Why Were Women Not Allowed to Teach in the Early Church?

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WHY WERE WOMEN NOT ALLOWED TO TEACH IN THE EARLY CHURCH?

In my younger years in the ministry, I went to Bible school for two years and received certification in Christian Leadership. While there, I was told about the campus bookstore that contained books by a particular Christian author that everybody was buying. So, I went to the bookstore and decided to take a look at one of his small books. Each of his short books talked about a particular biblical topic such as forgiveness, eternal security, redemption, blood of Christ, etc. Apparently, this author was grounded in Koine Greek, the language in which most of the original manuscripts of the New Testament were written, along with having an in-depth understanding of Hebrew, the language in which the original manuscripts of the Old Testament were written.

As I was reading about a particular topic by this author, I found that his view was clear and convincing. He was very thorough in his analysis. When studying any topic, he would mention the view or perspective that would be determined according to the particular dispensation of time from which it was being considered. In other words, if you wanted an understanding about the seventh-day Sabbath, you would read all about it during the Age of the Jews, for whom it was instituted under the tenets of the Mosaic Law.

For the New Testament church, which operates under a different dispensation, verses would be taken from this period to determine if the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath was still in effect. So, depending on the topic and the time period (dispensation) in which it was to be studied would determine the view that was espoused. I realized that this is why many people believe the Bible contradicts itself. When an opinion on a particular biblical topic is influenced by using Scriptures from different dispensations, the perspective of such is, in most instances, altered or changed.

What you should notice concerning this topic about whether a woman can be called by God to a leadership position in the church is that our conclusion about it will be determined primarily from the scriptural sections which were written for the Church Age, the age in which we as Christians currently live. What you will come to perceive is there will still be differences concerning a church’s view on a topic even when it’s looked at from one particular dispensation. However, if these differences are confined to looking at an issue from one age, then hopefully, you, the reader, will be able to make a more informed decision as to which view on the topic you will support.



Are you ready to find out why a woman was not allowed to teach, in this case, at a particular local assembly?

Please open your Bible to the Book of 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 14:34-35 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.

The Apostle Paul addressed the women in the Corinthian Church by emphatically stating they should not speak in the church.



What was the reason for this prohibition?

The traditional answer is they were not called by God to any of the leadership offices for two reasons. Jesus only called men to be His apostles, and secondly, the gender of the office leadership gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teacher are masculine. Therefore, what these women were doing was usurping authority over the men of the church, i.e., over those who were called to these spiritual positions of authority. According to commentators, there was a similar Jewish ordinance [that] said that women were not permitted to teach in the [assemblies] or [to even] ask questions.30 It was permitted for any Jewish man to ask questions, to object, altercate, attempt to refute, etc., in the [synagogue,] but this liberty was not allowed to any woman.31

However, there’s an alternative reason as to why a woman was not allowed to speak. Apparently, when the assembly of saints met for fellowship, prayer, worship, and praise, or hearing a message, it was at this time that some of the women were continually interrupting the speaker of the message by asking questions, which brought about distractions and disruptions of church order. This should not be surprising as the culture had been such that it kept these women from learning. Most were uneducated. With this in mind, if any didn’t understand something that was being taught or preached about, it was decided that they should ask their husbands these questions at home. If they weren’t married, I’m sure a provision was made. This seems to make perfect sense, doesn’t it?

The next verse we’ll take a look at could be considered the cornerstone for the belief that a woman cannot be called to an office gift in the church. This verse clearly states that a woman cannot teach. Why not? What are the reasons for this admonition? Please go to 1 Timothy.



Suggested Reading: 1 Timothy 2:11-14

11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.

The apostle Paul was instructing Timothy. He told him that the women in the congregation should learn about what is being taught in silence (by holding their peace) with all subjection (being under authority in this matter). This is similar to the instructions we just looked at.

12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

Furthermore, they were not to teach, nor to usurp authority (not to domineer; not to have control) over the man, but to be in silence. This appears to be something new that was being taught. This begs the following question.



What does it mean when it says that the woman was not … to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence?

The traditional view is that a woman is not allowed to teach in the local assembly, as this is believed to be the exclusive function of men. If they do attempt such, they will be considered as having usurped authority (assume authority in the church and trying to take the place of a man). With this perspective in view, some churches will allow certain conditions where a woman can teach, such as to other [women] or in a school setting that could be composed of a mixed class of adults.32



Have you ever heard the statement, there are two sides to every story?

Well, there’s another way to explain this verse. Women were not allowed to teach at this time because many of them were new converts in the church that had come directly out of paganism. And what they were attempting to do was incorporate their pagan customs and rituals into the Christian church.There was one pagan group called the Gnostics, which claimed to have a hidden or secret knowledge that had not been revealed to others.

10 But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.

This verse, in particular, gives us insight as to what some of these women were proclaiming. They were professing godliness with good works. The word professing is from the Greek word epangellomenais,and it means promising godliness. The words with good works could also mean in exchange for good works. What these women were doing was promising [godliness] if the hearer would follow their teaching33 and do what they said.

