Women in Ministry?: A Conversation with Matthew Stevenson (Lakeview Assembly of God)

Pastor Matthew Stevenson and Dr Matt Mouzakis Language of Complementarian See https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2015/03/02/revisionist-history-on-the-term-complementarian/ and https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/genesis-confusion/ for a summary of the history of the language surrounding this issue. 1 Tim 2:11-14 Matt M. misspoke about the parsing of the greek tense of epitrepo (I do not permit). The tense is present active indicative. The reason behind the interpretation of “at this time” is due to the use of epitrepo in the rest of scripture where it is always in the context of a local situation. “At this time” is based on the context and this grammatical information. See https://margmowczko.com/1-timothy-212-and-1-corinthians-1434-epitrepo/. Scholars such as Philip Payne (Man and Women one in Christ), Craig Keener (IVP Bible Background Commentary, Paul and Women), Scot McKnight (Blue Parakeet), Andrew Bartlett (Men and Women in Christ), and more come to this same conclusion based on this grammatical construction, seeing it as a time bound event just for a certain period for the church in Ephesus. It is addressed to certain women in that church in the first century. 1 Tim 3 John Chrysostom Homily 11.1 on 1 Tim 3: “The women likewise”. Paul meant the [women] deacons [τας διακονους]. There are those who think he was talking about women in general. No, that is not the case. It would have made no sense to have inserted here something about women in general. He was referring to those having the dignity of the diaconate [της διακονιας]. “Let deacons be the husband of one wife.” This is also appropriately said of women deacons [γυναικων διακονων], for this [monogamy] is necessary, useful and proper to the highest degree in the Church. 1 Corinthians 11 Wayne Grudem makes arguments against the “source” interpretation and certain metaphorical meanings of head (kephele) saying it never meant source and has a meaning of authority. Many scholars have push back on his article on this in 1985 showing that a literal head or source are the most prominent interpretations and there is a possibility for “authority” being a gloss of this term, though a minority one. Yet, Philip Payne argues that “source” is the most used metaphor for kephele (see Payne, Man and Women: One in Christ, 113-139). See https://www.pbpayne.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/what-about-headship-ch7.pdf Here is a history of the debate: https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/meta-study-debate-over-meaning-head-kephale-pauls-writings/ The interpretation of kephele (head) as “authority over” is based on a cherry-picking of Greek lexicons. Witt specifically calls out complementarian Wayne Grudem, who argues for this meaning based on six Greek lexicons, while Philip Payne provides nineteen Greek lexicons where “authority” is not listed as a meaning for kephale. (Witt, Icons of Christ, 128). See an overview of Witt’s work on kephele in this article: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/fleshofmyflesh/2023/01/headship-in-1-corinthians-a-source-of-misunderstanding/ The Septuagint uses the Hebrew word for “head” (rosh), meaning a literal head, when the translators invariably translated rosh into kephalē. However in Hebrew, like in English, “head” can also mean a leader or ruler. In the instances where rosh meant a leader the translators did not use the word kephalē in their translation; instead, they typically used the Greek word archōn, which does mean ruler or leader. It seems that most of the translators of the LXX knew that kephalē does not usually mean leader, ruler, or person in authority. Ephesians 5:21-33 Originally there was no verb in Ephesians 5:22. The earliest manuscripts of Ephesians 5:22 do not include the verb “submit.” Jerome even writes that in Greek manuscripts verse 22 never repeats the verb “submit” from verse 21. For more on women ordination in the early church see https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/ordained-women-patristic-era/