A study of 1 Timothy 2:11-15

I currently serve a church where women may teach and serve as pastors.

Many people in our church grew up, as I did, in a tradition that didn't allow this. For them, hearing a woman preach is a new experience. For some it’s exciting. For others it’s troubling. But most just want to understand.

So we grab a coffee, open our Bibles, and have a conversation. It’s one of my favorite parts of this job.

Three passages come up most often in these conversations. I want to look closely at each of them, beginning with 1 Timothy 2:11–15. We'll include the verses around it too. They'll be important to our study.

“...I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing. [9]I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, [10]but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

[11]A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. [12]I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. [13]For Adam was formed first, then Eve. [14]And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. [15]But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.”

— 1 Timothy 2:8-15

Let’s start with some background on 1 Timothy.

Why was Paul writing to Timothy?

Paul wrote this letter to his coworker, Timothy, because the church he served in Ephesus was in trouble. He urges Timothy to stop certain people from teaching false doctrine (1:3). Paul’s concern with these false teachers dominates the entire letter.

What is this false teaching exactly? We can’t know for sure, but Paul warns about myths and endless genealogies (1:4). He describes people who want to be teachers of the law without understanding what they’re talking about (1:7). He describes teaching that forbids marriage and requires abstaining from certain foods (4:3). He mentions widows going house to house talking nonsense (5:13), an emphasis on wealth as a sign of godliness (6:5), and people in the church, women and men, who have already “fallen away” (1:20; 5:15).

Paul is guiding Timothy as he serves a church coming apart under the influence of false teachers. He wants Timothy to correct their errors and limit their influence.

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians

We know from Acts 19, that when Paul first preached in Ephesus it caused a riot. A silversmith who earned a living selling idols of the goddess Artemis led a revolt. A great crowd chanted for two straight hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

Today, only about 20% of Ephesus has been excavated, but from those remains we’ve learned a great deal about the the cult of Artemis that provides important background for understanding Paul’s letters to Timothy.

She was a virgin goddess whose cult prized celibacy. Artemis hunted men down before they could marry so that women would remain pure virgins. Her worshipers were passionate about celibacy, and virgin women held the highest positions in her cult as priestesses.

She was the goddess women called on in childbirth. Women in Ephesus prayed to Artemis to bring them safely through childbirth or to end their lives painlessly. Childbirth was the leading cause of death for women in the ancient world, and Artemis was their protector through it.

She was known for her brutality. Her name may derive from a word meaning “slaughterer, butcher.” The cult of Artemis stoked destructive attitudes toward men by calling women to model themselves after the goddess.

She was celebrated as Firstborn. According to the myth, Artemis entered the world ahead of her twin brother, whom she then helped deliver safely. The Artemis cult believed that women were inherently superior to men and greater in wisdom because of this.

Her worship involved lavish displays. An Ephesian named Xenophon wrote a novel set in the city around the time of Paul. He opens by describing a typical procession honoring Artemis. Local girls parade in expensive clothing. Leading them is a young woman dressed as the goddess herself, her hair worn partly braided. The watching crowd rejoices as if Artemis herself has appeared to them. The novel is fiction, but it is a window into how Ephesian women imitated their goddess.

Now, keep all this in mind as we walk through the rest of Paul's words to Timothy.

A Plain Reading (2:8-9, 14-15)

Some argue for a “plain reading” of this text. They argue we should take Paul’s words at face value. Their meaning is obvious, they claim. Paul is clearly forbidding women from teaching and leading men in churches. So should we.

Let’s put plain reading to the test.

Right before Paul writes about women teaching, he makes a couple of very bizarre statements.

Men should pray with their hands lifted up (2:8)
Women should dress "modestly" in church and not braid their hair (2:9)

Then, immediately following his statement about women teaching, he makes two more strange statements.

Adam was not deceived in the Garden (2:14)

Women are saved through childbirth (2:15)

If we’re to accept a plain reading of Paul’s words about women teaching, shouldn’t we read the entire passage that way?

But no one does.

We don't require men to pray in church with their hands lifted. We don't think a woman is being immodest if she comes to church with braided hair. We know Adam and Eve were both deceived. We certainly don't believe giving birth saves a woman from sin and death.

We seem to acknowledge that a plain reading of this passage is problematic…except for the part about women teaching. We must go beyond a plain reading to understand what is happening in this entire passage.

Beyond a Plain Reading

So, let’s go beyond a plain reading approach and consider how the Artemis background helps us interpret the entire text.

About those braids. In Ephesus, wealthy women able to afford servants, had their hair braided to imitate Artemis. In fact, the Greek word translated “braid” in our passage describes a very specific hair style worn by the Artemis worshipers. We know this because the same word is used to describe the hairstyles of the women parading in Xenephon’s novel.

About Eve. In Ephesus, it was common belief that Artemis was the firstborn of twins. Women were inherently superior to men because of this, having greater wisdom. Paul likely has this in mind when he writes about Adam and Eve here. But we’ll say much more about this important verse a bit later.

About salvation through childbirth. In Ephesus, women called upon Artemis to help them survive childbirth or to grant them a painless death. But Paul has told this church there is one mediator between God and humanity, Christ Jesus (2:5). He is the firstborn of Creation and he is the one we call upon in our time of need.

The parts of this passage that seem most bizarre with a plain reading, suddenly make sense when we consider the tremendous influence of Artemis in Ephesus…even inside the church.

What does Paul command? (2:11)

Now, notice the one command Paul gives to Christian women in this passage: “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.” (v.15).

