The Difficulty

Paul writes “Women should remain silent in the churches” (1 Cor 14:34) and “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man” (1 Tim 2:12), grounding the restriction in creation order (“Adam was formed first, then Eve”). Yet the same Paul commends Phoebe as a deacon (Rom 16:1), Priscilla as a co-worker who corrected Apollos (Acts 18:26), and Junia as “outstanding among the apostles” (Rom 16:7). He writes “there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). How do these texts fit together? The answer determines whether women can preach, teach, and lead in the church.

Responses

Complementarian

Tradition: Conservative / Reformed Summary: Men and women are equal in dignity but have distinct, non-interchangeable roles; authoritative teaching and pastoral leadership are reserved for men.

Wayne Grudem, Thomas Schreiner, John Piper, and the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) argue that 1 Tim 2:11–15 is a universal, transcultural prohibition grounded in the creation order, not in local cultural circumstances. “Adam was formed first” is a theological argument, not a cultural one, and therefore applies in all times and places. 1 Cor 14:34–35 confirms the pattern. Phoebe, Priscilla, and Junia operated in supporting roles that didn’t include authoritative preaching over men. Galatians 3:28 is about salvation status, not church roles.

Strengths

• Takes the prohibitive texts at face value
• The creation-order argument in 1 Tim 2:13 is genuinely hard to dismiss as merely cultural
• Clear, actionable conclusions for church polity

Weaknesses

• Requires diminishing the significance of Junia, Phoebe, and Priscilla
• The “Junia was not really an apostle” argument has largely been abandoned even by complementarian scholars
• 1 Cor 11:5 assumes women pray and prophesy publicly — tension with 14:34
• The history of “separate but equal” arguments in other contexts should give pause

Further Reading

• Wayne Grudem, Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth (Multnomah, 2004)
• Thomas Schreiner, “An Interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:9–15” in Women in the Church (Crossway, 3rd ed., 2016)
• The Danvers Statement (1987) — the founding document of the CBMW

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Egalitarian

Tradition: Mainline / Progressive Evangelical Summary: The prohibitive texts reflect specific local situations; the trajectory of Scripture and the witness of women in ministry support full equality in all roles.

Philip Payne, Craig Keener, Ben Witherington III, and the Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE) argue that 1 Cor 14:34–35 may be a later interpolation (it appears in different locations in some manuscripts) or addresses a specific disruptive situation in Corinth. 1 Tim 2:12 uses the rare word authentein (not the usual word for authority), which may mean “to domineer” or “to usurp” — a local corrective, not a universal rule. Paul’s practice (commissioning women leaders) interprets his theology better than isolated proof-texts. Galatians 3:28 is the theological principle; the restrictive texts are the cultural accommodations. The Wesleyan tradition has generally supported women in ministry, and the UMC has ordained women since 1956.

Strengths

• Accounts for Paul’s actual practice of commissioning women leaders
• The authentein argument is lexically strong
• The manuscript evidence for 1 Cor 14:34–35 as interpolation is real
• Consistent with Wesleyan and Methodist practice
• Women’s ordination has borne good fruit in the church

Weaknesses

• “It was just cultural” can be applied too freely — how do we decide which commands are transcultural?
• The creation-order argument in 1 Tim 2:13 is harder to dismiss than the cultural-context argument allows
• Authentein is rare enough that its meaning is genuinely uncertain

Further Reading

• Philip Payne, Man and Woman, One in Christ (Zondervan, 2009) — the most exhaustive egalitarian exegesis
• Craig Keener, Paul, Women, and Wives (Hendrickson, 1992)
• Ben Witherington III, Women in the Earliest Churches (Cambridge, 1988)
• Eldon Jay Epp, Junia: The First Woman Apostle (Fortress, 2005) — on the textual evidence for Junia as apostle
• Two Views: James Beck and Craig Blomberg, eds., Two Views on Women in Ministry (Zondervan, 2005)

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Wesleyan / Pneumatological

Tradition: Wesleyan / Methodist Summary: The Holy Spirit’s gifting of women for ministry is the decisive evidence; the Spirit does not contradict Scripture but fulfills it.

Wesley himself argued that women who were clearly gifted and called by the Spirit should preach — not because he had resolved every exegetical question, but because the fruit was undeniable. “The Spirit makes no distinction between male and female in distributing gifts” (cf. Acts 2:17–18; Joel 2:28). The Wesleyan tradition has historically been more open to women’s ministry than most Protestant traditions, and the early Methodist movement was built in significant part by women preachers (Mary Bosanquet, Sarah Crosby, among others). The UMC Book of Discipline affirms women’s full ordination.

Strengths

• Distinctively Wesleyan
• Takes the quadrilateral seriously (experience and reason alongside Scripture and tradition)
• The fruit of women’s ministry is empirically observable
• Honors the Methodist heritage

Weaknesses

• “The Spirit told me” can be used to override Scripture in problematic ways
• Not a fully exegetical argument — relies on pragmatic and pneumatological reasoning more than textual analysis
• Complementarians will say that gifts alone don’t determine office

Further Reading

• Paul Chilcote, John Wesley and the Women Preachers of Early Methodism (Scarecrow Press, 1991)
• Randy Maddox, Responsible Grace: John Wesley’s Practical Theology (Kingspress, 1994), ch. 9
• Susie Stanley, Holy Boldness: Women Preachers’ Autobiographies and the Sanctified Self (University of Tennessee Press, 2002)
• Wesley, Letter to Mary Bosanquet (1771) — his clearest statement on women preaching