Ministering from the Margins and Leading Like a Mother
Margaret Mowczko

An address given at the MOW 40th Anniversary Conference, Lead Like a Woman!

 

Introduction

My talk today is a personal one. It’s about my journey in ministry as a girl and then as a woman, and I’ll be sharing a few things I’ve learned along the way. I’ll also briefly bring up a few issues related to the topic of women in ministry that concern me. I’ll be referring to Bible passages, to recent trends, and also to church history. I hope at least a few of these various, perhaps seemingly random, bits and pieces will be useful.

This journey began when I became a Christian at 10 or 11 years of age. One evening at a Scripture Union Camp, I heard a simple gospel message about having a relationship with Jesus and I heard about the Holy Spirit. This message resonated with me and I wanted in. Immediately after hearing that message, I went to the dormitory alone while the other girls went for their hot chocolate, and I prayed. In response to my prayer, I had a completely unexpected but profound and tangible religious experience. (I use the term “religious experience” for want of a better expression.)

From that moment, and ever since, I’ve had a strong desire to serve God full time. Nothing else seemed as important as being devoted to ministry. But there was a problem. I was a girl, and I struggled with knowing how I, as female, could minister.

No Female Role Models

This was in the 70s and at that time I belonged to a largish Reformed Church in the western suburbs of Sydney where male primacy was continually modelled. All the reverends were men, all the elders were men, all the Bible college students were men, without exception.

Moreover, every Sunday, just as the church service was about to start, there was a ritual that reinforced the concept of male-only leadership. All the elders, about 20 or so men, would come out single file from a door at the front of the auditorium that everyone could see. Then the elders would sit in a special section at the front which was set apart from the rest of the congregation. The last elder to come out through the door would turn and shake the hand of the man behind him. This man was the person preaching that day.

No one had to say anything. The message was clear. Reverends, preachers, and elders were men. Also, in our church, pretty much any man could serve as an elder. If I remember correctly, being an elder was a 2-year appointment, and most of the men in the congregation had a turn. Women were never considered. Not once did I hear the idea of women elders mentioned.

In the 60s and 70s I had never seen or heard of a female pastor or priest. The only examples I had seen of women in ministry were missionaries in developing countries and ministers’ wives. Neither of these options seemed appealing or appropriate to me.

Also, I had a strong desire to be a mother, and rightly or wrongly, I thought being a mother and a missionary would be too hard. And pastors’ wives looked like they were missing out on all the fun. While their husbands were getting into theology, talking about the Bible, and reading serious-looking books, the wives were serving coffee. I had no interest in serving coffee as a vocation.

Even as a girl, I knew I would make a terrible missionary and a terrible pastor’s wife in the ways I had seen these roles demonstrated. And I didn’t know of any other kinds of full-time ministry. There were no female role models I could relate to. I struggled with this and often talked with God about how I, as female, could minister and serve him.

Furthermore, I was passionate about the Bible from the very beginning of my Christian walk, but the thought of going to Bible college never entered my head, not even for a millisecond. I simply accepted the way things were done. I didn’t know any better and I don’t remember questioning the way our church did things by only having men in leadership roles.

 

Ministering in the Cracks

With a compelling desire to serve God, but with no personal ambition for “formal” ministry, I involved myself in whatever ministries were available to me. From my mid-teens, I volunteered at camps, taught Sunday School, and played music in church services and small groups. I kept reading the Bible too, thinking deeply about what I was reading, and sometimes coming to different conclusions from what I was hearing from the pulpit. And even though I was extremely shy, I was fairly outspoken at school about my faith.

I also ministered “in the cracks,” which is how I felt about what I was doing. I’d see needs and opportunities to serve in various situations and took them. There’s a lot that can be done, and needs to be done, where there are cracks, unmet needs and new and sometimes spontaneous opportunities. Most of Christian ministry is just that: responding to needs and serving unnoticed and unacknowledged by the broader church community. And there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that … sometimes.

Because I’ve never been ambitious career-wise, and because I didn’t associate ministry as a woman with paid employment, I haven’t experienced some of the frustrations and pain my sisters have dealt with. But today, I totally support women as well as men who want to make, or have made, ministry their paid vocation and who have formal, recognised ministries and positions and titles.