Let’s not jump to “in quietness and full submission” too quickly and miss how radical and liberating “a woman must learn” would have sounded to ancient ears. Most women in the Greco-Roman world had little access to formal education. Many people believed women incapable of serious reasoning. Against all of that, Paul commands women to learn! He assumes they can. He commands Timothy to teach them!

The words “quietness” and “submission” need a closer look. Hēsychia, “quietness,” was a prized virtue, and Paul uses the same word family nine verses earlier when he asks Christians to seek a peaceful and quiet life (2:2). Hypotagē, “submission,” described the posture of a pupil under a teacher. Together, these two words describe the disposition of a good student.

Paul's first instruction to these women is not “be silent.” It is “learn!”

What does Paul not permit? (2:12)

Paul's phrase “I do not permit,” epitrepō, is not a command like “let the women learn.” Instead, he uses a verb form that describes what he is doing at present, something closer to “I am not right now permitting.”

Look at how this word is used elsewhere in the New Testament. Jesus says Moses permitted divorce because Israel’s hearts were hard, but that it was not this way from the beginning (Matthew 19:8). A centurion permits Paul's friends to visit him while he is in custody (Acts 24:23). In both cases, permission is granted or withheld in a specific situation for a particular time.

That fits what Paul has just written. First, he wants the women to learn. For now, he is not permitting them to teach. If Paul wanted to forbid all women in all situations from teaching the church for all times, he had the words to say that. But he didn’t use them. His prohibition on women teaching is situational, not normative, and it is temporary, not permanent.

What kind of “authority” is Paul talking about?

The Greek word translated “authority” in this passage is authenteo. It does not mean leading or holding a higher position than others within an organization.

There were twelve common Greek words Paul could have used if he meant authority in that ordinary sense. Words for ruling, reigning, leading, managing, overseeing. Several of them show up in his other letters to Timothy and Titus. Instead, Paul chose a rare word that only shows up once in the New Testament — right here. Why?

We've found a few instances of this rare word outside of the Bible around Paul’s time. In those texts, it consistently carries a negative connotation. It describes a range of actions that are harmful to others, including murder and violence. The Louw-Nida Lexicon of the New Testament defines authenteo as “to control in a domineering manner.”

This is not a new or novel understanding of the word. Negative translations have been used in English bibles for centuries:

Erasmus (English translation of his Latin) (1519) — "usurp authority"

Geneva Bible (1560) — "usurp authority"

King James Version (1611) — "usurp authority"

Webster (1833) — "usurp authority"

Fenton (1917) — "dominate"

Goodspeed (1923) — "domineer"

Williams (1937) — "domineering"

Bibles didn’t begin translating authenteo as “exercise authority” until the late 1800s.

From the list above, we can see that authenteo was most often translated as “usurp authority” in early English bibles. This is because it can describe seizing authority that one does not rightfully have. The false-teaching women Paul is writing about were possibly assuming authority to teach without having been trained or approved first. They taught but lacked understanding (1:7–8).

Here is where our knowledge of the Artemis cult really helps us out. Usurping authority and dominating men may have been commonplace in the cult of Artemis, but they were out of place in the Christian community. Members of that cult believed the greatest religious authority belonged to women and that men were rivals rather than partners. New converts may have carried those beliefs into the Ephesian church. If so, it makes sense that they would need to learn the truth before teaching others.

Why does Paul bring up Adam and Eve? (2:13–14)

Some argue that these two verses about Adam and Eve are the foundation for everything else Paul is saying in this passage. Adam was formed first, so men should lead, the logic goes. And Eve was deceived, so women shouldn’t teach men.

If that’s what Paul meant, it’s strange that he never spoken about Adam and Eve this way in his other letters.

Paul writes more than once about how sin entered the world through this couple, and in all but one instance his focus is on Adam. Sin entered the world through one man (Romans 5:12). In Adam all die (1 Corinthians 15:22). When Paul does mention Eve's deception, in 2 Corinthians 11:3, he uses it as a warning to an entire congregation, men included, about being led astray by Satan.

So why is Paul singling out Eve here in 1 Timothy 2:14?

Once again, our understanding of the Artemis cult helps.

Remember that Artemis was a firstborn twin — "Firstborn" was even one of her titles. Remember her cult taught that women were inherently superior in wisdom because of this. Paul is writing into a church full of people raised on this myth (1:4).

With this background in mind, “Adam was formed first, then Eve” is correcting a wrong belief used to justify the domination of men by women. Paul is reasserting the Genesis account and undermining any claim of female preeminence based on the Artemis myth. The cult taught that women were wiser. Genesis proves a woman can also be deceived.

Paul is also doing a very Jewish thing here. Like a good rabbi, he’s comparing the current situation to a similar one in Scripture. Once upon a time, a woman was deceived, usurped authority from God, taught a man a lie, and there were grave consequences for everyone. It’s a cautionary tale about the destructive influence of a deceived woman.

What this passage does and does not say

This passage says that teachers must know what they’re talking about. If they‘re teaching falsehoods, they must stop teaching and learn instead. It says that seizing authority and domineering others has no place in the Christian community. It says that a woman’s hope is in Christ and no other spiritual power. And it says, before anything else, that women must be taught.

It does not say that women are more easily deceived than men. It does not say that women were created inferior to men. It does not forbid all women from teaching in all churches at all times.

Paul is addressing a particular group of false teachers in a particular city, and his prescription is not permanent silence, but education.

Two more passages are usually cited alongside this one, and both deserve the same level of attention. I'll take those up next.