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Can Women Be Elders (transcript)Town Hall
Jan 24, 2010
You know, there are many issues that are somewhat controversial in Christendom today, issues that force us to re-examine our convictions in light of the scriptures apart from our traditions and come to grips with what the bible teaches on these issues and come to some determination of how we are going to personally deal with them. The same was true in the church in the first century, and the Apostle Paul wrote on several things to help these young churches come to a resolve. There was a controversial issue in Corinth that had to do with something that I’m sure all of us have had struggled with at one time or another—the issue of eating meat offered to idols. How may of you have come to terms with that one?
Well, maybe you haven’t wrestled with that one, but it was a controversial issue in Paul’s day and it is the issue Paul addresses in 1 Cor 8. It was an issue that the leadership of the Corinthian church had raised with the apostle Paul in a letter to him. In 1 Cor 8:1 Paul writes, “Now about food sacrificed to idols:” This parallels what Paul had said in chapter 7, where it begins, "Now for the matters you wrote about...." and then he talked about the sanctity of marriage, divorce, and remarriage. In 7:25 he wrote, "Now concerning virgins...." and he talked about that. And here in 8:1 he says, “now about the food thing…” He is addressing their concern over this issue.
Now I’m not going to take the time to parse this out as to why it was an issue for them, but suffice it to say, it was. So Paul gives them this counsel. He says, “Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” He says, more important than knowledge is to exercise that knowledge with love.
Now I have laid this as foundation because what we are going to explore today is an issue that has the potential of being a divisive issue in our body because we come from different traditions that hold different views on this. And so as we look at this issue I want us to keep in mind Paul’s exhortation—that knowledge is good and we all possess knowledge, but knowledge can puff us up, it can make us arrogant, while love is the thing that builds. So let’s talk about whether or not women can be elders.
A little history that has brought us to this place:
Section 6.02. Qualifications. Elders shall be Members who meet the qualifications set forth in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9. In general, these Members must be above reproach, i.e. persons who will not bring shame upon the name of the Lord or the Church. Specifically, a qualified candidate shall be: sexually pure (the Apostle Paul used the phrase “the husband of one wife”, which was referring to the issue of sexual purity (which would include concerns with polygamy); singleness and divorce are not necessarily disqualifiers), whose children in the household are believers and are not wild or disobedient; not a recent convert; not self-serving (having no agenda of their own); not quick tempered; responsibly temperate in their use of alcoholic beverages; not violent; not pursuing dishonest gain; hospitable; loving what is good; sensible (that is, having common sense, wisdom and discernment); just (righteous); holy (having a godly attitude); holding firm to sound doctrine; tested in character and ability by service at Trinity; able to teach; and having a good reputation with outsiders.
(Note: the word men was changed to members.)
Now let me say up front that there is no way that in short order we can look at all of the relevant texts on this issue so let me encourage each of you to do you own study of these texts. They are: Gen 1-3, Gal 3:28, 1 Tim 2:9-15, 1 Cor 11:3-16, and 1Cor 14:34-35. You must come to terms with how each of these texts are interpreted in order to resolve the gender issue in your own mind.
But let me set forth what we know categorically to be true. Would we all agree that with regard to salvation we are all saved by grace and have equal status in the kingdom of God? Paul says in two different places (in Gal 3 and Col 3) that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but we are all one in Christ. Would we all agree to that? And would we all agree that the NT teaches (specifically in Rom 12 and 1 Cor 12) that both men and women receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit without distinction in regard to gender? Do we agree on that? Well if that is true, then we need to note that included among these gifts is the gift of teaching and leadership (as well as others that are crucial to the role of elder). So that would mean that both men and women are presumably gifted in teaching and leading. Certainly when you read through the scriptures you find that women prophets are referred to in both the Old and New Testaments, in Titus Paul instructed that older women were to teach the younger women, and he assumes in 1 Corinthians 11 that women would be teaching in the congregation.. And Peter, when he preached his famous sermon in Acts 2, he quoted the prophet Joel and said, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy,…Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy (they will preach).”
Did women have prominent roles of ministry in the NT? Yes they did. I’m sure you’ve read about Priscilla and her husband Aquila. They were companions of the Apostle Paul in his work both in Corinth and in Ephesus, and from the texts we read about them it seems clear that of the two, Priscilla was the more gifted and capable teacher, since her name is most often listed first. And together they instructed, they taught, the evangelist Apollos. Here is a clear-cut case of a knowledgeable woman being used in the teaching of a man with no hint of an objection from Paul.
We could look at Paul's letter to the church in Philippi where he writes about two women, Euodia and Syntyche, and says that these women “have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel;” in other words, they served with him in his ministry (we don’t know how exactly, but they had a significant enough role for Paul to mention them specifically). We could look at Paul’s letter to the Romans, where in chapter 16 he specifically mentions 25 people who have served with him, and 10 of them are women, one of which, Phoebe, is specifically called a deacon of the church in Cenchrea, and another, Junia, is referred to as “outstanding among the apostles.”
Okay, so what do we know? We know we are all saved to equal status in the kingdom. We know the gifts of the HS are given by God to whomever He sees fit, indiscriminate of gender. We know that Peter recognizes that men and women would be prophesying, preaching, teaching, in the last days. We know that Paul recognizes that women would be prophesying in the assembly where men were present and that he affirms the ministry of women.