 

Romans 12:6-8: Gifted Women are Included

In the 80s and 90s, when I was in my 20s and 30s, I kept serving in various ways while my husband and I raised our two boys. (My dream of becoming a mother was achieved at a relatively young age.) At this time, we belonged to a Pentecostal Church where women had more prominent roles, but I don’t recall hearing about any women as senior church leaders.

In my early 40s it seemed I was being led to more leadership roles. I wrestled with this and even turned down some invitations to speak because I thought it was wrong. Thirty years after becoming a Christian, I was still struggling and still talking with God about how I, as female, could minister and serve him.

One night, as I was thinking and praying about taking on a leadership role, I read Romans 12 in the New International Version, the 1984 edition. Verse 6 of Romans 12 in this older NIV begins with “If a man” and it then lists some ministries, including leading and teaching, which are given with eight masculine pronouns.

This is what it says in the older NIV.

“We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”
Romans 12:6-8 NIV 1984 (Italics added)

I looked at this passage and thought, “No. Leadership is for men only, not for women, not for me.”

I had started learning ancient Greek at this time and decided to see what this passage said in the Greek New Testament. I saw that there is no Greek word that means “man,” in any shape or form, that there are no masculine pronouns, and that there is no gender preference being asserted here. I was shocked by the gender bias in the older NIV which made this passage seem, to me at least, to exclude women.

Romans 12:6-8 is potentially just as gender-inclusive in the Greek as John 3:16, the “for-God-so-loved-the-world” verse. The Greek behind the “whosever believes” phrase in John 3:16 uses a similar grammatical construction as in the repeated ideas in Romans 12:6-8.

The latest edition of the NIV and most modern English translations―the English Standard Version is a notable exception―now translate Romans 12:6-8 in ways that don’t exclude or sideline women.

Here is what it says in the most recent edition of the NIV.

“We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.”
Romans 12:6-8 NIV 2011

This passage shows that our ministries, our service, are dependent on the gifts and grace given to each of us. It’s not about gender.

My thinking had already changed enough so that, around this time, I had begun theological training and was learning Greek simply because I love the Bible, especially the New Testament.

I started with a 2-year diploma, and I chose to do my major assignment on gender-bias in English translations of the Bible. I happened to find a copy of that essay last week when I did a deep clean of my bedroom. The title is “Gender Bias in English Translations of the New Testament and how it Perpetuates Prejudice Against Women Church Leaders” and it’s dated 2006.

I still stand by the observations and statements I made in that essay. Having translations of the Bible that don’t exclude women, where the underlying Hebrew or Greek texts don’t exclude women, is something I remain fiercely passionate about.

 

Leading Like a Mother: Paul and Moses

In my early 40s, I was becoming more involved, informally, in our church’s large youth group. A member of this youth group, Jess, said something to me that made a big impression and has stayed with me. Jess told me that she loved that her mother was a stay-at-home mum. Even though Jess was about 20 years old, she loved that her mother was always “there”―always available whenever she needed her. Inspired by what Jess said, I decided to serve our youth group like a mother which I understood as simply being available.

The apostle Paul sometimes ministered like a mother. He draws on maternal images a few times in his letters to describe his ministry. In 1 Thessalonians 2:7, Paul likened his apostolic ministry, and the ministry of his colleagues, to a breast-feeding woman, to a mother who nurtures and cherishes her infant.

“As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle[1] among you, as a nurse [i.e. a breastfeeding woman] cherishes her own children.”
1 Thessalonians 2:7

Few images could be more maternal than a woman breastfeeding her baby.

In 1 Corinthians 3:1-2, Paul describes himself as giving milk to infants, something that, in the ancient world, typically a mother or wetnurse did. And in Galatians 4:19 he describes himself as a woman giving birth. Paul, apparently, had no qualms or hang-ups about associating himself with maternal figures.

One of Israel’s greatest leaders, Moses, was less happy about leading like a mother. In Numbers 11:12, he complained to God, and his complaint indicates that God wanted Moses to lead the Israelites in a maternal way.

