22: UNEDUCATED WOMEN IN EPHESUS? 175about 1 Timothy 2. If absolutely no women and only men could read
and write in ancient Ephesus, and if that practice had carried over into
the church so that no Christian women learned the Bible, then the egal-
itarian claim would deserve some consideration. But that is simply not
the case. Both women and men could read and write.
Formal academic training in Scripture (as in a modern seminary, or
in an ancient school for rabbis) was not required for leaders in the New
Testament church. We even see that several of the apostles did not have
formal biblical training or schooling as the rabbis did (see Acts 4:13).
The ability to read and study Scripture was available to men and women
alike, and both men and women learned and studied Scripture in the
ancient church (note Acts 18:26, where Priscilla and Aquila together
instruct Apollos; also 1 Tim. 2:11, which encourages women to “learn,”
and Titus 2:3-4, where older women are to “teach what is good, and so
train the young women”). This certainly would have been true in a
major metropolitan center like Ephesus, where there would have been
many literate, educated women in the church.
(3) It is untrue to state that no women in the first-century churches
possessed adequate education to be teachers or rulers in the church. The
New Testament shows several women who had a considerable level of
understanding of Scripture. Many women accompanied Jesus and
learned from him during his earthly ministry. (See Luke 8:1-3; 10:38-42;
also John 4:1-27; 11:21-27.) In this very passage in 1 Timothy 2, Paul
says that women should “learn” (v. 11).
Perhaps the best example of a woman well trained in knowledge of
the Bible is Priscilla. When Paul went to Corinth, he stayed with Aquila
and Priscilla: “because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and
worked, for they were tentmakers by trade” (Acts 18:3). Paul stayed a
year and six months at Corinth (Acts 18:11), and we may ponder just
how much Bible and theology Priscilla would have learned while hav-
ing the apostle Paul as a house guest and business partner during that
time! Then Priscilla and Aquila went with Paul to Ephesus (Acts 18:18-
19). It was at Ephesus in A.D. 51 that Priscilla and Aquila together
“explained” to Apollos “the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26).
So in A.D. 51 Priscilla knew Scripture well enough to help instruct
Apollos.
After that, Priscilla probably learned from Paul for another three