1 Timothy 2 · a question people ask
"But I don’t permit a woman to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man, but to be in quietness." (2:12). Do these words speak to every gathering of believers, or only to the situation the letter addresses?
First, what the letter says: "Let a woman learn in quietness with full submission. But I don’t permit a woman to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man, but to be in quietness. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. Adam wasn’t deceived, but the woman, being deceived, has fallen into disobedience;" (2:11-14), and the sentence goes on, "but she will be saved through her childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with sobriety." (2:15). Neither reading below rests on 2:15, and these notes don't explain it. Christians read how far 2:12 reaches in two main ways, each resting on verses of this letter, and these notes don't choose between them. All agree on what the letter says: "Let a woman learn" (2:11); women are to adorn themselves "with good works, which is appropriate for women professing godliness" (2:10); both readings take these words as the letter gives them; and both take 2:13-14 as the letter's own reason, given with "For" (2:13). These notes say nothing about any church's practice, office or ministry, and apply neither reading to any church, gathering, woman or man today.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Rooted in the beginning
Those who read it this way note that the letter gives its reason with "For" (2:13), and that the reason goes back to the beginning: "For Adam was formed first, then Eve." (2:13), and "Adam wasn’t deceived, but the woman, being deceived, has fallen into disobedience" (2:14). They read what the letter says of its own purpose, "that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God" (3:15), as setting 2:12 among words for the assembly wherever it gathers. On this reading, 2:12 speaks to every gathering of believers.
1 Timothy 2:12-14 · 1 Timothy 3:14-15
Answering the letter's situation
Those who read it this way note what the letter is written against from its first charge: "that you might command certain men not to teach a different doctrine" (1:3), for some "have turned away to vain talking, desiring to be teachers of the law, though they understand neither what they say nor about what they strongly affirm" (1:6-7). They note that it speaks of younger widows who "learn to be idle, going about from house to house. Not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not" (5:13), and says, "For already some have turned away after Satan." (5:15). They read 2:12 as answering that situation, and read 2:13-14, with "the woman, being deceived" (2:14), as the letter's example from the beginning of how deception leads into disobedience. On this reading, 2:12 speaks to the situation the letter addresses.
1 Timothy 1:3 · 1 Timothy 1:6-7 · 1 Timothy 2:12-14 · 1 Timothy 5:13 · 1 Timothy 5:15
The verses
“but with good works, which is appropriate for women professing godliness. Let a woman learn in quietness with full submission. But I don’t permit a woman to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man, but to be in quietness. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. Adam wasn’t deceived, but the woman, being deceived, has fallen into disobedience; but she will be saved through her childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with sobriety.”