HSUCIA

From: DMills0418@aol.com
Date: Sat Jan 13 1996 - 12:10:31 EST


Before I make any comments about I Tim 2:11-12, I will declare my default
settings:
1. I accept the pastorals as canonical
2. I accept Pauline authorship of the pastorals
3. I do not restrict the instruction in this passage to the public assembly
or to private home life. Conduct in God's family ( I Tim. 3:15) encompasses
both.
4. I have very little formal training in reading Greek

Now for my comments. First, hHSUCIA surely does not of itself preclude
teaching. The related adjective is used in 2:2 with no such implication.

Second, the chiastic structure of vv. 11-12 clarifies what Paul means by
DIDASKEIN DE GUNAIKI OUK EPITREPW which occurs is the very middle:

a GUNH EN hHSUCIA MANQANETW
b EN PASH hUPOTAGH
c DIDASKEIN DE GUNAIKI OUK EPTREPW
b' OUDE AUQENTEIN ANDROS
a' ALL EINAI EN hHSUCIA

Insofar as teaching undermines man's authority over woman (b and b') and
disrupts the peace (a and a'), it is forbidden. On the other hand, if the act
of teaching itself does not intrude on man's position and if neither the act
of teaching nor its content disrupts the peace, then a woman could teach.
One way in which an older woman could do this is stated in Titus 2:3-4. The
older women who teach as Paul instructed do so with attitudes both of
submission and quietness. Even what they teach does not undermine man's
authority or disrupt the peace. (I realize that this reading makes OUDE
epexigetical. If that is not possible, I'd have to rethink the whole
passage.)

Perhaps an analogy would clarify my reading. I could imagine the following
statement being written without implying that younger women could not teach
their own children or domestic servants:

Let the younger women learn quietly
  in all subjection.
    I do not permit younger women to teach
  nor to exercise authority over older women
but to maintain quietness.

David R. Mills
Applied English Center
University of Kansas
   



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