SUMMARY
The author exhorts women to learn in silence, refrain from teaching, and not have authority over men.
ANALYSIS
These verses are the strongest statement in the New Testament prohibiting women from teaching and having positions of authority. We can assume that women had begun to assume such roles within a community known to the author of 1 TimothyThe companion on Paul's later journeys for whom two pastoral epistles are named. More, and he reacted negatively against them. There is evidence in the Pastoral EpistlesThe Pastoral Epistles are the New Testament letters of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. They are described as pastoral because they are addressed to individual persons rather than churches; they deal with matters of leadership and church governance. More that certain women had begun teaching a version of Christian faith that was considered false and a threat to the faith known to the author. It is interesting, however, that those who are named to be heretical in the Pastorals are men (1 Timothy 1:20). In any case, the author calls upon women to be modest and silent in the church.
A similar passage appears in 1 Corinthians 14:34–35. That passage, however, is probably a post-Pauline interpolationInterpolation means to add to or alter a text by introducing new material closely related to the material already present in the text. When Martin Luther said that we are justified by faith alone, he interpolated the text in Romans 3:28 by adding the word... More into the text of 1 Corinthians, for it contradicts Paul’s statement elsewhere in the same letter where he routinely accepts that women pray and prophesy in the Christian assembly (1 Corinthians 11:5). Furthermore, since the verses in question are not always present at that place in ancient manuscripts of 1 Corinthians, they sometimes appear after 14:40, it is generally concluded that they were a scribal addition in the margin of ancient manuscripts, which was taken up and placed at differing locations in later texts.One sees in all this a backlash against the freedom that women had in Christ within the original, authentic Pauline tradition. But the two passages cited here have been used up to modern times to prevent women from having teaching and leadership roles in the church. When such matters are discussed, it is necessary to realize that there is tension within the biblical canonA canon is a general law or principle by which something is judged. The body of literature in the Old and New Testaments is accepted by most Christians as being canonical (that is, authentic and authoritative) for them. More between the authentic Pauline message and statements that come from after Paul’s time. Then one asks what is fitting for the proclamation of the gospel and the ordering of the church in one’s own time and place.