But here is what we don’t know—were there female elders in the NT? Well, we know that there is not a “clear” example of a female elder in the New Testament, and some would suggest that because there is not one mentioned this proves women should not serve as elders. But that’s an argument from silence and you can’t argue convincingly from silence. I mean, the Bible does not prohibit women from serving in this capacity either, but that is also an argument from silence.
You can’t really argue for or against with an argument of silence. A lot of what we do today is done in spite of the silence of Scripture. If we really believed that arguments from silence held some sense of authority, we would have to take a hard look at a lot of the things we do (i.e. ordination, Bible colleges, Christian radio stations, church elections, Sunday School, or any number of other things).
That said, it shouldn’t surprise us if there were no female elders because it was a patriarchal society which had always viewed elders as older men in the community. Furthermore, the mission of the apostles was not to change all of the evils of society. Their mission was to preach the gospel, which in itself has the power for creating social change. Likewise, their mission was not to change the patriarchal society in which they lived. They worked with the cards they were dealt, which is why they also labored within the framework of slavery, for example, which I doubt any of us would affirm as a norm that God endorses.
Now, the Bible does not prohibit women from serving as elders. Some argue that 1 Timothy 3:2 does prohibit them from doing so. It says, “Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife…” They point out two features in the text: the word “must” and the phrase “the husband of one wife.” The logic is that overseers must by definition be male only since a woman cannot be a husband.
But that logic is clearly flawed, for all elders are not married—Paul and Timothy were both Elders and neither were married. One scholar (Rebecca Groothuis) points out that “since Paul’s lists of qualifications for elders cannot be used to exclude from church leadership unmarried men (such as Paul and Timothy), neither can they be used as a biblical basis for excluding women.” Other scholars (the Winstons) point out, “Prerequisites for holding church office are intended to be interpreted as indicative and not as restrictive.” This is perhaps why the closely related passage of 1 Timothy 3:1 actually says “if anyone aspires to the office of an overseer...”
While the New Testament does not provide a “clear” example of female elders, there are many important things that need our attention. 1 Timothy 5:1-2 says, “Do not sharply rebuke an older man (presbutero), but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, the older women (presbuteras) as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity.”
Both presbutero and presbuteras come from the word presbuteros which is normally translated as “elder.” In fact, out of a total of sixty-six occurrences, Wigram’s concordance only translated this as meaning “old man” one time (Acts 2:17). And sixty-two times it is translated as “elder.” It’s no wonder that translations such as the ASV, Darby and KJV all say “elder” and “elder women,” instead of “older man” and “older women.”
While this is the only occurrence of presbuteras in the Bible, it is clear that it is the feminine form of the Greek word for elder (presbuteros). In fact, when Paul says “have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women”” in 1 Timothy 4:7, he uses the word graodes. Furthermore, Paul uses the words presbytes (“old man
and presbytis (“old woman”) in Titus 2:2-3 and describes fitting behavior for each people group. In other words, we can say that, at the very least, the feminine form for “elder” is found in 1 Timothy 5, for Paul could have used another word as he did in other places if he simply was referring to older women.
Having said that, we must keep in mind that context always determines how a word should be properly rendered. Therefore, it is illegitimate to say that because a word is translated as meaning one thing a vast majority of the time, it must take on that same meaning all the time. What I’m saying is that, while the feminine form for “elder” is without doubt present in the text, it does not have to mean “elder” in the sense of church leadership. It is completely legitimate to render the word “older woman.” In fact, I must admit that I’m not thoroughly convinced that presbuteras should be rendered “elder.”
But before we completely dismiss the possibility of presbuteras being translated as elder, we should consider five facts. First, it is noteworthy that 1 Timothy 3:1-15 contains nine clear parallels with I Timothy 5:3-25 (see Table below). This can not be dismissed as meaningless, and therefore the sections must be examined together.
Second, the context of elders isn’t far removed from 5:1-2. In fact, it falls between 4:14 (presbyterion — “body of elders”) and 5:17, 19 (presbuteros) which both speak of elders.
Third, we must ask why Paul picks the topic of elders back up in 5:17. Or to put it another way, is there a clear flow of thought regarding church leadership from 3:1 to 5:17f?
Fourth, a serious contextual issue of 5:1 is that the older men (or elders) are contrasted with the younger men. This might seem to suggest that church offices are not the focus. Yet, there is a similar coupling of presbuteros with “younger men” in 1 Peter 5:1-5, which is clearly dealing with office holders.
Last of all, Paul’s usage of the terms graodes in 1 Tim 4:7, presbytes in Titus 2:2, and presbytis in Titus 2:3 seems to show that he uses distinguishing terms for “elder” and “older.” If Paul would tell me that presbuteras should be translated “elder” I would not die from shock.
So the question at hand: Can women serve as elders? I would say, “Yes.” But should they serve as Elders? That depends. I do not see the Bible prohibiting them from doing so and we certainly know that there were many female leaders in the New Testament church. They were serving as fellow workers of Paul (13 in all), teachers (e.g., Priscilla), deacons (e.g., Phoebe) and apostles (e.g., Junia). Biblically, I do not believe that gender should be a criterion for leadership, whereas godliness and giftedness should. And at the end of the day, leadership is not about authority; it’s about servanthood.
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