The Woman in the Assembly

The first letter to Timothy gives directions for the conduct of the assembly at Ephesus, among them this one: the woman receives instruction in calm, she does not teach nor exercise authority over the man, and the rule is grounded on Adam and Eve. The passage jars. It grows clear once one enters the situation it is correcting and the reasons it sets out.

Calm and instruction

Timothy watches over the Church at Ephesus, troubled by false teachers who spread false doctrines and lead astray poorly grounded faithful. It is in this disorder that the letter is written. Its first word about women is an invitation to receive instruction: “Let the woman learn in silence, in all submission.” 1 Timothy 2:11 The Greek word rendered as “silence,” hesychia (ἡσυχία), means calm, tranquillity. The text calls therefore for an attitude of listening and order, not for muteness. Before teaching, one must first be instructed; at Ephesus, women won over by error wanted to teach before being instructed themselves.

Teaching and taking authority

Then comes the rule: “I do not permit a woman to teach, nor to take authority over a man; let her remain in silence.” 1 Timothy 2:12 What is reserved is precise: public teaching that carries authority, and the presidency of the assembly, that is, the charge of leading the gathered community and conducting its prayer. This charge falls to the men established for it, and the Church has kept it by entrusting the ordained ministry to men.

This reserve leaves the share of women in the handing on of the faith wholly intact. Scripture elsewhere takes it for granted that the woman prays and prophesies in the assembly: “Every woman who prays or prophesies…” 1 Corinthians 11:5 The Acts show a woman who instructs in the faith a preacher already eloquent (Acts 18:26). What is set aside is one precise function, the teaching that carries authority and the presidency of the assembly; the speech of women keeps all its place elsewhere.

Adam and Eve

The direction is grounded on two facts from Genesis. The first is the order of creation: “For Adam was formed first, then Eve.” 1 Timothy 2:13 Adam’s precedence states the order willed by God between man and woman.

The second is the order of the fall: “It was not Adam who was deceived; it was the woman who, deceived, fell into transgression.” 1 Timothy 2:14 Eve was deceived first by the serpent. Yet the text does not teach that Eve is more guilty, nor that woman is weaker by nature: the responsibility for the sin that weighs on all humanity is laid upon Adam, in whom all have sinned: “Through one man sin entered the world.” Romans 5:12 If the deception of Eve is recalled, it is as a warning: the same deception was at work at Ephesus, where poorly grounded faithful let themselves be led astray by the false teachers. The recalling of the fall warns the assembly against this danger.

Saved through childbearing

The passage closes on an obscure word: “She will be saved through childbearing, if she perseveres in faith, charity, and holiness.” 1 Timothy 2:15 The childbearing of which it speaks is first of all that by which salvation came into the world. Where Eve, deceived, brought on the fall, a woman, by bringing the Saviour into the world, bore the remedy, fulfilling the promise made after the fault, that of an offspring born of the woman who would crush the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers: she shall crush your head.” Genesis 3:15 The woman is raised up by this childbearing, received in faith.

The passage thus holds two things together. A discipline: the teaching that carries authority and the presidency of the assembly fall to the men established for it, and the Church has kept this; the strictest form, the imposed silence, answered the precise disorder at Ephesus. And a dignity: the woman, equal in worth before God, has a share in salvation as the man does, and it is through a woman that the Saviour entered the world. The order thus recalled sets man and woman together within the design of a God who willed to save them through the childbearing of a woman.