Paul is backing up his reasoning for male leadership from scripture and giving a Biblical reason why there are not to be women preachers in the church and why the women are to be silent in the public worship. It is very interesting where Paul goes to make his point. He doesn't go to the Rabbi's. He doesn't proceed to the Levitical code. He doesn't go to current culture. He doesn't go the the synagogue tradition. He goes to Scripture, namely to Genesis. When Jesus was questioned about marriage, he did the same thing. Interesting how Western culture began to fall when Genesis was replaced with evolutionary thought and how foundational and important a belief in a literal reading of Genesis is. Along those lines, it is really no wonder why people don't like Paul. He believes in headship, he believes in creation and a literal, historical account of Genesis. He preached the exclusivity of Christ and God's sovereignty in salvation - all the things that you are not allowed to talk about if you want to be accepted in pleasant society.
Let's look at what creation has to do with women preachers.
First, God created Adam first, not Eve and this is important. God created Adam to be the head and he created Eve to be a help, suitable to him. Adam was formed out of the earth and Eve out of Adam. This was God's order in creation and God's order in headship. Also notice that this headship is not a result of the fall. It is not part of the curse that wives are to submit to their husbands and that men are to lead the church. God ordained this headship in creation, prior to the fall and said it was good. The headship of Adam over Eve was good. The curse is not headship, but that women do not, without Christs help, like the way God set it up.
As Gary McHale puts it "There was a difference in how the two genders came about. Man is created from the dust of the earth, which links him to the world, while the woman is crated from his side, which links her to the man." Paul makes the same argument when discussing the head covering in I Corinthians 11:12. Geoffrey Thomas notes "In Genesis 2 Adam names the animals, and then he names the woman. First in Genesis 2:23 naming her "woman" which means she was 'taken out of man' and then in Genesis 3:20 Adam names her "Eve' because she would become the mother of all the living." His point? Adam could only give Eve her name if he had the authority to do so. This doesn't belittle the woman, it just means that we have different roles in God's order. Men and women are both made in God's image, both equal before God but different in our God given roles.
God created Adam and Eve for different purposes. Eve's purpose was to be a suitable helper. This doesn't mean inferior, it doesn't me superior - it means suitable. Men and women are different and God has designed these differences to support and compliment one another. In this role, God has put Adam as the head and Eve under his authority. The help is not the head.
Next we see that Adam that was not deceived, but it was Eve and this is also very important. God had given Adam the responsibility to protect and keep the garden and he failed. Adam rebelled, but he wasn't deceived in the transgression. Adam knew what was happening and did it anyway. Eve was deceived by Satan's words and Satan went after Eve because she was not the one God had created to defend the garden. When Eve heard the words of Satan and decided that his words were more reliable that God's, she went to Adam to tell him the "good news" of a way to become like gods. When she did, she forever disqualified herself and her daughters from the role of proclaiming "thus saith the Lord" in the public worship. Eve's failure was believing and then proclaiming the goodness of Satan's lie. Adam, when he fell, hid behind Eve and said "She gave it to me" but Eve's defense was "I was deceived." Men who sit under women preaching are recreating the scene of the fall - man abdicate his responsibility and hiding behind the women. Eve, lost the ability to stand and be a herald for God's truth and a teacher of God's Word. God delivering the punishment to Adam makes it clear. Gen 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. It was because Adam listened to Eve and ate of the tree that he was cursed. Eve had preached a false gospel and Adam listened and followed, even though he knew better. God had given Adam the responsibility to keep and protect the Garden and with that comes authority. God gave Adam the law. God gave Adam, Eve. And when Satan tempted Eve, he did not step forward and protect - nor did he deliver God's truth. Because of this, women are not to be preachers in the house of God. It is not how God designed it and women preachers recreate the scene of the fall - rebellious and out of order. This is not to say that a man is to never listen to his wife. Only a fool would not heed the counsel of his wife and listen to her - but the man has the responsibility and will stand and fall with what God has said.
(15) Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
The last point Paul makes is a blessing and doesn't deal with speaking in God's house but how God is gracious. It was not the seed of Adam that man would be saved, but the seed of the woman. Though Adam brought the curse of sin and death, the woman has the blessing of bringing life into the world. She isn't, as Robertson notes saved by the function of motherhood but saved in the function. God has blessed the church, the woman, and humanity through the great task of childbearing. Women in the church must continue in faith, love, holiness, and sobriety and glory Christ in their role. This is how a woman can serve the Lord in the church, in the place that God put her. It is always best for the church and woman when she serves the church in her God ordained role instead of thinking that we know better than God. Humble submission to Christ and His Word is far more Christ honoring than thinking we know better. If Christ had wanted women preachers, He would have called them to the office. The very fact that a women thinks she should be a preacher and teach of men disqualifies her from being a teacher since she clearly doesn't know as much about the Bible as she thinks she does.
And to end this little series, let's throw in a twist.
Lord bless,
DPN
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