200 FEMINIST VIEWS BASED ON UNTRUTHFUL CLAIMS
The force of this claim, if true, would be to limit Paul’s prohibition to
whatever special situation he would have had in mind, whereas if
authenteøhas an ordinary, neutral meaning such as “have authority,”
then it is more likely that Paul is making a general statement for all
churches for all times.
The most common alternative interpretation is that Paul is pro-
hibiting some kind of misuse of authority. For example, David Scholer,
professor of New Testament at Fuller Seminary, wrote,
I am convinced that the evidence is in and that it clearly establishes
authentein^2 as a negative term, indicating violence and inappropriate
behavior. Thus, what Paul does not allow for women in 1 Timothy
2 is this type of behavior.... 1 Timothy 2 is opposing the negative
behavior of women, probably the women mentioned in 1 Timothy
5:15 who follow and represent the false teachers 1 and 2 Timothy are
dedicated to opposing.^3Similarly, Craig Keener at one point held, “Paul may here be warn-
ing against a domineering use of authority, rather than merely any use
of authority.”^4
Rebecca Groothuis says this term includes a negative and harmful
use of authority:
of Ancient Evidence (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1992), 103 and 185-188. Note that the two
page citations from the Kroeger volume reference two separate variations of this proposal.
(^2) Throughout this book I normally cite Greek words with their lexical form (the form in which
they occur in a Greek dictionary or lexicon) which in this case is authenteø. Some of the writ-
ers I quote cite this same word by using the infinitive form authentein. We are all referring to
the same word.
(^3) David M. Scholer, “The Evangelical Debate over Biblical ‘Headship,’” in Women, Abuse, and
the Bible, ed. Catherine Clark Kroeger and James R. Beck (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1996),
- Scholer says in his final footnote that this essay is a paper given at a conference on April
16, 1994, and his footnotes indicate interaction with literature up to 1993.
(^4) Craig Keener, Paul, Women, and Wives: Marriage and Women’s Ministry in the Letters of
Paul (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1992), 109; similarly, Gordon D. Fee, 1 and 2 Timothy,
Titus, New International Biblical Commentary (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1984, 1988),
- However, Keener later wrote that he found the evidence in Köstenberger et al., Women in
the Church (Baker, 1995) to be persuasive for the view that authenteøhas a neutral sense, refer-
ring to the exercise of authority, not a negative sense. He says in this later essay, “In contrast
to my former position on this issue, however, I believe that Paul probably prohibits not sim-
ply ‘teaching authoritatively,’ but both teaching Scripture at all and having (or usurping)
authority at all. In other words, women are forbidden to teach men—period” (Craig Keener,
“Women in Ministry,” in Two Views on Women in Ministry, ed. James Beck and Craig
Blomberg [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2001], 52-53).