190 FEMINIST VIEWS BASED ON UNTRUTHFUL CLAIMS
elementary linguistic blunders.... Unfortunately, things are not
much better with the Kroegers’ historical argumentation. There is in
fact no direct evidence that their postulated Gnostic sect ever existed
in first-century Ephesus, or indeed that a Gnostic group fitting their
description ever existed at all.^7So where is the historical evidence that proves the claim that Paul,
in 1 Timothy 2, was opposing a specific Gnostic heresy at Ephesus? It
has not been found. Yet a number of egalitarian writers continue to
affirm the Kroegers’ claim as established fact.
To take one example of mistakenly believing an egalitarian scholar’s
arguments “by faith” rather than because of hard evidence, consider
Cindy Jacobs’s acceptance of the arguments of Richard and Catherine
Kroeger about the background for 1 Timothy 2:11-15. Jacobs writes,
“In my study of this passage, I have found Richard and Catherine Clark
Kroegers’ book I Suffer Not a Woman: Rethinking 1 Timothy 2:11-15
in Light of Ancient Evidence (Baker, 1992) was particularly enlighten-
ing for understanding the historical and religious setting of Ephesus at
the time 1 Timothy was written. Their study reveals a world of idola-
trous paganism based upon a matriarchal society and goddess
worship.”^8
But Jacobs does not seem to have any awareness of how severely the
Kroegers’ arguments have been criticized by competent New Testament
scholars. Compare Jacobs’s trust in the Kroegers’ writings to the schol-
arly analyses of Thomas Schreiner, Robert W. Yarbrough, Albert
Wolters, and S. M. Baugh mentioned above. (Schreiner is professor of
New Testament at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in
Louisville, Kentucky; Yarbrough is chairman of the New Testament
department at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois;
Wolters is professor of religion and theology/classical languages at
Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada; and Baugh is
professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary in
Escondido, California.) These New Testament scholars do not simply
say they disagree with the Kroegers (for scholars will always differ in
(^7) Ibid., 211. For further discussion, see Robert W. Yarbrough, “I Suffer Not a Woman: A
Review Essay,” Presbyterion 18 (1992): 25-33.
(^8) Cindy Jacobs, Women of Destiny (Ventura, Calif.: Regal, 1998), 235.