Exhausted and exasperated with the Israelites, Moses asks God,

“Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors?”
Numbers 11:12 (italics added. cf. Isa. 49:22-23)

From Moses’s words, we can see that God does not necessarily associate leadership with masculinity and that God did not want the Israelites to be led in a purely paternal or masculine manner, whatever we may mean by that.

 

Biblical Maternal Imagery: God and Jesus

Paul and Moses seem to associate maternal or feminine leadership as being gentle and nurturing. In a similar way, God uses maternal metaphors as self-descriptions in the Hebrew Bible, especially in Isaiah. In Isaiah 46:3, for example, God tells the Israelites, “You have been held by me since birth, you have been carried by me since the womb.” This is what mothers typically did.

John Calvin understood this verse as saying that God compares himself with “a mother who carries a child in her womb” and he wrote, “God has manifested himself to be both Father and Mother so that we might be more aware of God’s constant presence and willingness to assist us.”[2] Martin Luther, in a lecture on this verse stated, “God cares for us with an everlasting maternal heart and feeling.”[3]

In the Gospels, Jesus used the maternal imagery of a mother hen to describe his feelings for the people of Jerusalem (Matt. 23:37//Luke 13:34). And he used it positively.

God, Jesus, and Paul are recorded in the Bible as using maternal imagery to describe their heart and their actions, and this is associated with gentleness and nurturing.

In some parts of the church today, however, there is antagonism and scorn shown towards gentle feelings and gentle leadership. Gentleness is seen as a weakness and as a liability. Some people who identify as Christian want rugged masculine leadership and see no place for gentleness or for senior leadership from women.

 

Redefining Key Greek Words: Bogus Military Backstories

A related issue to this push for rugged leadership is that a few significant terms in the New Testament are being redefined and given a military back story. Please indulge me as I spend a few minutes looking at this issue.

Πραΰς (praüs)
Definition: meek, gentle, lowly, humble
New definition: strength under control
New backstory: training meek warhorses

Some have redefined the Greek word praüs. This word is often translated in the New Testament as “meek” or “gentle,” and occasionally as “lowly” or “humble.”[4] Praüs, which is used several times in the New Testament, has been given a new strong sense complete with a military-themed backstory.

If you google “meek warhorses” dozens of articles will pop up with confident but deeply flawed statements about praüs and its military association. These articles claim that the word praüs (“meek”) was used to describe the training of Greek warhorses, and a sense of “strength under control” is emphasised.

These ideas were popularised by Jordan Peterson who uses the analogy of a sheathed sword to explain “meek” in Matthew 5:5. Peterson, however, is not a Greek scholar, and he seems to ignore the context of Psalm 37:11 which is where the phrase “the meek will inherit the earth” in Matthew 5:5 originates.[5]

“Meek warhorses” even appears in books and in at least one Bible commentary, but these books don’t cite actual ancient texts. I’ve looked very hard and, to date, found no ancient evidence to back up the “meek warhorses” claims.

Let me state plainly, that as far as I can tell, the claims about the training of Greek warhorses as a guide to understanding the Greek “meek” word is bogus.[6]

Παράκλητος (paraklētos) “Paraclete”
Definition: advocate, counsellor (a legal term)
New definition: someone who has your back in battle
New backstory: Greek soldier pairs

There is also an idea being shared among some Christians about the word Paraclete. This word is used in John’s Gospel for the Holy Spirit and it’s used in First John for Jesus. It’s a significant theological word, so it’s worth us trying to understand it better.

Paraclete has been given a military back story about Greek army buddies. Here’s how a short article on one respected website explains this new idea.

… paraclete, stems from ancient Greek military vocabulary. Greek soldiers went into battle paired up. Standing back to back, sword and shield in hand, they fought off enemy troops. The person standing behind was a ‘wing man’ whom the other relied on to watch his backside! The Greeks called this trusted soldier and friend the paraclete.[7]

This sounds nice, except there’s no ancient evidence that connects the word Paraclete to this idea. This military backstory has nothing to do with the word’s meaning in the New Testament and its actual usage in other surviving ancient texts. Paraclete was not a battle term. It was a legal term. Paraclete is typically used in legal scenarios with the meaning of “advocate.”

