1 Tim. 2:11-14 is a key passage used by complementarians to argue for male authority in the church and the home.
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“A woman is to learn quietly with full submission. I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; instead, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed (emphasis mine).”
Complementarians believe Paul refers to creation to establish male headship as a timeless, universal principle.
Based on this idea, they read Paul’s comments back into Genesis 2, then insert numerous assumptions into that text to support the view that women should be subordinate to men.
To avoid making such hermeneutical mistakes, we need to set aside assumptions.
In another post, we’ll look at 1 Tim. 2:11-12 and why it does not prohibit women from preaching and teaching, but for now, let’s zero in on the creation topic.
What is Paul’s point about Adam and Eve in 1 Tim. 2:13-14?
Remember, Paul is giving Timothy instructions on dealing with a specific problem in Ephesus—false teachers.
Here’s the cultural context:
In the religious milieu of Ephesus, the feminine was seen as the primal source, and Gnosticism distorted and perverted the Genesis account.[i]
Gnostic accounts depict Eve as Adam’s life-giving source and the imparter of hidden, beneficial knowledge, Adam as incomplete and ignorant without Eve, the serpent as good and helpful, and God as a lesser, malignant god because he created material substances (seen as evil by Gnostics).[ii]
These are significant lies, and Paul needs to set the record straight.
Complementarians assume he brings up Gen. 3:1-7 to appeal to a creation principle about the relationship between men and women. However, it may be more logical to conclude he is leveraging the passage as an illustration for the problem he addresses.[iii]
As he often does, Paul makes his case by drawing an analogy—in this case, between Eve and the women at Ephesus. However, his point is not that women are more easily deceived than men.
Elsewhere, Paul uses the analogy of Eve in comparison to the whole Corinthian church’s gullibility, including men (2 Cor. 11:3).
He does not make Eve a symbol for all women, just as he does not apply the consequences of Adam’s fall to men only (Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 15:45-49).[iv]
Rather, what happened in the garden of Eden…
“… illustrates how disastrous the consequences can be when a woman is deceived by Satan (as women have been in Ephesus, see 1 Tim. 5:15) and then takes it upon herself without proper authority to teach men.”[v]
Gnostic distortion of the Genesis account was influencing women to seek domination over men,[vi] and this required an exceptional ruling for that particular first century church (not a universally binding precept).[vii]
Paul instructs the women to stop spreading myths and promoting the heresy of woman as originator of man and man as deceived at creation—a lie which has led to them wrongfully assuming authority over men (1 Tim. 2:13-14).[viii]
Instead, they must live a quiet life in submission to God.[ix]
Since Paul brings up Eve, it is likely these women tried to lord it over their husbands.[x] The deviant doctrines they had been spreading included an anti-marriage (and anti-childbearing) element. Paul wants Christian wives to live in an appropriate, orderly manner and in unity with their husbands rather than try to over-power them.[xi]
As for the notion of a creation principle undergirding male headship, such a principle would logically apply in every area of human life, not just in the home and the church.
In fact, the most likely place for there to be an exception would be the church, where creation is being overtaken by new creation in Christ![xii]
Rather than referring to “creation order” to establish a mandate of male rule, Paul is simply reminding Timothy of what happened in the garden of Eden to illustrate a principle.
Today, we still need to guard against false teaching. We shouldn’t spread wrong ideas that contradict Scripture, nor should we dominate others while doing so.
That’s the timeless principle we can apply today—not male headship.
(To look at another passage where Paul brings up creation, but for a different reason, see my article on 1 Cor. 11:3-16.)
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This post is adapted from my newly updated book, Prophesying Daughters: How Prophetic Ministry and Women in Leadership Strengthen the Church. Grab it and the study guide for under $20. Also available in audio book and eBook!
[i] Richard Clark and Catherine Clark Kroeger, I Suffer Not a Woman: Re-thinking 1 Timothy 2:11-15 in Light of Ancient Evidence (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1992), 105.
[ii] Kroeger, 153-170.
[iii] Andrew Bartlett, Men and Women in Christ: Fresh Light from the Biblical Texts (London: IVP, 2019), 283. As to creation order, McKnight also explains this as a response to the new Roman women who claimed gender order should be reversed with women subjugating men, and that the original creation was female first, then male, implying female superiority. Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet, 195-196.
[iv] Craig Keener, Paul, Women and Wives: Marriage and Women’s Ministry in the Letters of Paul (Peabody, MS: Hendrickson Publishers, 1992), 114, 117.
[v] Giles, Kevin. What the Bible Actually Teaches on Women, (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2018), 127.
[vi] Linda Belleville, “An Egalitarian Perspective” in Two Views on Women in Ministry (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 91. Again, note that man and woman were created equal, and domination of one sex over the other only resulted after the fall. In Christ, equality is restored.
[vii] Giles, 127-128.
[viii] Lucy Peppiatt, Recovering Scripture’s Vision for Women (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2019), 150.
[ix] Bartlett, 381. For a thorough treatment of goddess worship, Gnosticism, the veneration of Eve and the serpent, and the blaming of Eve for humanity’s fall, see Richard Clark Kroeger and Catherine Clark Kroeger, I Suffer Not a Woman: Rethinking 1 Timothy 2:11-15 in Light of Ancient Evidence.
[x] Keener, Paul, Women, and Wives, 109.
[xi] Peppiatt, 156.
[xii] Bartlett, 228-229.
