Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 37:3 (Summer 2023)
Article: Is There Anything More That Can Be Said About 1 Timothy 2:8–15? “Propriety,” A Surprisingly Significant Word
Author: James Reiher

PP 37:3 (Summer 2023) p. 24

Is There Anything More That Can Be Said About 1 Timothy 2:8–15? “Propriety,” A Surprisingly Significant Word

James Reiher

Jim Reiher, MA (Hons.) is a retired lecturer in New Testament Studies and Church History. He lectured from 2000 to 2012 for Tabor College in Melbourne, Australia. He has written numerous books and articles, and now, in his semi-retirement, he focuses more on his writing. Jim’s other publications on women in ministry include: Women Leadership and the Church (Acorn, 2006), “Galatians 3:28—Liberating for Women’s Ministry? Or of Limited Application?” Expository Times 123/6 (March 2012) 272–77, and “She Desires a Noble Task,” Mutuality 28/1 (Spring 2021) 19–21.

Do we really need yet another article on 1 Tim 2:8–15? Is there anything left to be said about that contentious paragraph? As the writer of Ecclesiastes lamented: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (1:9 NIV).

I will not be going over ground well-covered.1 Those who spend time in this passage are aware of the debates and controversies involved:

• Determining the difference between universal truths for all time and local issues being addressed at a point in time.
• Whether the passage is talking about men and women or husbands and wives.
• The debate around the unusual word for “authority” (authentein) in v. 12: does it refer to normal authority or to something more unpleasant, like “usurping authority,” or to something else altogether?2

• The debate around what the Adam and Eve illustrations signify: is the word “for” (gar, “for Adam was created first then Eve”) causal (justifying why women cannot teach or have authority) or is it illustrative (introducing examples of what the writer is talking about)?
• If Eve supposedly represents all women for all time and she was deceived (not Adam) and that is why women cannot teach or lead, then how do churches allow any woman to teach Sunday School, lead a women’s Bible study, etc.? Why does the supposed universal truth, or “creation ordinance,”3 have a point where it can be broken?

• What does “she will be saved through childbirth” mean? Eternal salvation? Physical safety? A vague reference to Jesus Christ coming as a child? Another illustration and allusion to the problems specifically happeni...
  
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