In his entry on paraklētos (“Paraclete”) in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Johannes Behm writes that “the history of the term of the whole sphere of known Greek and Hellenistic usage outside of the New Testament yields a clear picture of a legal adviser or helper or advocate in the relevant court.”[8]

As in the case with praüs, it seems someone has just made up an idea about Paraclete that sounded plausible to them, and others are running with it.

This idea seems to have originated with John and Paula Sandford who wrote a book entitled The Transformation of the Inner Man, first published in 1982. It was given more steam in a 2003 book entitled, Healing the Masculine Soul, written by Gordon Dalbey who quotes the Sandfords on pages124-125.[9]

More than a few flawed or false ideas about Greek words and ancient customs continue to be circulated among Christians.

ὑποτάσσω (hypotassō)
Definitions: submit to, comply with, adhere to …
New backstory: military origin (e.g., hoplite battle formation)

A third word where a military or battle sense is sometimes unduly emphasised is hypotassō, often translated as “submit” in English New Testaments. There are repeated claims that this word had a military origin. This claim is made by some patriarchalists to encourage hierarchies within the body of Christ. However, some Christian egalitarians also claim the word had a military origin and they use a backstory of Greek soldiers (hoplites) fighting in phalanx formation to make a point about mutuality.

Is there an ancient text where the verb hypotassō is used in the context of hoplites? I haven’t found one. However, I’ve not looked as long and as hard at this idea as I have with praüs and Paraclete.

Koine Greek, the language of the New Testament, developed as men from all over the Greek-speaking world joined the army of Alexander the Great. In this army, dialects blended to form one common Greek language. But I have not found evidence that hypotassō had a distinct military or battle origin other than the fact that this word was probably coined, as were many other Greek words, during this period.

The family of words behind the “submit” word are occasionally used in a military context in some Greek texts.[10] However, hypotassō is also used in ancient Greek literature without any military or battle connotation whatsoever. Paul uses the verb hypotassō over 20 times in his letters, and I don’t think he had a military sense in mind when speaking about submission in Christian relationships. I think he was thinking more about cooperation, loyalty, and deference in mutual relationships.

Hypotassō is a word I continue to ponder. I don’t think there is one English word that adequately captures the senses Paul meant when he used it, for example, in Ephesians 5:21-24 or Philippians 3:20-21.

Why this reframing of key Greek words?

It seems some Christians have difficulty accepting that gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit, a trait for all followers of Jesus, and they have difficulty accepting that the Holy Spirit and Jesus are described as advocates, not warriors. Some also have difficulty with the idea that being submissive or deferential is not necessarily the counterpart or complement of authority and it need not have anything to do with warfare.

The New Testament indicates that Christians will go through battles and it does use some military terms, but our fight is not against “flesh and blood.” Nevertheless, some Christians believe an aggressive or militant patriarchal hierarchy is the optimum social dynamic within the church and in families. And maternal or gentle ways of leading are seen as ineffective and are even ridiculed.

 

Availability and the Internet

When I think of an ideal mother, gentleness is not the first thing that comes to mind. I think of availability, of someone who is present and ready to listen.

Motivated by what Jess said, I thought about how I could be available for the youth. It became quickly apparent that being online was a great way to connect and be available. And I found young people who were going through a difficult time were more comfortable and confided more readily through online chats than in face-to-face conversations. This was more than twenty years ago and was the beginning of what is now my main ministry.

At that time, we all had Hotmail email accounts and used MSN Messenger. Our youth also had an online forum which was well used. We had MySpace accounts too, but MySpace was limited in what I could do. So in 2009 our youth pastor, who was a web designer, made me a website which I used as a portal to reach our youth and whoever else was interested.

My views on women in ministry had changed and were still evolving as I kept learning and began to better understand the context of Paul’s letters. And I shared what I was learning online. Very few people who visited my website were interested in my Bible studies or articles on various Christian topics. Rather, they were reading my articles on “helper” in Genesis 2, on Junia in Romans 16, and on the qualifications for overseers in 1 Timothy 3, as three examples.

I was no longer making myself available for the youth in our church. I was becoming available for whoever contacted me with questions about women’s roles or with stories of heartbreak because of how they, as a woman, had been treated by the church. Responding to these questions and stories is still how I spend much of my time each week.

