Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 17:3 (Summer 2003)
Article: Exegetical Fallacies In Interpreting 1 Timothy 2:11-15
Author: Linda L. Belleville

PP 17:3 (Summer 2003) p. 3

Exegetical Fallacies In Interpreting 1 Timothy 2:11-15

Evaluating the text with contextual, lexical, grammatical, and cultural information

Linda L. Belleville

Linda Belleville is professor of biblical literature at North Park Theological Seminary. Linda is an active member of the Evangelical Theological Society and on CBE’s board of reference. She is author of Women Leaders and the Church: Three Crucial Questions (Baker Books, 2000) and “The Egalitarian View” published in Two Views on Women in Ministry (Zondervan, 2001). Linda is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church.

The substance of ‘Exegetical Fallacies in Interpreting 1 Timothy 2:11-15’ is adapted from an essay in the forthcoming book Discovering Biblical Equality, ed. by Rebecca Merrill Groothuis and Ronald W. Pierce, published by InterVarsity Press.

The battle over women leaders and the church continues to rage unabated in evangelical circles. At the center of the tempest sits 1 Tim. 2:11-15. Despite a broad spectrum of biblical and extra-biblical texts that highlight female leaders, 1 Tim. 2:11-15 continues to be perceived and treated as the great divide in the debate. Indeed for some, how one interprets this passage has become a litmus test for the label “evangelical” and even for salvation.1

The complexities of 1 Tim. 2:11-15 are many. There is barely a word or phrase that has not been keenly scrutinized and hotly debated. But with the advent of computer technology, we now have access to a wide array of tools and databases that can shed light on what all concede to be truly knotty aspects of the passage. In this brief treatment, the focus will be on four key exegetical fallacies: contextual/historical, lexical (silently, authentein), grammatical (the Greek infinitive and correlative), and cultural (Artemis).

Contextual/Historical Fallacies

The first step in getting a handle on 1 Tim. 2:12 is to be Paul begins by instructing his stand-in, Timothy, to stay put in Ephesus so he can command certain persons not to teach “any different doctrine” (1:3). False teaching is Paul’s overriding concern, which can be seen from the fact that he bypasses normal letter-writing conventions, such as a thanksgiving and greetings, and gets right down to business. It is also obvious because Paul devotes roughly fifty percent of the letter’s contents to the topic of false teaching.

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