Additional Notes §6
§6 Proper Demeanor in Prayer (1 Tim. 2:8–15)
In this paragraph Paul continues his instructions on “prayers” begun in verse 1. But now the concern is for proper demeanor on the part of the “pray-ers.” But why these concerns, and why in this way? And why the inordinate amount of time devoted to the women in comparison with the men? Again, the solution lies with the false teachers. The word to the men is an obvious response to their controversies and strife. The word to the women, therefore, may be assumed also to respond to this conflict. But how?
The answer lies close at hand—in 5:3–16 and 2 Timothy 3:5–9. It is clear from the latter passage that the false teachers are finding their most fruitful hearing among some “weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.” According to 1 Timothy 5, among these women are some younger widows who “live for pleasure” (v. 6), have become “gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to” (v. 13), and by so doing are bringing the gospel into disrepute (v. 14). Some of them, Paul says, have “already turned away to follow Satan” (v. 15; cf. 2:14 and 4:2). His advice there is similar to what is given here. They should marry (ct. 4:3), have children (cf. 2:15), and take care of their homes (5:14). Within that context, both the instructions on modest dress and on neither teaching nor having authority over men, as well as the illustration of Eve, who was equally deceived by Satan, plus the final instruction in verse 15 on bearing children, can all be shown to make sense.
Whether any of this is also related to the predominance of women in the local Artemis cult (see disc. on 1:3) is a moot point, but it is certainly possible.
2:8 / This sentence is tied to what precedes by the conjunction oun (“therefore”), untranslated in the NIV (probably because it was understood to be transitional). “Therefore,” Paul says, “while we’re on the subject, as the people gather to pray be sure it is for prayer and not in anger or disputing.” That is, the instruction is neither that men should pray nor that only men pray nor that they should do so with uplifted hands, but that when at prayer they should do so without engaging in controversies.
This is to be so everywhere, that is, “in every place where believers gather in and around Ephesus” (the house-churches). To lift up holy hands while in prayer is the assumed posture of prayer in both Judaism and early Christianity (see note). The imagery is that of ritual purity, hands cleansed before praying, and here refers to their not being “soiled” by anger or disputing, the particular sins of the false teachers.
2:9–10 / Paul turns next to women (without the definite article, implying a broader context than merely wives). The concern has to do first of all with their dress and demeanor. It is not easy from our vantage point to understand the reason for this concern, but probably it is related to their becoming “wanton against Christ” (5:11, RSV) and their being “swayed by all kinds of evil desires” (2 Tim. 3:6). There is a large body of evidence, both Hellenistic and Jewish, which equated “dressing up” on the part of women with both sexual wantonness and wifely insubordination (see note). Indeed, for a married woman so to dress in public was tantamount to marital unfaithfulness (see, e.g., Sentences of Sextus513: “A wife who likes adornment is not faithful”). Given the close tie here between trumpery (vv. 9–10) and the need “to learn with all submissiveness” (v. 11, RSV), it is most likely that Paul is viewing the actions of some of the women from within this same general cultural framework (see esp. disc. on 2 Tim. 3:6–7).
Thus women are to dress modestly, with decency and propriety. Inherent in this last word is the use of “good judgment” in the matter of dress. This is then specifically defined as not wearing braided hair (lit., “with plaited hair”; cf. 1 Pet. 3:3 and Juvenal, cited in the note) or gold or pearls (see Juvenal) or expensive clothes.
Indeed, women who are believers are to be “clothed” in better things—with good deeds, which will later be defined as, among other things, “bringing up children” (5:10). The point is that “healthy teaching” (see disc. on 1:10) has to do with conduct that is appropriate for women who profess to worship God, not conduct that is immodest or indecent, as is characteristic of women intent on seduction.
2:11–12 / Paul now moves to the other side of the problem of immodesty, the tendency toward insubordination. A woman is to learn in quietness and full submission. By saying that a woman should learn, Paul is presupposing that women were a part of public worship and were included in the instruction. It simply goes too far to argue from this that he is herewith commanding that they be taught, thus inaugurating a new era for women. The rest of the data in the NT makes it clear that that had already happened among most Christians.