This past September (2024), I attended the Lausanne Convention that was held in South Korea, and in our table discussion groups we were asked, “What, in one word, do you want to be remembered for in your ministry?” Some had to think about their answer, but I responded quickly, “Available.”

 

Motherly Ministers in the Bible

People are all different. Women are all different. Mothers are all different. Some are gentle, some are not. Some are nurturing, others less so. Some are available, many do not have this luxury, and it is a luxury to have ample time to make yourself available.

Some women are strong, some are fierce. Mothers can be determined and tenacious when they see their children being treated unfairly. We can be gentle when needed but also bold when needed.

Stereotyping women, including mothers, and making generalisations can be unhelpful. So I want to look at two specific women in the Bible and their ministries. Many Bible Women have little in common with stereotypes. If we take the time to read their stories, even with a little bit of care, we see that many of them do not fit with stereotypes and tropes.

I’ve chosen the following two women because they seem to me to have made themselves available to minister. The first woman is Deborah.

Deborah

I’m so glad Deborah is in the Bible, and she’s not just mentioned in passing. There are two chapters about her in Judges where we get to hear about what she did, what she said, and even what she sang. Deborah’s example indicates that God has no issue with competent women leading his people.

But Deborah’s presence in the Bible is a problem for Christians who believe women should not exercise leadership. This is because she is depicted as a religious leader—she was a prophet, a spokesperson for God. And she was a civil leader—she was a judge who arbitrated disputes among the Israelites.

Deborah is introduced in Judges 4 this way:

“Now Deborah, a woman prophet, a woman of Lappidoth, she judged (led) Israel at that time.” Judges 4:4

More than that, she was a deliverer. Israel was going through a hard time before she stepped up her leadership.

In Judges 5:6-7, she sings,

“In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael,
the main roads were deserted because travellers kept to the side roads.
Villages were deserted, they were deserted in Israel,
until I, Deborah, arose, a mother in Israel.” (Italics added)

In Judges 5:7, Deborah referred to herself as a “mother in Israel.” This doesn’t mean she was an actual mother. She may not even have been married. The phrase often translated as “wife of Lappidoth” in Judges 4:4 can mean “woman of lappidoth,” and the Hebrew word lappidoth means “torches.” This phrase may tell us something about Deborah’s ministry or her personality, or both.[11]

Tikva Frymer-Kensky writes that the phrase “mother in Israel” “indicates that [Deborah’s] arbitration powers as judge were parental, even maternal—though hardly in a tender, nurturing sense.” Frymer-Kensky adds, ‘Mother,” like “father,” can be an honorific title for an authority figure or protector in the community (compare 1 Sam. 24:11 and Isa. 22:21).[12]

Deborah was a matriarchal figure and she made herself available by sitting under the Palm of Deborah, a landmark just north of the crossroads of busy trading routes in the centre of Israel (Judg. 4:5). Deborah’s seat was in an accessible public space. She was not ministering in the cracks or at the margins of society. She had a recognised place and a recognised role in Israel.

Anna

The second woman I want to look at is Anna the prophetess. We know from Luke chapter 2 that she had been married for seven years and was then widowed, but we don’t know if she had any biological children. As a possibly childless widow, Anna dedicated herself to ministry and she chose an accessible public place, the courts of the temple in Jerusalem, as her base.

The New Testament mentions other people who spoke in the temple precincts.

• Jesus taught in the temple courts when he was in Jerusalem.[13]
• Peter and John taught in the temple courts after Pentecost (Acts 3; 5:20-21).
• The first Christians in Jerusalem met every day in the temple courts (Acts 5:42).

The temple courts was a large public space where people gathered, events took place, and people spoke publicly.

Luke writes that after Anna met the infant Jesus, “she spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:36-38). Anna spoke to men and women about Jesus. Moreover, since she is described as a prophetess, we can presume that Anna spoke regularly in the temple precincts as a spokesperson for God.

I suspect both Deborah and Anna were single and childless, and that they ministered in various ways. The Bible shows us that Deborah prophesied, judged, and led, even going to the battlefront with Barak. Anna fasted and prayed and spoke.

