Blog link: Women pastors-An unbiblical practice

People who support women in the pastorate fall into one of two categories it seems. They either want to ignore/reinterpret the clear biblical teaching in I Timothy 2:12 or they have not done sufficient study on the issue and are unclear about what the Bible teaches. I wanted to pass along a blog link that I found extremely helpful on this issue. It is an interview with Dr. Andreas J. Köstenberger of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I highly recommend that you read the whole blog post here. However, here are a few excerpts to whet your appetite.

In the interview, Dr. Kostenberger discusses some of the grammatical features of the verse. He writes:
In terms of syntactical pattern, I conducted careful searches of the use of oude [Translated as the word or in the verse in question-joe] in the NT and in extrabiblical Greek literature and found over 100 parallels. In each case, oude serves as a coordinating conjunction linking verbs of like connotation: either both are positive, or both are negative. For example, in Matt 6:20 Jesus said, “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where . . . thieves do not break in and (oude) steal.” Notice that both “break in” and “steal” have a negative connotation, in the present case following a sequential pattern, thieves first breaking in and then subsequently stealing.The upshot, then, is the following: if didaskein (“to teach”) has a positive connotation and oude (“or”) always links verbs of like connotation, it logically (and syntactically) follows that authentein must have a positive connotation as well, thus invalidating the argument by most evangelical feminists. Paul prohibits not merely the negative exercise of authority by women over men in the church, but even the otherwise legitimate exercise of authority. Put simply, Paul wants men, not women, to serve as elders (confirmed in the immediate context by his reference to elders as “faithful husbands” in 1 Tim 3:2).

Further, he talks about other important considerations discussed in the book Women in the Church: An Analysis and Application of 1 Timothy 2:9–15 (2d ed.; ed. Andreas J. Köstenberger and Thomas R. Schreiner; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005), 53–84, 204–7. He writes:
In the fourth chapter, T. R. Schreiner, who has studied and written on these matters for decades, provides a careful discussion of the many exegetical issues that have been raised with regard to the interpretation of 1 Tim 2:9–15. In particular, he draws attention to the verses immediately following 1 Tim 2:12, where Paul clearly states his own rationale for stipulating that women are not to teach or have authority over men in the church: the order in which the first man and woman were created (the man first, then the woman; v. 13) and the reversal of authority that took place at the fall with disastrous consequences (v. 14). As Schreiner points out, most evangelical feminists do not adequately account for the way in which these verses clarify Paul’s prohibition in verse 12.

Over the short time that I have been blogging I have been utterly astonished that there are Southern Baptists and other evangelicals who question the clear teaching of scripture on this issue. I know this was one of the topics that led to the formation of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. What amazes me is that there are people who hold to the unbiblical position that a woman can pastor a church who remain in the Southern Baptist Convention. Further stupefying is the fact that churches are allowed to remain in the SBC while having a female senior pastor. As anyone who has read this blog can testify, I am about as "undenomonational" as a person can get and I’m really not interested in all the SBC politics but I didn’t realize there was such a strong liberal strain in the SBC. I guess I need to get out more often.

Check out the entire blog post. You’ll be glad you did.