But she (the Greek text uses the singular from this verse until the middle of v. 15) is to learn not “in silence” (that is, without speaking), as some would have it (e.g., GNB), but “in a quiet demeanor” (cf. the same word in 2:2 and the evidence from 1 Corinthians 11). Since this is the first thing said about women here in verse 11, and the last thing said in verse 12, it seems clear that the emphasis lies here. Most likely, in this context, it is against her being “up front,” talking foolishness, or being a “busybody” (5:13). Her learning “in quietness” is further qualified as being in full submission (“being submissive in every way”). Paul does not say to whom she is to be submissive. Because of the Adam-Eve illustration that follows, it is often suggested that he is here addressing wives with regard to their husbands. But the implication of the full (“in every conceivable way”) probably has a larger front in view, which includes the conduct of the younger widows and their “going about from house to house [house-churches?], saying things they ought not to” (5:13).
Verse 12, which begins with Paul’s own personal instruction (I do not permit; better, “I am not permitting,” implying specific instructions to this situation), picks up the three items from verse 11 and presents them with some further detail. I am not permitting a woman to teach corresponds to a woman should learn. Teaching, of course, is where much of the problem lay in the church in Ephesus. The straying elders are teachers (1:3; 6:3); the “worthy” elders, for whom Timothy is probably to serve as something of a model (4:11–16; cf. 2 Tim. 2:2), are “those whose work is teaching” (5:17). Indeed, Paul calls himself a teacher in these letters (2:7). But he is here prohibiting women to teach in the (house-) church(es) of Ephesus, although in other churches they prophesy (1 Cor. 11:5) and probably give a teaching from time to time (1 Cor. 14:26), and in Titus 2:3–4 the older women are expected to be good teachers of the younger ones.
Part of the problem from this distance is to know what “teaching” involved. The evidence from 1 Corinthians 12–14 indicates that “teaching” may be presented as a spiritual gift (14:6, 26); at the same time, some in the community are specifically known as teachers (cf. Rom. 12:7), while more private instruction is also given (Acts 18:26; here by a woman). Given that evidence and what can be gleaned from the present Epistles, teaching most likely had to do with instruction in Scripture, that is, Scripture as pointing to salvation in Christ (cf. 2 Tim. 3:15–17). If that is what is being forbidden (and certainty eludes us here), then it is probably because some of them have been so terribly deceived by the false teachers, who are specifically abusing the OT (cf. 1:7; Titus 3:9). At least that is the point Paul will pick up in verses 14 and 15.
Such an understanding is supported further by the woman’s being forbidden to have authority over a man, which corresponds to her “being submissive in every way” in verse 11. The word translated authority, which occurs only here in the NT, has the connotation “to domineer.” In context it probably reflects again on the role the women were playing in advancing the errors—or speculations—of the false teachers and therefore is to be understood very closely with the prohibition against teaching. Rather, Paul concludes, she must be not silent, but “in a quiet demeanor,” which exactly repeats the prepositional phrase of verse 11. Thus some kind of disruptive behavior, which perhaps included boisterous affirmation of the heresies, seems to lie behind these instructions.
2:13–14 / Paul now turns to Scripture to support what has been said in verses 9–12 (not simply vv. 11–12). However, he does not do so in his usual way, by citing Scripture itself, but by referring to two realities from the narratives in Genesis 2 and 3. First, he notes that Adam was formed first, then Eve. Although he does not explicitly say so, nor is it implied in the text of Genesis 2, the priority of Adam in creation is apparently seen as support of a woman’s needing to dress modestly and behaving “in a quiet demeanor.” A similar point seems to be made by Paul earlier in 1 Corinthians 11:8–9, although there the context has no suggestion of submission, and in verses 11–12 he sharply qualifies verses 8–9 lest they be misapplied. In any case, Paul here neither explains nor elaborates; he simply states the facts of the order of creation.