 

Prophetic Leaders

I’ve noticed that in the Hebrew Bible, in the New Testament, and in early Christian texts, such as Eusebius’s Church History, there was a recognised and respected place for male and female prophets in ancient Israel, in early Judaism, and in the first and second-century church. There was a place for women with a prophetic speaking gift.

I define “prophetic” broadly. In New Testament churches, prophets provided guidance (Acts 13:3-4; 16:6), instruction (1 Cor. 14:31), strengthening, encouragement and comfort (1 Cor. 14:3).  And it was not unusual for women, as well as men, to prophesy and be prophets (1 Cor. 11:5; Acts 2:17-18; 21:9; cf. Rev. 2:20). With the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the ministry of prophecy became more widespread among God’s people than previously.

Paul considered prophecy to be the most desirable of the spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 14:1), and he listed prophets and prophesying before teachers and teaching in Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:28, and Ephesians 4:11. (These verses in the Greek New Testament do not specify gender.) As Ben Witherington has pointed out, “One cannot argue that prophesying—whether by women or by men—is less important, less enduring or less official than teaching or preaching.”[14] Moreover, prophecy often included teaching. Paul told the Corinthians, “For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may learn and be encouraged” (1 Cor. 14:31, italics added).

However, probably as a reaction against the Montanists, a group which had prominent female prophetic leaders, the ministry of prophecy was quashed at the end of the second century by what would become the dominant expression of Christianity. This expression had all male leaders in the top, most influential, positions. Nevertheless, women as preachers and prophets have never been completely extinguished.

Beth Allison Barr has observed,

… regardless of whether the ecclesiastical establishment recognized their work, women persisted in preaching the gospel and ministering in the service of God. … From Mary Magdalene to Waldensian women, Ursuline nuns, Moravian wives, Quaker sisters, Black women preachers, and suffragette activists, history shows us that women do not wait on the approval of men to do the work of God. We can hear women’s voices in our Christian past, and despite all the obstacles in their way, nevertheless, “they are preaching.”[15]

But how much easier it would have been for these women, and for women whose voices were completely silenced, if they had been given the same freedom as their brothers to speak, to minister, and even be ordained to the same positions as men. By silencing women, the church has been poorer.

Count Zinzendorf, the leader of the Moravians in the 1700s, is recorded as saying,

If we put women in the corner we will lose a Kleinod, a jewel. It is peculiar that when the Holy Spirit says your daughters will prophesy, we tell them ‘no.’ How can you explain Galatians 3:28? In Christ we are all equal, and I have always encouraged our sisters to teach and preach in our congregation, and I have put gifted women in key leading positions. When Paul talked about women being silent, he was telling a specific boisterous group of Greek women not to interrupt a service.[16]

I agree with Zinzendorf’s understanding of 1 Corinthians 14:34 which says, “Women should be silent in the churches …” He understood that we need men and women in leadership and that Paul’s letters do not restrict the ministry of gifted and orderly women.

Some Jewels

Some women have succeeded in being heard because of their exceptional wealth, their exceptional intelligence, or their exceptional bravery and tenacity, or a combination of these and other qualities, which opened doors that were stuck shut for most other women.

These women include Marcella of Rome, Nino of Georgia, Melania the Elder, Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine of Sienna, Madame Jeanne Guyon, Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth Fry, Phoebe Palmer, Catherine Booth, Amy Carmichael, the five barley loaves (five Australian Baptist women who were missionaries in Bengal in the late 1800s and early 1900s) to name a few.[17]

While countless mediocre and even subpar men have been welcomed into ministry over the centuries, only some women with brilliant minds, outstanding talents, and extraordinary courage or tenacity seemed to find a way to be heard, but even then, they were denied official positions. A lot of this has to do with 1 Timothy 2:12 (“I do not allow a woman to teach …”) and 1 Corinthians 14:34-35.

Marcella of Rome and 1 Timothy 2

Marcella of Rome’s immense wealth, social position and connections gave her a considerable advantage in ministry. She was an aristocratic, a highly educated and intelligent woman from a Christian family, and she was personally acquainted with some of the most notable Christians of the period. The famous theologian Athanasius, for example, stayed at her family home in Rome during the years 338 to 340.

Her husband died when she was still young and she vowed not to marry again. Instead, she began a community (like a nunnery) in her palatial home on the Aventine Hill in Rome.

