TOM · The Owner's Manual · New Testament

1 Timothy 2

Chapter 2 in 30 seconds

Pray for everybody, even the people running the government. There is one God and one go between, Jesus. Men, pray without fighting. Women, skip the over the top hair and jewelry and dress up in good deeds. Then come the verses about women and authority that churches still argue over.

Tap a color to hide it

In this chapterThe Big Question · Christians disagreeWomen in the Church · after verse 15

A Call to Prayer

¹First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be offered for everyone— ²for kings and all those in authority—so that we may lead tranquil and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity. ³This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1TI 2:1[NOTABLE]Paul wrote this while Nero was emperor. Pray for leaders you like and leaders you do not. The goal is peaceful lives and people coming to know God, 2:4. Jeremiah told the exiles to pray for Babylon too, Jeremiah 29:7.

⁵For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, ⁶who gave Himself as a ransom for all—the testimony that was given at just the right time.

1TI 2:5[FULFILLS]Job's longing for a Mediator fulfilled in Christ ← JOB 9:32-33MEDIUM
1TI 2:5[FULFILLS]A mediator says spare him from the pit, I have found a ransom ← JOB 33:23-24MEDIUM

⁷For this reason I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a faithful and true teacher of the Gentiles. I am telling the truth; I am not lying about anything. ⁸Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or dissension.

Instructions to Women

⁹Likewise, I want the women to adorn themselves with respectable apparel, with modesty, and with self-control, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, ¹⁰but with good deeds, as is proper for women who profess to worship God.

1TI 2:9[FIELD NOTES]See the Braided Hair and Gold Field Notes page.

¹¹A woman must learn in quietness and full submissiveness. ¹²I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; she is to remain quiet. ¹³For Adam was formed first, and then Eve. ¹⁴And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who was deceived and fell into transgression. ¹⁵Women, however, will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.

1TI 2:12[NOTE]WOMEN AND AUTHORITY. Christians are split on what these verses mean today. See The Big Question pages, which give the history and every view without taking a side.

The Big Question · Christians disagree

Women in the Church

What Did Paul Mean?

1 Timothy 2:8 to 15 · 1 Corinthians 14:34 · Romans 16:1 to 7

WHAT PAUL SAID: Let a woman learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Then he gives a reason: Adam was formed first, and Eve was deceived, 2:11 to 14. And women will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith, 2:15. Christians who love the Bible have argued over these five verses for 2,000 years. Here is how the argument grew.
THE EARLY CHURCH: Women were all over the early church. Priscilla taught Apollos, Acts 18:26. Philip had four daughters who prophesied, Acts 21:9. Paul called Phoebe a deacon and Junia outstanding among the apostles, Romans 16:1 and 16:7. But as churches got organized, the leaders who taught and led worship were men. Tertullian, about AD 200, wrote that a woman may not speak, teach or baptize in church. When the Montanists, a movement led partly by two prophetesses, Priscilla and Maximilla, were rejected in the late 100s, that made church leaders even more careful.
DEACONESSES: At the same time, women served as deaconesses for centuries. The governor Pliny wrote about two in about AD 112. The Council of Nicaea, AD 325, mentions them, and the Council of Chalcedon, AD 451, said a woman must be at least 40. They helped baptize women and cared for the sick. Over time the office faded, first in the West. See the Phoebe, Pliny and Sophia Field Notes page.
REFORMATION TO REVIVAL: The Reformers taught that every believer is a priest, 1 Peter 2:9, but kept pastors male. Then new voices came. The Quaker Margaret Fell wrote Women's Speaking Justified in 1666. John Wesley let some Methodist women preach. Catherine Booth wrote Female Ministry in 1859 and helped start the Salvation Army. At the Azusa Street Revival in 1906, women preached, and the Assemblies of God has given women preaching papers since it began in 1914. Aimee Semple McPherson opened Angelus Temple in 1923 and started the Foursquare Church.
WHERE CHURCHES STAND TODAY: Only men are priests in the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Pope John Paul II said in 1994 that the church has no authority to ordain women. The Southern Baptist Convention's statement of faith, 2000, says the office of pastor is limited to men. The Church of England ordained its first women priests in 1994 and its first woman bishop in 2015. Most Pentecostal, Methodist and mainline churches ordain women. In 1987 two groups formed on opposite sides: the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, with its Danvers Statement, and Christians for Biblical Equality.

Every View · The Case Each Side Makes

1 Timothy 2:11 to 15 · Galatians 3:28 · Genesis 2 and 3

TRADITIONAL, OR COMPLEMENTARIAN: Men and women are equal in worth but have different roles. Pastors and elders should be men. Key verses: 2:12 to 13, 1 Corinthians 11:3 and 14:34, Ephesians 5:22 to 24, and 3:2, the husband of one wife. Best case: Paul does not base his rule on Ephesus or culture. He goes back to creation, before sin, Adam was formed first, 2:13. Jesus picked twelve men as apostles. Held by Catholics and Orthodox, Southern Baptists and many others. Teachers like John Piper and Wayne Grudem.
THE MIDDLE GROUND: Many churches let women preach, teach and lead ministries, but keep the office of elder or senior pastor for men. They read 2:12 as being about that one office of authority, not every time a woman speaks.
EQUAL, OR EGALITARIAN: Every role is open to women and men, based on gifts, not gender. Key verses: Galatians 3:28, Acts 2:17 to 18, Deborah who judged Israel, Judges 4:4, Huldah, 2 Kings 22:14, Priscilla, Phoebe and Junia, Romans 16, and women praying and prophesying, 1 Corinthians 11:5. Best case: Paul praised women leaders by name, so 2:12 must be a fix for a problem, not a rule for all time. The Greek can mean I am not permitting, right now. Held by Pentecostals, Methodists, the Salvation Army and many others. Teachers like Gordon Fee and Philip Payne.
THE EPHESUS PROBLEM: Many egalitarians add this: false teaching was spreading in Ephesus, 1:3, and young widows were going house to house saying things they should not, 5:13. Women had not been allowed to study, so Paul says first let them learn, 2:11. Some point to the goddess Artemis or to later stories that made Eve the hero. Critics say most of that evidence comes from after Paul's time.
THE RARE WORD: Exercise authority is the Greek word authentein, used only here in the whole Bible. Most Bibles say have authority. The KJV says usurp authority. Some, like Catherine and Richard Kroeger in 1992, said it means domineer or take control by force. Others, like Andreas Köstenberger in 1995, said the grammar shows teach and have authority are both normal good things that Paul limits.
SAVED THROUGH CHILDBEARING: Nobody thinks a woman earns heaven by having babies, Ephesians 2:8 to 9. Views: saved through the Childbirth, the birth of Jesus promised to Eve, Genesis 3:15; kept safe through childbirth; or a woman living out her calling in faith. The Greek says the childbearing.
WHAT WE ALL AGREE ON: Men and women are both made in God's image, Genesis 1:27, saved the same way and gifted by the same Spirit. Women sat at Jesus' feet to learn, Luke 10:39, and were the first to see Him risen. The argument is about one role, not about worth. See the Romans 16, 1 Corinthians 14:34 and Ephesians 5:21 notes.

1 Timothy 2

A Call to Prayer

Instructions to Women

See the whole Bible light up in color.

Frequently asked questions