"Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.
Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached? If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant."
Did you catch that? That is a commandment from the Lord.
Isaiah 3:14
"As for My people, children are their oppressors,
And women rule over them.
O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err,
And destroy the way of your paths."
Now in these next couple passages, we see the qualifications for a bishop aka an overseer. Notice the passages presuppose the person is a male.
1 Timothy 3:1-7
"This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil."
Titus 1:5-9
"For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you— if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination. For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict."
So, I have heard an argument against these past 5 passages saying, "Well, that must just mean those specific churches." Ok, lets take a look at that. We have Ephesus, Corinth, Crete, and the nation of Israel. 4 different places, same message. Sounds like it is pretty accross the board. Especially since there is no record of any church prescribing a female overseer or teacher for any gathering of Gods people in the Bible.
Also notice in the Old Testament, only males ran the Temple, the House of God.
In Numbers 18:1-7, we see that only the SONS OF AARON can attend the altar, the rest were to be put to death.
In Leviticus 10:8-11, we see that only the SONS OF AARON were to teach the Law.
Now addressing the argument that there are female deacons mentioned in the New Testament.
Deacon just means, "one who serves", thus why there are female deacons in the Bible. The person greeting the door, the person supplying food, the person cleaning up and setting up, etc... Tasks like that are permitted for women and even welcomed. In 1 Timothy 3:8-13 we see a much lighter emphases on the male aspect, using terms like these and them. Only a definite and specific mention of a qualification for a male deacon in verse 12. Unlike the passage before, which talks about bishops aka overseers, which is riddled with terms like; he, man, husband and his.
Interesting thing is that the word deacon is the Greek word diakonos, Strong's G1249. According to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, that word means this:
"deacon, minister, servant.
Probably from an obsolete diako (to run on errands; compare dioko); an attendant, i.e. (genitive case) a waiter (at table or in other menial duties); specially, a Christian teacher and pastor (technically, a deacon or deaconess) -- deacon, minister, servant."
So clearly we can see that a female deacon was not a teacher of a public group of people or a person in authority. The Christian teacher or pastor is in special cases obviously dealing with male deacons, I invite you to try finding a woman teaching a group of men and women or leading Gods house in the Bible.
So same thing from both New and Old Covenants in Gods House, men lead and teach, women can serve but not lead or teach the body at large; only other women or privately with men.
Now lets look at some popular arguments for female "pastors" or teachers.
Deborah, in Judges chapters 4 and 5.
She judged Israel in a time when it was under the control of Canaan, Judges 4:1-4. Notice the negative stuff mentioned in verses 1-4 in Judges chapter 4. Verse 1, Israel was doing evil in the sight of the Lord. Verse 2, God sold them into the hands of the king of Canaan. Verse 3, the king of Canaan oppressed the nation of Israel for 20 years. Finally in verse 4, the anouncement of the only female judge in the period of the book of Judges. So we can see already this is not really an example that we should model ourselves after.
But good news is, even though she was a woman in a seeming leadership role, she still did not act without a male authority. Notice, even though she normally would have had power to bring troops to war in the position of a judge. She instead tells a man privately that the Lord commanded him to gather the army and go to war in, Judges 4:6. The male refused to go lead them alone so consequently God took away whatever Glory he may have had; God handed the victory to a woman, (not Deborah). Also notice that her task was a judge, that means private instructing between people, not public teaching. So we can see that this does not condone publicly teaching or preaching Gods Word, only private instruction where needed.
Now for Miriam, notice in Exodus 15:20.
She led who? She led the women in a song and dance! Not teaching the Word of God, not having authority over or leading men. Which correlates with women teaching and leading other women in Titus 2:3-5. When Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses in Numbers chapter 12, we see that Miriam was made leprous and Aaron was not. Could it be that she was punished worse than Aaron because it was wrong for her to question the male leadership being a woman? As we know, men have commandments to question leadership in the Bible in numerous places; even steps to men confronting elders in sin. But what about a woman? If they are to be under a mans authority then they need to remain silent, according to 1 Timothy 2:11-12.
Aquilla and Priscilla in Acts 18:26.
Some people try to use this as an excuse for a woman teacher. This husband and wife taught a person the Way more accurately. Notice, they took him aside. That makes this a private teaching! A husband and his wife taught this man together privately. There is no evidence anywhere that this couple is mentioned publicly teaching or the wife being in a position of authority in the New Testament Scriptures. Closest we can come to that is, Romans 16:3-5. Just mentions that the church is in their house, not that the wife is in leadership there or that she teaches during the meetings.
Now we have, Huldah, in 2 Kings 22:14-20.
4 men went from king Josiah to her to inquire of the Lord. Not a public teaching, just verifying if the Book of the Law was authentic or not. The Lord spoke through her and gave the 4 men a message to return to Josiah.
The list goes on and on.
Basically, pick a prophetess, you will not find one in a position of authority. You also will not find them teaching or leading a group including men and women. Only teaching privately as needed or leading women only, as soon as a male enters the picture she submits as the Bible commands.
Different story for male prophets in the Bible. They were continually given a word from the Lord and were commanded to speak to the people. You can find such references in, Jeremiah chapter 1, Isaiah chapter 1, Ezekiel chapter 2, Amos chapter 1, Jonah chapter 1, etc... All those messages were addressed to whole cities or even nations. All public messages for the masses. Drastic difference from the recorded biblical ministry of a prophetess.
Notice that Israel had Kings leading, not queens. The only 2 queens of Israel were Jezebel and Athaliah. Both of which the Bible speaks harshly against. One was the wife of Ahab, arguably the worst leadership Israel ever had. The other killed all the royal heirs except for one to take the throne by force. Either one is a horrible example to go by. Notice the priests that ran Gods House were male, not priestesses. Notice Israel has Patriarchs, not Matriarchs; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc... The 12 Apostles were once again, male. Jesus could uave easily picked 6 men and 6 women or even had just 1 woman but, as we see that was not the case. It has been the same design since Adam and Eve fell. Eve was Adams equal, Genesis 2:18-22, but part of the punishment for Eve after the fall was,
Genesis 3:16
"To the woman He said:
I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you."
That Hebrew word translated to husband, literally means man. You see, no longer equals, now man rules over woman. All because Eve led Adam into sin. This way that will never happen again, if the command is followed.
Question is, do you love God enough to humble yourself and submit to His commands? According to John 14:23-24, you only love Jesus if you keep His Word, if you do not keep His Word then you do not love Him.
None of this would be a question at all if we followed the proper prescribed meeting of the Church in, 1 Corinthians 14:26-33. As we can see from that there is no one person on a stage speaking a sermon in the New Covenant. That is an Old Covenant principle. It is supposed to be a group meeting where everyone brought something to the table. The Overseer just manages the meeting. No stage, no performance, no vainity, no money collection, basically nothing that the modern "church" calls the position of a pastor. Todays "church" has a celebrity speaker on a stage, giving you a performance for money. Thus why rebellious women, while craving power, yearn for that position. This false position is all together unbiblical, blasphemous and rebellious; whether male or female. If you read the whole passage from 1 Corinthians 14:26-40, we see that taking such an unbiblical position is actually breaking the commandments of the Lord and will cause such people to be ignored by God.
Anyways, hope this helps. Pray to the Lord and see what He says. Read for yourself, don't just go on what I say. Check everything by the beautifully True Word of God.
God bless and Godspeed.si
I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts and am willing to discuss any of these topics and more, in great detail. If you would like.
Email:
Michael.servantofchrist@gmail.comhis i
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