In 382, Jerome stayed in her home and the two became firm friends. Jerome spent three years with Marcella translating the Bible into Latin and she offered critiques. She was a serious student of the scriptures and knew Greek and Hebrew. Marcella held Bible studies in her home for women, some of whom went on to become prominent figures in the Christian community. During his stay in Rome, Jerome also taught at her Bible studies.

Marcella’s Bible knowledge was well-known and when Jerome left for the Holy Land, people, including priests―male priests―turned to Marcella to discuss and settle interpretations of scripture. In a letter, Jerome says wonderful things about Marcella but he makes a point of explaining that she taught in a manner so as not to violate 1 Timothy 2:12.[18]

Unlike Zinzendorf, Jerome did not understand that 1 Timothy 2:12, like 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, addressed bad behaviour of specific women (or, a woman) in a specific church. In both these passages, Paul was not making general comments with the aim of silencing all women everywhere.[19]

Marcella clearly taught men, including clergy, on matters of scripture and theology. It’s a shame that traditional understandings of 1 Timothy 2:12 have caused gifted women to be unnecessarily cautious in their manner of teaching, and that many more women have been silenced entirely.

In my journey, I have come to the understanding that Paul silenced both disorderly men and women from speaking in Corinth (1 Cor. 14:26-40) and he prohibited both unsuitable men and women from being teachers in Ephesus (1 Tim. 1:20; 2:11-15). Paul never silenced or stifled sound ministry and teaching from anyone, male or female. He never intended that all the reverends, preachers, elders, and Bible college students in my church were to be all men

Paul didn’t silence speakers who spoke truth with grace. He didn’t place restrictions on women like Priscilla, for example. Paul valued his female coworkers.

The Marginalisation of Women

I believe Christian women have been sidelined because of the influence of broader social norms on the church. This patriarchal influence has manifested itself in various ways throughout the church’s history. In more recent years, the marginalisation of women has been supported by English translations of the Bible with biased language. It has been supported by downplaying the maternal imagery used by Paul, and Jesus and God. And it has been supported by disparaging gentleness which has even led to some making misleading claims about the meanings of key Greek words in the New Testament.

In the past, the marginalisation of women has been supported by antagonism to prophetic ministry and a long history of misunderstanding Paul’s aims in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-12. This has led to regulations which prohibited all women from public speaking in church assemblies and which expressly banned women from certain positions. There is also a long history, beginning with Origen, if not before, of people downplaying the ministries of Deborah and Anna and other women ministers in the Bible.[20]

The church has sidelined and silenced truckloads of jewels and kept them in hidden corners, to use Zinzendorf’s expression, but the church has lost more than just its shine or sparkle. The church needs to hear women’s voices. We need to listen to their perspectives and prophetic insights. We need their intelligence and also their heart, feelings, and compassion. And we need their fierceness and tenacity as they stand against and oppose evil, injustice and harmful forces.

Women are great at serving at the margins and ministering in the cracks. But we need women front and centre also.

Being available is how I see my ministry and I no longer struggle with how God wants me to minister. There is no second-guessing my calling just because I’m female. And if God wants me to be ordained, I’ll pursue that.

Being recognised by our church communities and ordained, and getting paid to serve others, can be very helpful when we want to give our time to making ourselves available. So, for the church to become healthy and more effective in its mission, we need to remove the unnecessary obstacles and hindrances, and encourage women to fill all positions in the church. We need to bring the church’s jewels out from the corners.

 

 

 

[1] The oldest surviving Greek manuscripts of 1 Thess. 2:7 say that the apostles became “infant children” (nēpioi), rather than “gentle” (ēpioi). Epioi may be translated as gentle, mild, or kind, etc. The NIV (2011) translates 1 Thess. 2:6-8 as, “We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority. Instead, we were like young children (nepioi) among you. Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.”

[2] John Calvin, Commentary on Isaiah, online at BibleHub.com.

[3] Luther, Lectures on Isaiah, Chapters 40–66, ed. Hilton C. Oswald, Luther’s Works, vol. 17 (Concordia, 1972), 183.

