9: JUST IGNORE THE “DISPUTED” PASSAGES? 89Sarah Sumner says,
We don’t know how to translate 1 Timothy 2, much less interpret it
correctly or apply it appropriately today. That’s why this passage is
so humbling; to some extent it has stumped us all, scholars and prac-
titioners alike.^7Rich Nathan writes,
It is not at all plain what Paul meant to communicate to his original
readers, plus it is even less plain how Paul’s words should be applied
today.... My files include at least fifteen very different interpreta-
tions of 1 Timothy 2.... To summarize, there is no common agree-
ment on what these individual words mean in 1 Timothy 2:9-15.^8The heart of this approach is that sincere Christians like Cindy
Jacobs, the leaders of the Assemblies of God, Sarah Sumner, and Rich
Nathan are saying they cannot reach a decision on the meaning of
1 Corinthians 14, 1 Timothy 2, and the passages in 1 Timothy 3 and
Titus 1 that say elders are to be the husband of one wife.^9 When anyone
tries to reason from these verses, their response is, essentially, “I’m not
going to base my decision on these verses—nobody knows what they
mean.”
It is important to recognize what this kind of response does in this
debate on the role of women in the church. It effectively prevents
1 Corinthians 14, 1 Timothy 2, 1 Timothy 3, and Titus 1 from speak-
ing to this question. If someone says, “I’m not going to base my deci-
sion on these verses because nobody can figure out what they mean
anyway,” then he has essentially said that those passages cannot play a
role in his decision about this question. And that means that the passages
they do affirm a position on the decisive passages (such as those in 1 Corinthians 14;
1 Timothy 2; 1 Timothy 3; Gal. 3:28; and other passages), in each case adopting egalitarian
interpretations as the most likely. Near the end they say, “we conclude that we cannot find
convincing evidence that the ministry of women is restricted according to some sacred or
immutable principle” (fourth paragraph from end).
(^7) Sumner, Men and Women in the Church, 248.
(^8) Rich Nathan, Who Is My Enemy? 142-144.
(^9) However, it is interesting that both Sumner and Nathan elsewhere say that they have decided
that 1 Timothy 2:12 means that women who are teaching false doctrine in the church at
Ephesus should be silent.