"A woman should learn in quiteness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner."
Wow! You read verses and sometimes a first you are a little taken back as to what to do with them. My first inclination it do what I have heard at times, declare this a local verse that only pertains to the issues in Timothy's congregation. Regretfully to do that seems to allow believers to much freedom to decide what Scripture is allowed to come out of its original context and which Scripture should stay in its place. All Scripture is originally local, but then likewise universal in scope.
Something that did jump out at me from these verses, which had never happened before in reading, is the organization of God. This chapter addressed to Timothy is littered with God's great desire for order and organization. He is a God of order and those who try to deny this simply do themselves harm. He started off the chapter urging Timothy to first pray for rulers so that societies might be peaceful and dignified so that the gospel might spread fruitfully. He has spent the last couple verse cautioning against things that destroy fellowship and order in worship. This verse continues the theme of God's great desire for order in the church.
No doubt, their is a local issue here. There obviously are women with the congregation causing issues by their behavior in meetings. This might even be linked to wealth of some wome as hinted at in the last set of verses. Anyway, their behavior is leading to a lack of local order. God desires that within his body, all of his attributes will be reflected in the world. One of these is his desire for order. That is not being done in this congregation.
It would be skirting an issue to not talk about roles here. Yesterday, in my bible class with the boys. I established 4 principles for Manhood. I took these from Raising A Modern Day Knight and I think they are wonderful. 1) Reject Passivity 2) Accepts Responsibility 3) Leads Courageously 4) Expects a Greater Reward. When discussing point 3 with the kids, the book and I used 1 Corinthians 11:3 "the head of every man is Christ, so man is the head of the woman." While explaining it carefully to avoid misinterpretation, I made the point that men were created to be leaders. Every man is created in some aspect to be a leader. Men need to embrace this.
I have a feeling that within this church men are not embracing their roles. When their is a power vacuum caused by men vacating their roles within the church or the home, naturally the women in these areas will step in and satisfy them. This is a problem in Timothy's church. Men need to reestablish them. While this verse does seem to be an indictment on women (actually rather harsh), I think implicitly it is critical of men. The first point above is "Reject Passivity". No greater show of male passivity has been seen then what was experienced in the garden of Eden. Here Adam sat by and watched passively as Eve chose to give into temptation. So while the Scripture says that Adam was formed first (putting him in a leadership role) he was also not first to stand up to Satan. He allowed his wife to sin, by being passive in leadership no setting guidelines for his family and his faith in God's command.
This church is suffering in the same way and I believe Paul is trying to remind Timothy of the natural order created by God. While the verse seems to be very critical of women, (No one ever accused Paul of tiptoeing issues), it is actually very critical of the lack of God ordained structure that this church is displaying.
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