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Below are the Scriptures that many people are conflicted about.
What do you think?
CAN WOMEN BE CHURCH LEADERS?
- Yes? Acts 18: 26, Romans 16: 1,7 (Junia…Was there a woman apostle?)
- No? 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, 1 Timothy 2:11-12.
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LOL As a female pastor, I gotta go with, “YES!”
These New Testament verses (and others) addressing the role of women in the life of the early church speak to a variety of situations. In some instances women were coming into the church from traditional synagogue settings where they had been walled off from the men interacting in the center of the worship space and they had developed their own habits of frequent whispered and semi-whispered commentary with each other on their side of the gender wall. The verses on “keeping silent” come out of the need for new habits in a setting where men and women shared the same space and the same opportunities for participation and leadership in the life of the worshipping community. Other verses clearly refer to the many women who held major leadership roles in the early church. This would have continued in a very evident manner had not the Emperor Constantine “established” the church in 313 CE and subjected it to the thoroughgoing chauvinism of the Roman Empire.
Oh, and what the heck is this $30 comment box above here?
1 Corinthians 14:34-35 In some manuscripts, verses 34-35 are found at the end of chapter 14, leading some scholars to think that they were not written by Paul but originated from a misogynistic scribe’s marginal note. I am an atheist but when misogyny is claimed I don’t want Paul to take the bullet if he didn’t do it. My info was from the KJV (Skeptics Annotated Bible) but I have seen this same reference in other bible history books as well. Paul, as far as is known, had women working in high positions in the churches he was in charge of.