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Series-Subjects Relevant to an Informed Opinion about Christian Women in Ministry

"POSITIVE"PASSAGES ON WOMEN IN MINISTRY IN PAUL'S LETTERS

First created in January, 1996, Revised July 5, 2005

Baptist Women in Ministry http://www.bwim.org
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Questions, comments, or suggestions
of bibliography or sites to include may be sent to
Carolyn Goodman Plampin
Coordinator Subjects Relevant to an Informed Opinion
1220 Vienna Dr., #504
Sunnyvale, CA 94089-2007
(408) 734-5141
e-mail: cplampin@ix.netcom.com
Master of Teaching, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil, March 20, 1968
Master of Divinity, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, June 2, 1978
Missionary to Brazil of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1957-1988
Academic dean (without title) and professor, Instituto Biblico Batista, A.B. Deter and
Seminário Teológico Batista do Paraná, Curitiba, 1959-1979
Academic dean and professor, Seminário de Educacao Crista, Recife, 1980-1986

1. If God gives the same gift of the Holy Spirit to women, who are we that we can stand in God's way? (paraphrase of Acts 11:15-17). "For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable," (Romans 11:29). The passages on spiritual gifts apply to women and men:

a. Rom. 12:4-8 - Gifts of prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership, and showing mercy.
b. I Cor. 12: 1, 7-11, 28-31 - Gifts of the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, healing, effecting of miracles, prophecy, distinguishing of spirits, various kinds of tongues, the interpretation of tongues. God has appointed apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.
c. I Cor. 14:1-5 - Desire earnestly spiritual gifts ... greater is the one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets.
d. Eph. 4:7, 11-12 - Christ's gift - apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.
e. I Peter 4:10-11 - Each one has received a special gift ... speaking, serving.

2. Phoebe was a servant (deacon) of the church in Cenchrea and Paul said that she was made a leader/one in charge/manager/ruler of many and of or by Paul himself, Rom. 16:1-2.

3. Mary, Tryphaena, Tryphosa, and Persis in Rome are said to have worked hard in the Lord, Rom. 16:6, 12.

4. Junia in Rome, Paul's relative, went to jail for her faith. "She was mentioned by Paul in Romans 16:7 as 'of note among the apostles.' ... Until the Middle Ages, the identity of Junia as a female apostle was unquestioned. Later translators attempted to change the gender by changing the name to the masculine Junias. But such a name is unknown in antiquity; and there is absolutely no literary, epigraphical or papyrological evidence for it." (Kroeger, Catherine. "The Neglected History of Women in the Early Church," CHRISTIAN HISTORY, An entire issue devoted to Women in the Early Church, Vol. VII, No. 1, Issue 17, p. 7.)

5. Paul taught that it was better for women to remain unmarried, to be concerned about the things of the Lord, that she could be holy both in body and spirit. His purpose was to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord. Paul was talking about widows, who were sometimes called virgins, and also women virgins who did not marry in order to dedicate their whole lives to God. Both were very famous in the early church, I Cor. 7:8-9, 34-35.

6. In I Corinthians 9:5 Paul says: "Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?" Clement of Alexandria commented on this passage: "Even Paul did not hesitate in one letter to address his consort. The only reason why he did not take her about with him was that it would have been an inconvenience for his ministry. Accordingly he says in a letter: 'Have we not a right to take about with us a wife that is a sister like the other apostles?' But the latter, in accordance with their particular ministry, devoted themselves to preaching without any distraction, and took their wives with them not as women with whom they had marriage relations, but as sisters, that they might be their fellow-ministers in dealing with housewives. It was through them that the Lord's teaching penetrated also the women's quarters without any scandal being aroused. We also know the directions about women deacons which are given by the noble Paul in his second letter to Timothy. (Clement of Alexandria, "On Marriage," in Oulton, John Ernest Leonard and Henry Chadwick. ALEXANDRIAN CHRISTIANITY. The Library of Christian Classics, Vol. II. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1954, pp. 64-65.)

7. Women most certainly prayed and preached in the Pauline churches. "But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying, disgraces her head for she is one and the same with her whose head is shaved." I Corinthians 11:5: See Antonette Clark Wire, THE CORINTHIAN WOMEN PROPHETS, A RECONSTRUCTION THROUGH PAUL'S RHETORIC (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990.

8. In I Corinthians 14 men and women are ordered six times to speak, I Cor. 14:1, 3-4, 5, 26, 27-28, 29-31, 39, then two verses, which some believe to have been later additions, tell women not to speak, "just as the Law also says," I Cor. 14:34-35. Some translations, such as this New American Standard are even audacious enough to capitalize Law to give the impression that it is the Old Testament Law, however, there is no Law in the Old Testament which prohibits women from speaking and there are many examples of women who did, even women who spoke in the name of God. Trombley says that it is the Judaizers who say women can't teach. See Charles Trombley, WHO SAID WOMEN CAN'T TEACH. South Plainfield, NJ: Bridge Publishing, 1985.

9. The implications of the book of Galatians with its theme of liberty from the Law should be studied in relation to I Cor. 14:34-35 which says "as the Law also says." I do not think that the same Paul could have written both, and this is the reason that I tend to believe that I Cor. 14:34-35 is a later addition to the text, albeit very early.

10. "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus," Gal. 3:26-28. One of the principal arguments against the ordination of women to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic church is that women cannot represent Christ because they are not male.

11. Paul asked his true comrade to "take hold together" (sullambánou) with Euodia and Syntyche who had shared his struggle in the cause of the gospel. This is an order for a man to take hold together with women in ministry, Phil. 4:2-4. This verse is generally translated and interpreted so as to give the impression that it is telling Paul's true comrade to help Euodia and Syntyche to come to an agreement.
Sullambáno means (a) seize, grasp, apprehend, (b) conceive in the sexual sense, of a woman, (c) take hold of together, then support, aid, help. (Bauer, A GREEK-ENGLISH LEXICON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT., pp. 776-777.)

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