Priscilla - A Woman PreacherNo doubt the title alone on this post will grab the attention of lots of different kind of viewers, firstly, those religious demons out there who like to make God's Word say what they learned in seminary and which they did not dissect for themselves. If you are a follower of John MacArthur and others like him, you should know that what he teaches on this subject matter is injurious to The Body of Christ, and that is, putting it mildly. When I heard him teach on this subject matter of women in ministry, all I could think of is, The Apostle Paul would have a field day with him and surely he'd be reprimanded with, YOU are not handling scripture correctly!! Surely he'd add, you are supposed to be rightly diving the word of truth and this you clearly have deprioritized.
You who mishandle The Word of God and try to defuse any woman on fire with The Holy Spirit from speaking, teaching and PREACHING The Word of God instead of making room for her for the building up of The Body of Christ, while such women are handling correctly The Word of Truth, you have just opened up Pandora's box for yourself because most of us well-studied teachers and ministers of His Word value a reasonable dialogue and we will find you out (you who are not handling God's Word correctly). We know our bibles and should you ever give us a chance to reason scripturally with you, let this here be a good starting point.
We are those who have meditated day and night for decades, on The Living and Active Word of God (Heb. 4:12), to find out how He intends it to read, never trying to get God to agree with us but to hear what He has to say.
These highly decorated pastors with these extensive degrees they try to sell us on - their educated backgrounds in order for us to listen to and trust them. These take verses out of context, cherry picking verses to fit their cosmic soup of pick and choose enlightenments.
So for all you religious demons out there who make up many pastors, casual seekers of God, and you know-it-all-teachers and preachers not rightly dividing (handling correctly) The Word of God as Timothy was counseled (2Tim. 2:15), how are you going to justifiably delineate Priscilla as a co-worker with Paul, who eventually had her own church with her gift of teaching thriving and this in the first century were women were silenced and to be seen in the background only. It was Priscilla who the many recently baptized believers were directed by Paul to go to her home to learn? And we are told that Paul had to take Aquilla under his wing to teach him more adequately. It did not say, him and Priscilla. We will understand more about this in the following.
Acts 18
It all begins after Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. Scriptures say, "there he met a Jew named Aquilla (Acts 18:1)." Lets stop here for a moment and hear what has been said.
In the first breath of mentioning Aquila in this verse, Priscilla, his wife, is like a non-essential to this relationship. But should we be surprised? That was the culture of that day and if you stay with me, we will understand the many problems of the first bran new baby, The Church of Corinth encountered, due to culture. After they spent time with Paul he begins to introduce them as Priscilla and Aquilla, and from then on, this is how they were mentioned the many other times they were introduced in scripture.
This church now, is a large gathering and up until now, women were not be permitted to be seen with any large gathering. Nor were women in the first century allowed to go shopping or to pursue a divorce, or to even learn. It's almost like Priscilla is a non-entity when considering 18:1 where she is not introduced with Aquilla at the onset. But just wait! Paul is about to turn this around. We know Paul is not about living up to customs or a status quo of the day that generally defied God's Ways and teachings. He's about to libertate this woman Priscilla, and it will be with The Gospel of Good News!.This verse goes on to say, and he (Aquilla), came from Italy with his wife Pricilla. Paul is about to do something radical, and lets understand with a fuller understanding of Paul's entire ministry, he is a liberator of women again and again. Much to the contrary of those who want to say he oppressed women while taking scripture literally not realizing that scripture is inspired by The Holy Spirit, but that does not mean that translators are as well, and scripture is meant to be STUDIED.
The oppositions to Paul try to say he taught the men in the church to silence women while teaching that women must remain silent. Hold on to your seat!! I know you've probably heard teachings many times on Women In Ministry or about Priscilla a Woman Preacher. So have I. But this insight here, will set women and men both free from false teachings that have consumed the church for ages.
With some intense STUDY, the complete opposite about Paul is true and I must say, anyone teaching what God did not intend the following verses to say about silencing women and even as much as implying they must not speak in the church, has got it all wrong and are not handling scripture correctly. You may be able to spit out verses on que but how you handle the knowledge you have is paramount with God.
At this time when all the Jews were ordered to leave Rome, how devastating this must have been to Aquilla and Pricilla for most of their lives they lived in Rome and were most likely leaders of the church there. So now they have to leave and don't know where they are going. When they came to Corinth, Paul found them scripture says. The Greek word for found, is heuriosko. This word means a moment of eureka, an element of surprise. Paul joined them in their tent making and taught every Sabbath in the Synagogue.
