180 FEMINIST VIEWS BASED ON UNTRUTHFUL CLAIMS
Craig Keener says, “Much of the false teaching in Ephesus was
being spread through women in the congregation.... Presumably, Paul
wants them to learn so that they could teach.”^2
Gordon Fee writes (regarding 1 Tim. 2:12),
It is probably because some of them have been so terribly deceived by
the false teachers, who are specifically abusing the OT.... The word
translated authority, which occurs only here in the NT, has the con-
notation “to domineer.” In context it probably reflects again on the
role the women were playing in advancing the errors—or specula-
tions—of the false teachers and therefore is to be understood very
closely with the prohibition against teaching.^3And J. Lee Grady states,
What is translated as “certain men” [in 1 Tim. 1:3] is the indefinite
Greek pronoun tisi. An indefinite pronoun does not indicate gender.
Paul is saying, “Instruct certain people not to teach strange doc-
trines.” Later in 1 Timothy, it becomes evident that women were
doing the teaching of these strange doctrines, at least in part. A major
purpose of this entire epistle was to correct unbiblical teachings being
presented by women.^4Don Williams says, “Could some of those teaching falsely be
women? Quite probably so.”^5
2003), also agrees with the Kroegers’ view, saying, “The Gnostics... concocted the notion
that Eve was created before Adam.... It is possible that one or more female false teachers had
invaded the church at Ephesus and were spreading this detestable doctrine” (144). Sarah
Sumner, Men and Women in the Church (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2003), also
supports this view in her statement, “Perhaps the most insidious thing is that the false teach-
ers, like Satan, were twisting the Scriptures, lying to the people by saying that Eve was created
first and that Eve was not deceived” (259).
(^2) Craig Keener, Paul, Women, and Wives: Marriage and Women’s Ministry in the Letters of
Paul (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1992), 111-112.
(^3) Gordon D. Fee, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, New International Biblical Commentary (Peabody,
Mass.: Hendrickson, 1984, 1988), 73.
(^4) J. Lee Grady, Ten Lies the Church Tells Women (Lake Mary, Fla.: Creation House, 2000), 57.
See also Andrew Perriman, Speaking of Women (Leicester, UK: Apollos, 1998), 141-142. I.
Howard Marshall also thinks that behind 1 Timothy 2:12 “lies some particular false teaching
by some women” (Marshall, in collaboration with Philip H. Towner, A Critical and Exegetical
Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles [London, New York: T & T Clark, 2004], 458).
(^5) Don Williams, The Apostle Paul and Women in the Church (Glendale, Calif.: Regal, 1977), 111.