Paul does, however, elaborate his second point, based on Eve’s statement in Genesis 3:13 that she was deceived by the serpent. Since the concluding sentence in verse 15 follows directly from her deception and subsequent fall into sin, this appears to be the basic reason for his appeal to the Genesis account. As Adam has served elsewhere as the representative man, through whose sin all mankind came into sinfulness (Rom. 5:12, 19), so here Eve serves as the “representative” woman, who through her deception by Satan became a sinner (lit., “came to be in transgression”). Likewise it is through the deceptions of the false teachers, who themselves are involved in “things taught by demons” (4:1), that some women have “already turned away to follow Satan” (5:15). To say that Adam was not the one deceived simply means that he was not deceived by the “snake.” But Eve was, and that led to her downfall.
2:15 / Paul will now bring this instruction on women to a conclusion by picking up several strands from the preceding verses. In so doing, he expresses himself in a way that has been troubling for generations of Christians, because it seems so contradictory to his own theology, on the one hand, and somewhat demeaning to women, on the other. But as a conclusion to this argument in this context, it in fact makes good sense.
Having said that the woman was deceived and thus fell into sin, he now says: But she will be saved. There is a subtle shift here from Eve to the women in Ephesus. The subject of the verb will be saved is in fact the woman in verse 14 (see NIV text note b on v. 15). Obviously Paul is not talking about Eve’s salvation but “the women” in Ephesus; hence the change back to the plural in the middle of verse 15. How she will be saved is what has created the problems—through childbearing! Can he mean that? Many have said no and have suggested as one alternative that the clause means “will be kept safe through childbirth” (e.g., NIV, GNB margin). But besides simply not being true to reality—many Christian mothers have died in childbirth—Paul’s use of the word saved throughout these letters disallows it (he always means redemption, from sin and for eternal life, as in 1:15–16 and 2:4). Moreover he uses an entirely different word for the idea of being “kept safe” throughout his letters (see, e.g., 2 Tim. 3:11 and 4:18). A second suggestion is that they will be saved from the errors in verses 11–12. But besides having against it the same things as the first alternative, it is nearly inconceivable that Paul would use the verb saved in an absolute way, as he does here, without some qualifier (e.g., “from these errors”), if he had intended to refer to verses 11–12. A third alternative is that “through childbearing” should be translated through the Childbirth, that is, through Mary’s giving birth to Jesus, thus reversing the role of Eve by referring to the so-called protevangelium of Genesis 3:15. But besides this being a most obscure way of trying to say that, Paul nowhere else suggests that salvation is by the Incarnation or by Mary’s deed (since the word under no circumstances can be stretched to mean “Mary’s child”). Moreover, this noun always has to do with the fact of bearing children, not to the event of a single birth (that is, the word has to do with the activity of “bearing,” not with the noun “birth” or “child”). It should also be noted that nowhere in all of Jewish interpretation was Genesis 3:15 ever understood to mean anything other than the natural enmity between humans and poisonous reptiles. The earliest extant Christian interpretation of this text to refer to the death of Christ comes from Irenaeus in the second century.
More likely what Paul intends is that woman’s salvation, from the transgressions brought about by similar deception and ultimately for eternal life, is to be found in her being a model, godly woman, known for her good works (v. 10; cf. 5:11). And her good deeds, according to 5:11 and 14, include marriage, bearing children (the verb form of this noun), and keeping a good home. The reason for his saying that she will be saved is that it follows directly out of his having said “the woman came to be in transgression.”
But Paul could never leave the matter there, as though salvation itself were attained by this “good deed,” so he immediately qualifies, “Provided of course that she is already a truly Christian woman,” that is, a woman who continues in faith, love and holiness. This is obviously where her salvation ultimately lies, as is always true with Paul. It is assumed such a woman already has faith, which is activating love and holiness. But the whole context of the letter, and the present argument in particular, has generated this rather unusual way of putting it. Even at the end, however, he has not lost sight of where he began, so he adds, with propriety.
Thus, as with the instruction on the proper objects of prayer (all people), so with the proper demeanor in prayer (men without arguments; while women’s place in the worshiping community is to be a quiet one), the reason for these particular instructions in this particular way is best understood as a response to the activities and teachings of the wayward elders.