Since we know Paul to be an opportunist for he taught: Make the most of every opportunity, we don't want to miss the next thing he did after he had encountered conflict as a result of his preaching in Thessalonica and Berea and had been carried to Athens as a place of safety. But while he was waiting for his companions Silas and Timothy to arrive, Paul was distressed to see Athens full of idols. At the time of Pauls visit to Athens, that city was not an important political seat. Corinth was the commercial and political center of the world. But while Paul was in Athens he took the opportunity to tell the Greek philosophers about this Jesus he knew, giving the entire Gospel of Christ, then talk with the epicurean and stoic philosophers as well. Then he left and went to Corinth.
Back peddling some, just after leaving Athens Paul went to Corinth.
Just a little clue as to where I am going with this, we will hear Paul say, for the unifier peacemaker he is, "There is no Jew nor Greek, no slave nor free, male nor female while summing it all up with essentially saying, there will no longer be distinctions made IN Christ - He was preaching The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In Corinth, Paul found Aquilla as scriptures tell us in vs.1, but we now see a flip-flop concerning the customary way to introduce a husband and wife happening with how Paul refers to this husband and wife in verse 1.
Pricilla and Aquilla have become co-workers with Paul - this doesn't imply they were subservient or lower than Paul. His co-workers meant their focus with the ministry was equal to Paul's ministry.
When he makes his point to the Jews and Gentiles that there is to no longer distinctions between men and women as they had been doing, we see a revival taking place. The Gospel of Christ had landed on receptive ears while they were growing a multitude of believers in Corinth.
One of the distinctions was to use the husband's name first in a title. But when Paul switched up the custom of the day to say, "Pricilla and Aquila," lets hear what he just said. He just said, there is equality IN Christ, or did he say, because she was well versed in scripture, it might be wise for Aquilla to learn to her?
This was a first for never before had something so radical as this taken place. Paul not only acknowledged Priscilla, but he had given her and Aquilla a new rank and status for his radical move with title change. And this was just the beginning of the greater revolutionary statements Paul would make, liberating women IN Christ for the sake of The Gospel, in the church inCorinth.
It was the custom of that day for the husbands name to be said first in their title, and the wife's name said after his. Her name in that culture under Roman Law - lets keep in mind it was all about Roman Law and why Paul was ever-so-passionate to make his way to Rome to give The Gospel To Caesar, did not even have to be mentioned at all when introduced.
On a similar note, to women in that culture submission did not mean what the word obey in the way it was used for "children obey your parents." They weren't allowed to teach, because they were "unlearned." Clearly and using Priscilla as an example, when they become well-learned in scripture, they can and should teach
Today, and where we read women must submit to their husbands, we who have studied know, this word is not what the Greek interpretation says when we understand it should read, "come together."
From this time on, from their initial meeting in Corinth where a church is rising up and this under Priscilla's and Aquila's preaching (16:5) - Paul liberated Priscilla in this way for it is understood with study, she was more learned in the scriptures than Aquilla was. And from this time on and four other times when we see these co-workers of Paul mentioned, their title always finds Priscilla's name first. Paul surely was making a point by switching the order of their names, and he, becoming a troublemaker in the eyes of the Jews.
We might ask, in our culture does that really matter? To us today it doesn't matter for most couples. But we must understand what Paul had just done for referring to Priscilla first in a title. He had just rattled a whole lot of cages and stepped on the toes of a lot of religious demon's.
Paul followed the model of Jesus. Paul and Jesus both were liberators of women - Jesus allowing Mary to sit at His Feet to be taught and she referring to Jesus as "Teacher"(Jn. 20:16), and Jesus not stopping her, was an indication that a revolutionary new thing was happening. And Paul had entered the scene in Corinth and he was not going away with his new and revolutionary message either.
When we see something in scripture that says the following while being applied to women today, a diligence with a cultural background study, reveals much.
"...the woman must keep silent in the churches for they are not permitted to speak but should be in submission, as the law also says, and if it is their desire to learn anything they should ask their own husbands at home, for it is improper for a woman to speak in the church" 1Cor. 14:34. This is, a woman being taught by her husband and Paul liberating the ignorant to scripture women in this way, as strange as it seems to us today.
When hear verses like this, we must investigate further as to what was really being said, for the first century church would have understood what was intended. Today, we must take heed to what Paul taught: "STUDY...correctly handling The Word of Truth" (2Tim. 2:15). If we want to know what was happening in this particular and very new church were women were only now allowed to be seen in public and never before, we must know what this word silence means, and it is best understood in the Greek translation. What it does not mean is, she cannot talk at all.
If we were going to read that verse literally without study and which has happened in the church for ages the end result is nothing short of a whole lot of believers embracing a deception for surface understanding only. It's called, a foothold for the devil, the zenith opportunity to deceive the weak and ignorant.
It's not women libbers trying to take over our churches with this line of thinking. It's the well-studied who have been on hold for what has seemed an eternity, to finally find our voice to speak up for what we have seen with the mishandling of scripture in more ways than one. It's time to take back what Satan has stole with the reinventing of our bibles and who Jesus is, while God's Heart grieves for what happened to these reinventions that are not His Words, except for a few bibles and a rare faithful handlers focused on making God's Word say what He intended it to say.