 

[4] Kenneth Bailey explains a difference between praüs and the Hebrew word that is sometimes translated into Greek as praüs: “The Hebrew word, ׳ānǐ (poor/ humble) has to do with obedience in accepting God’s guidance. The Greek term praüs (“meek”) refers not to a person in the presence of God but rather describes relationships between people.” Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (InterVarsity, 2008), 73.
Some Jewish authors writing in Greek likely used praüs to translate ׳ānǐ  for want of a closer synonym, as in Matthew 5:5. This verse alludes to Psalm 37:11, and the translators of the Christian Standard Bible have made the sensible decision to translate both the Hebrew word ׳ānǐ in Psalm 37:11 and the Greek word praüs in Matthew 5:5 into English as “humble.” The CSB has translated praüs in Matthew 11:29 as “lowly.”

[5] Peterson doesn’t base his interpretation on the Greek of Matthew 5:5, or on the Hebrew of Psalm 37:11, but on what makes sense to him. Even though he doesn’t read Greek or Hebrew, he thinks his interpretation is much better than what it says in English translations. However, the way he elaborates on his interpretation makes a mockery of the message of Psalm 37 and Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, especially considering that many in Jesus’s audience had little political power.

[6] My article on “meek warhorses” is on my website, here. As at November 2024, since posting the article on my website in July 2020, it has been read, or at least viewed, 31,000 times. This number gives a rough indication of people who are searching for information on the “meek warhorses” idea. 31,000 probably represents a small percentage of people looking into the “meek warhorses” concept.

[7] “Your Back’s Covered,” Theology of Work website, posted on the 28^th of November, 2001.

[8] Behm, from his entry on παράκλητος in volume 5 of the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, edited by Gerhard Friedrich and translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Eerdmans, 1967), 800-814.

[9] After his statement about Paraclete, Dalbey goes on to make the equally misleading claim that the early church’s understanding of the sacraments, especially communion, was “war-related, based on the original meaning of the Latin sacramentum …”

 

[10] A related, rare, noun hypotaxis is sometimes brought into discussions on hypotassō, something which I don’t find especially helpful. For example, Markus Barth states, “On occasion the rare noun hypotaxis is used to express one of the specific meanings of the verb hypotassō, that is the taking of a position in a phalanx by a military unit. In the latter case there is no thought of inferiority or servility among those who subordinate themselves.” Barth, Ephesians 4-6 (The Anchor Bible; Doubleday, 1979), 709.

 

 

[11] I have more on the phrase “woman of lappidoth” on my website, here.

[12] Frymer-Kensky, “Deborah: Bible,” The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, online at JWA.org.

[13] As he was being arrested, Jesus told the crowd that while he was in Jerusalem, “Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching.” (See Matthew 26:55//Mark 14:49//Luke 22:53; cf. Luke 20:1; John 7-8).

[14] Witherington, The Paul Quest: The Renewed Search for the Jew of Tarsus (InterVarsity, 1998), 225.

[15] Barr, The Making of Biblical Womanhood (Brazos, 2021), 213-214.

[16] Quoted by Rob Dixon on his website Challenging Tertullian, here.

[17] I’ve written about some of these women on my website, here.

 

[18] Jerome wrote, “… after my departure from Rome, in case of a dispute arising as to the testimony of scripture on any subject, recourse was made to her [Marcella] to settle it. And so wise was she and so well did she understand what philosophers call τό πρέπον, that is, “the becoming” [or, appropriate behaviour], in what she did, that when she answered questions she gave her own opinion not as her own but as from me or someone else [male], thus admitting that what she taught she had herself learned from others. For she knew that the apostle had said: “I do not allow a woman to teach,” and she would not seem to inflict a wrong upon the male sex many of whom, including sometimes priests, questioned her concerning obscure and doubtful points” (Jerome, Letter 127.7).

[19] A considerable number of New Testament scholars do not believe the apostle Paul is the author of 1 Timothy. I’m keeping my options open on the question of who wrote the Pastoral Epistles.

[20]  I’ve had to delete hundreds of nasty comments over the years on one of my articles on Deborah, and I eventually closed comments on that article because I was tired of dealing with comments from angry people, simply because I’ve stated that she was a leader of Israel, and not just because there were no men available.