182 FEMINIST VIEWS BASED ON UNTRUTHFUL CLAIMS
remains that three men and no women are named. The Kroegers give
no evidence to support their statement. They have simply made a “sug-
gestion” with no facts to support it.
I am saddened, therefore, to see a more popular writer like Cindy
Jacobs accept their unsupported “suggestion” as something true. Jacobs
actually misunderstands the Kroegers’ statement, for in reference to this
passage in their book she writes,
We see that three people are mentioned who opposed sound doctrine:
Hymenaeus, Alexander and Philetus (see 1 Tim. 1:20; 2 Tim. 2:17;
4:14). The Kroegers suggest that at least one of these individuals was
a woman and that 1 Timothy 2:12 forbids her to teach a heresy which
was creating serious problems in the Church.^8But the names are all masculine in Greek and all refer to men.
(2) No clear proof of women teaching false doctrine at Ephesus has
been found either inside or outside the Bible.^9 First Timothy 5:13 warns
that younger women who do not marry again will become “gossips and
busybodies, saying what they should not.” But this does not indicate
that any women were teaching false doctrine. To “gossip” means to
spread “intimate or private rumors or facts,”^10 but spreading such per-
sonal details about other people, whether rumors or facts, is not the
same as teaching false doctrine. Most of us probably can think of peo-
ple in our local churches or communities who gossip, but they are not
teachers of false doctrine! The two speech activities are quite distinct.^11
When Paul says in 1 Timothy 5:13 that such young women will
become “gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not,” the nat-
ural interpretation of “saying what they should not” is to take it as an
expansion of what Paul means by “gossips.” These younger widows
who go from house to house will be saying things they should not say,
spreading rumors and misinformation about other people. But this does
(^8) Jacobs, Women of Destiny, 235, italics added.
(^9) For elaboration of this point see Grudem, Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth, 282-284.
(^10) American Heritage Dictionary, 3rd ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996), 783. The Greek
term phluaros is an adjective meaning “gossipy” (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich, A Greek-
English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. [Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1999], 1060).
(^11) For further evidence showing that “gossips” in 1 Timothy 5:13 does not mean “teachers of
false doctrine,” see Grudem, Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth, 282-284.