If this is why women at this time were not allowed to teach, then how does one explain the words nor to usurp authority over the man? As we stated earlier, this was traditionally translated to mean a woman taking the place of a man in teaching. Could there be an alternative translation? The words to usurp authority over are from the Greek word authentien. Clement of Alexandria, a Greek theologian, stated that these words concern sexual license. In context, it could refer to a group of women who accepted sexual license as Christian behavior. A post-Nicene church father, John Chrysostom (347-407), in his commentary on 1 Timothy 5:6 used authentien to express “sexual license.” The idea is that these women were using sexual overtures to entice their male students. The apostle Paul said in response to such to not permit those women to teach a man using feminine wiles.34

This translation changes the entire narrative of these verses. Instead of mandating that a woman could never be called to a leadership position in the church, the Apostle Paul was saying to Timothy at this time don’t allow any of these women to teach as there appears to be a group of them who have been telling others in the church that they could become godly not only in exchange for good works but also by accepting sexual license as Christian behavior.

This brought me back to an incident that occurred back in the late seventies when I was on staff working as an outreach coordinator for a branch ministry of a non-denominational worldwide church. A father who had been attending the worship services along with his daughter asked the head pastor and I to visit him at his house. When we got there, he told us that his daughter had decided to move to California and join a church called the Children of God. I had little knowledge about this faith other than what I had heard from fellow believers which were to stay away from it.

Off his daughter went, and that seemed to be the end of it. However, about six months later, her father called the pastor of the branch ministry and asked if he could visit his daughter, who was segregated at a nearby sanitarium. So, I accompanied the pastor to this awful place. When we arrived, we were allowed to enter what appeared to be a small auditorium. As we walked up to the front of it near the stage area, there stood this man’s daughter.

We addressed her by her name, but there was no response. We told her that her father had sent us to visit her, and we asked her if she needed anything. Again, no response. So, we decided to leave. Before we did, we prayed for her.

I don’t know what happened to her in this church, but it must have been traumatic. I found an article about this church and decided to include it to illustrate this idea of promoting sexual license as sinful behavior.



CHILDREN OF GOD: HISTORY AND TEACHINGS OF THE NOTORIOUS CULT

By Patti Wigington

Updated May 30, 2018

Children of God is a religious group that originated in California in 1968. Because its leaders have historically limited members' access to the outside world and asked them to give up their [money,] and worldly [possessions.] Children of God is generally considered a cult. The group became notorious when news stories emerged accusing its members of sexually abusing children. Children of God, now known as The Family International, is still active today.



Origins and Early Years

The cult’s early beginnings are rooted in the counterculture movement of the late 1960s. Founder David Brandt Berg, a [pastor,] and evangelist for the Christian and Missionary Alliance, became the leader of a youth ministry called Teen Challenge in Huntington Beach, California, in 1967. Berg recruited his group’s members out of the hippies and outcasts that flocked to southern California during the “free love” era and organized a group of young people to roam the streets proselytizing about the love of Jesus.

In 1969, Berg left the national Teen Challenge group and formed his own group called Light Club, which eventually became known as the Children of God. He changed his name to Moses David and married a second wife, stating that polygamy was sanctioned by the Old Testament. He told his followers that God had appointed him as the “End Time Prophet,” and that he would be playing a significant role in the second coming of Christ, who would soon be returning to earth. Berg also maintained that he’d been in touch with a spirit guide named [Abrahim,] who was relaying divine messages to him.



Teachings and Practices

After claiming that God himself had gifted him with prophecies, Berg soon began making extreme demands of his followers. New members of COG were asked to donate everything they owned to the group, then sever all contact with their families. They were also encouraged to give up any sort of employment and become [full-time] evangelists for Christ. COG formed communes across the country, and within just a few years, there were over [one hundred twenty] communities located around the globe.

In the mid-seventies, Berg began to encourage the female members of COG to practice what he called “flirty fishing.” Based [upon Jesus'] injunction in Matthew 4:19, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men," Berg instructed his female followers to go to bars, pick up men, and seduce them into converting and joining Children of God. In a 1979 annual report, Berg stated that his COG evangelists had "witnessed to over a quarter of a million souls, loved over [twenty-five thousand] of them and won about [nineteen thousand] to the Lord."

In 1978, Berg changed the group’s name to The Family of [Love] and later changed it again to simply The Family. Sexual contact with potential converts became a routine practice within the group’s membership, and in some cases, Family evangelists even used escort services to identify potential targets for recruitment. The practice of “sexual sharing” and open sexual relationships between existing members was encouraged.35

Believe it or not, there are more verses that have been interpreted by many churches, which they say support the conjecture that women are not allowed to be called to any spiritual position of leadership in the hierarchy of the church. These verses have to do with the creation of the first human, Adam, and the temptation of his wife, Eve, by the serpent in the Garden of Eden. How are these verses used to justify their perspective on this subject? We’ll address this in the next chapter.



Endnotes

30Adam Clarke’s Commentary.

31Adam Clarke’s Commentary.

32Weust.

33Barbara Smitherman. “Suffer not a woman to teach”, 2009, 05 May 2014 ˂http://suffernotawomantoteach.blogspot.com/>.

34Barbara Smitherman.

35Patti Wigington. “Children of God: History and Teachings of the Notorious Cult,” 2018. Learn Religions. 27 August 2021 < https://www.learnreligions.com/children-of-god-cult-4165811>.



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