Are women allowed to be pastors?

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Are women allowed to be pastors:

The issue of gender roles as described in the Bible is perhaps one of the most controversial and misunderstood issues within Scripture. In our modern society, men and women take equal roles. One is not considered greater or more authoritative than the other. To maintain a position which conflicts with this modern mentality is to be “sexist.”

It is irrefutable to say that, when viewed through the lens of modern society, the Scripture appears misogynistic and sexist. However, while this statement is true, that is not to say the Scripture is in fact misogynistic and sexist.

Is the Bible sexist:

In today’s society to be sexist is to discriminate only on the basis of gender. If Scripture discriminates against women only because they are women, then Scripture is in fact sexist. However, if being a female implies other conditions, and it is these conditions that one discriminates against, then one is not, in the strictest sense, being sexist.

Because we as a society have done our best to provide men and women with equal opportunities, it is difficult for us to imagine conditions that result from being a particular gender that are justifiably inequitable. However, such circumstances are a fairly recent and unusual phenomena. In centuries past, being male or being female implied circumstances which were, not only justifiably, but necessarily inequitable.

Still today, in many places around the world such conditions exist:

For example:

In certain societies in the world today women are not allowed to go to school. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that women in these societies generally do not have a thorough knowledge of chemistry. If one were hiring for positions that required a thorough knowledge of chemistry it would not be sexist to require all applicants be male. One may accuse the education system of being sexist. However, one may not accuse the employer of being sexist.

Scripture functions in the same way. When reading it in today’s context it appears sexist, as we do not discriminate based on gender. However, in the first century (when the New Testament was written) gender roles were strict and clear. Men were providers and women were nurturers. Because provisions often required employment, and employment often required special training, it was not uncommon for men to be, at least to some degree, educated (though maybe not in the same manner we think of today). Because nurturing is primarily instinctual and does not necessarily depend upon employment, it was uncommon for women to be educated.

Therefore, if one were to discriminate based on education, and the education level required could only be achieved by a male in that society, then one is not sexist when they discriminate against women. It is not because they are women that they are discriminated against; it is because they are uneducated.

Whether or not these gender roles were justifiable is a whole other area of debate. However, considering the differences between male and female gender roles in the first century. It is understandable that certain occupations could only be fulfilled by those of a particular gender.

Considering the Scripture:

The most cited verse by those purporting women cannot be pastors is found in the book of 1 Timothy; one of three books that make up the “Pastoral Epistles,” outlining how a church should function:

A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.

1 Timothy 2:11-12

Most scholars understand the different roles men and women undertook in the first century. Like it or not, “woman” was synonymous with “uneducated.” This passage when viewed through a modern-day lens does appear sexist. However, when we consider that women of the first century were not educated, and we replace the word “women” with “uneducated,” (as the initial readers of 1 Timothy would have done) the passage takes on a different meaning:

[The uneducated] should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit [the uneducated] to teach or to assume authority over [the educated]; [the uneducated] must be quiet.

In the first century, men and women had their own roles to fulfill. Unlike today, education was not abundant or available for everyone. To raise a family was a full-time job. To provide for a family meant hard work and grueling labor. Paul’s message in the pastoral epistles was that most women were ill equipped to lead a church. Considering the gender roles of the first century, Paul wasn’t wrong. Instead, Paul instructs women to fulfill the role that they were given as nurturers of the family to the best of their ability. That by nurturing their family they may do their part to demonstrate to the world their faith. That men, by providing for their family and leading their family, may do their part in demonstrating their faith.

To say that the prohibition on women leading a church was strictly because they are women is to take a very superficial and uninformed reading of Paul’s message. Paul makes very clear that men are not superior to women:

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:28

Even the event of the Pentecost, an event which Paul was intimately aware of, demonstrated to Christians that, when led by the Holy Spirit (when social statuses are not a factor), God does not make a distinction between male and female.

During the Pentecost, the apostle Peter quotes the Old Testament prophet Joel in saying that women will spread the message of God alongside men. Peter was making the argument that the Pentecost was the fulfillment of this prophecy.

“‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.

Acts 2:17-18

At the very least we can understand from this that Paul was well aware of God ordaining women to spread the gospel during the Pentecost, which took place long before he wrote the pastoral epistles. Therefore, if Paul did in fact discriminate against women simply because they are women then he would knowingly conflict with what he learned from the Pentecost.

We see over and over again in Scripture that when these societal gender roles are not forced upon women that women can and do maintain a position equal to that of a man:

Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing.

Exodus 15:20

Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided.

Judges 4:4-5

Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Akbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to speak to the prophet Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the New Quarter.

2 Kings 22:14

I brought you up out of Egypt
and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you,
also Aaron and Miriam [a woman] .

Micah 6:4

There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

Luke 2:36-38

He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

Acts 21:9

Here’s a passage written by Paul. It should be noted, that Paul wrote this before he wrote the pastoral epistles. Meaning, Paul was well aware of, condoned, and benefited from female leaders:

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me.

Romans 16:1-2

Conclusion:

When viewing certain passages outside their context and inconsiderate of the audience to which it was written, one can make the argument that Scripture discriminates against women. However, when we consider Scripture in light of its context and audience it is difficult for one to make an argument that women are discriminated against simply because they are women.

If one were to consider Paul’s message in 1 Timothy as an absolute prohibition against any woman leading any church at any time; then one would have a difficult time explaining or understanding passages in which Paul condones women leading churches (such as Romans 16:1-2).

We know Paul was a highly educated Jew before converting to Christianity. As a Jew with such an education it is reasonable to believe Paul was intimately aware of the examples in the Old Testament where women led the people of Israel.

Therefore, we must conclude that when Paul prohibits women from leading churches in the book of 1 Timothy he is not trying to imply that God does not ordain women to be pastors. To imply such a message would conflict with, not only his knowledge of Jewish history, not only what he witnessed with the early church, but also with his own message in which he admits to benefiting from female leaders. Understanding this, there is absolutely no reason that today women cannot lead churches.