Lets not blame women libbers for having slithered their way into our churches. It's the incompetent teachers and preachers who, for far-too-often, have slung around scriptural lies that muddy the waters of Truth within our churches. Taking verses out of context or cherry picking verses, find God's set apart apostles and prophets coming out from the wood work doing what we do best, and that is, being wise stewards of His Word, wise administrators the Greek translation of stewards teaches. Picking up the scattered pieces to maintain the authenticity of scripture as much as possible, is the forward move of some of us confirming and defending The Truth of The Good News (Phil.1:7).
The command to remain silent in the church was geared toward the disruptive conversations happening while the speaker had the platform. (Many bible scholars believe it may have been one woman in the church who was the culprit for problems being addressed). If this is so, the be silent in the church and I do not permit a woman to speak, would not have applied to the whole church of women.
Without knowing that there was a problem of serious disorder in this church needing the structure we see evolving as a result, the application of these verses is a misfit for non problematic churches today. The very young Corinthian Church with all the crazy and idolatrous beliefs in Ephesus with the goddess Artimas that taught woman to be supperior to men and that most likely many of the women in the church had come from, Paul had his hands full with instructing this church. And women for the first time being allowed to be seen in public, are not our churches today and to apply the needed rules of Corinth to a spiritually strong church of leaders and believers, is clearly not rightly dividing the Word of Truth.
We can imagine these women full of excitement for the first time in their lives becoming part of a gathering with a church, whereas, in the past large gatherings were only for men. And of course, without having the necessary order to make these gatherings go as smooth as possible, they'd take their new founded freedoms to extremes with their usurping of authority. However, a sense of order had to come into play, thus these instructions intended specifically for this problem in this church. If men were usurping authority in the church, they too would be instructed to not to usurp authority.
I always teach, yes teach, as it's a much-needed instrument and gift to The Body of Christ to redirect a train I see going the wrong way.
There are at least three rules of thumb for studying scripture:
1) WHAT was the original message?
2) WHO was it spoken to?
3) HOW does it apply to us today?
If we study with these three things in mind and I'm sure there's more, misunderstandings today of how God intended chapters and verses to read, would be next to none.
The Corinthian women were trying to have their husbands teach them with their conversations going on in the church. This was the problem. Paul then says, "If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is dishonorable for a woman to speak in the church (1Cor. 14:36). Lets hear what he just said. Paul just liberated the women of the day with, "learn at home." With the Grk. understanding he was actually saying with the word ask, interrogate your husband's at home.
Women were not even permitted to learn in that culture, much less teach or read a book. I may be redundant with saying this, but it cannot be taught enough. The harm of mishandling with this problem and a kind of fresh new breath in this church, has created distorted viewpoints God never intended for women and men today who THOUGHT they had been teaching these biblical issues correctly.
In our times, are women disrupting a speaker/pastor in our churches to where we must tell them, you can't speak or, "women must remain silent in the church?" And did God intend no speaking or silence to be taken literally? Did God intend for such a seemingly iron yoke of bondage to be the message for ALL churches for all time? Or was these instructions for a specific for this problem in this church?
Do we have women - or men for that matter, usurping authority in our churches today? I'm not seeing this happening. But in that church men weren't causing such a problem otherwise they too would have been instructed about usurping. If that is happening, then of course there is a problem that needs to be addressed. Both Jesus and Paul preached and taught equality - Paul, said let a women learn in silence (1Tim. 2:11-12). When he said "I do not permit a woman to teach, this refers to those not well-taught or well-studied. We know this for Priscilla, this woman preacher/teacher, was was referred by Paul directing believers to her house to grow and be taught.
Women in those times were not even permitted to learn, and in silence simply meant peaceably to not draw attention to themselves for the Roman law forbidding women to learn, was still enforced. Regarding both men and women in Christ, there should never be a need to usurp authority if unity in Christ is what matters most to us. In the right church with God's Voices coming from men and women both, the problems that this most unorganized church in Corinth was having and as new babies do, should not be happening in churches today and why it's vital we learn what's applicable today and what's not.
So, unless those specific problems are happening in our churches today, it's a done deal according The Apostle Paul in that, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:28).
Men and women need to learn to see themselves as God sees them. Men need to see themselves as The "Bride" of Christ. Women need to learn to see them selves as "Sons" of God. Only IN Christ are men and women differences obliterated. We see this with these terms alone being used interchangeably throughout scripture.
In case your scratching your head asking yourself, how did I miss this deeper understanding about women in ministry? And this here is not what I was taught, you're thinking. Let me clarify. Scripture is clear, it's our brainwashing, wrong or incomplete teaching IN Christ. IN Christ is the qualifier. There are no longer distinctions between Jews or Greek, slave or free, white or black, man or woman in the New Covenant era.
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