2:8 / The NIV’s everywhere probably intends to suggest “in all the churches universally.” But when Paul intends that, he usually says it (1 Cor. 11:16; 14:33). Besides, that seems to miss Paul’s point altogether. Most likely this is a reference to house-churches in and around Ephesus.
For references to prayer with uplifted hands in Judaism, see, among others, 1 Kings 8:54; Pss. 63:4; 141:2; 2 Macc. 14:32; Philo, Flaccus 121; Jos., Antiquities 4.40; for early Christianity, see esp. Tertullian. On Prayer 17.
2:9–10 / For but one example of this perspective, see Juvenal’s Satire 6: “There is nothing that a woman will not permit herself to do, nothing that she deems shameful, when she encircles her neck with green emeralds and fastens huge pearls to her elongated ears.… So important is the business of beautification; so numerous are the tiers and storeys piled one upon another on her head!… Meantime she pays no attention to her husband” (Loeb, pp. 121ff.). Cf., among others, 1 Enoch 8:1–2; Testament of Reuben 5:1–5; Ps-Phintys 84–86; Perictione 135; Seneca, To Helvia 16:3–4; Plutarch 26.30–32; Sentences of Sextus 235.
The words braided hair and gold or pearls may go together and have to do with tiered hair decorated with gold and pearls. See J. B. Hurley, Man and Woman in Biblical Perspective, pp. 198–99.
2:11–12 / In requiring learning “in a quiet demeanor” Paul is hardly adopting a view like Plutarch’s: “Her speech as well ought not to be for the public.… For a woman ought to do her talking to her husband or through her husband” (26.30–32, Loeb). Plutarch’s view had to do with all women in all public circumstances. Paul’s statement is specifically related to the problem in Ephesus. He obviously did not take this position about women in general (see, e.g., Rom. 16:1–3; Phil. 4:2–3).
By saying, “I am not permitting,” Paul focuses particularly on the situation in Ephesus. Such language as this, as well as the “I want” in v. 8, lacks any sense of universal imperative for all situations. This is not to say that he does not see his word as authoritative, but that it simply lacks the thrust of a universal imperative (cf. 1 Cor. 7:25).
There are some who see the word authority here to refer to juridical authority in the church or the transmission of the authoritative teaching of the church, but such a view assumes a much more advanced structure than actually emerges in these letters. It simply makes too much of a simple point, namely, that a woman’s place in the worshiping community is to be a “quiet” one.
The hermeneutical question, whether these verses apply to all situations at all times, is a live one. For the view that it does, see D. J. Moo, “I Timothy 2:11–15: Meaning and Significance,” and J. B. Hurley, Man and Woman in Biblical Perspective. For the other side, see P. B. Payne, “Libertarian Women in Ephesus: A Response to Douglas J. Moo’s Article,” and G. D. Fee and D. Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, pp. 57–71. It is of some interest to note that those who think these verses are universally applicable, even though the rest of the NT suggests otherwise, do not feel the same urgency about younger widows remarrying in 5:14, which begins the same way as this paragraph (“I want”).
2:13–14 / The argument often made that the “order of creation” precedes the Fall and is therefore eternally binding is neither made by Paul (nor Moses) nor relevant, since that is not his concern here. Rather, Paul is concerned with her subsequent deception and fall into sin.
The “deception of Eve” had a long history of speculative interpretation in Judaism, seen sometimes as sexual seduction on the part of the serpent (e.g., 2 Enoch 31:6; 4 Macc. 18:6–8; Yebamoth 103b; Rabbah Genesis 18.6) and at other times as the result of her being the weaker sex (e.g., Philo, Questions on Genesis 1.33, 46; Pirke Rabbi Eliezer 15a). Even if Paul knew these traditions, he is not here alluding to them. He is only interested in the fact of her deception, as a vital illustration of the current problem. Note the comparable use of it in 2 Cor. 11:3.
2:15 / For a recent and helpful discussion of the various options for interpreting this verse, see D. J. Moo, “1 Timothy 2:11–15,” pp. 71–73.