Piper’s distinction between the two domains is, honestly, a bit vague for me. Teaching explicates the authoritative and public transmission of tradition about Christ and the Scriptures ( 1 Corinthians 12:28–29 Ephesians 4:11 1 Timothy 2:7 2 Timothy 3:16 James 3:1)… it is the heart and soul of the church’s ministry until the second coming of Christ.” Schreiner, on the other hand, says teaching is teaching is teaching. 2:11-12 also limits the teaching of women, but…here too Paul has in mind the special office rather than the general. 2:11-15. But scripture says with equal plainness that women are not excluded from the general teaching office…Paul in essentially forbids to women the exercise of the special office…. Scripture plainly teaches this limitation in I Cor. Reformed theology has often distinguished between the special teaching office, which consists of the ordained elders, and the general teaching office, which includes all believers…Your committee unanimously holds that scripture excludes women from the special teaching office. You must desist from it or you will have to leave the church.’ That is ‘teaching authority’-it belongs only to the elders. For example, when an elder says to a member: ‘You are telling everyone that they must be circumcised in order to be saved-that is a destructive, non-Biblical teaching which is hurting people spiritually. To ‘teach with authority’ ( 1 Timothy 2:11) refers to disciplinary authority over the doctrine of someone. Others can teach, disciple, serve, witness…We do not believe that 1 Timothy 2:11 or 1 Corinthians 14:35-36 precludes women teaching the Bible to men or speaking publicly. These are the only things that elders exclusively can do. He’s backed up by no less than luminaries Tim Keller and John Frame.Įlders are leaders who admit or dismiss people from the church, and they do “quality control” of members’ doctrine. Wilson’s theological distinction between two different kinds of teaching is hardly unique. Big-T teaching involves “the definition, defense, and preservation of Christian doctrine, by the church’s accredited leaders.” Little-t teaching is “a catch-all term for talking about the Bible in a church meeting.” Or: “explaining the Scriptures to each other in a peer-to-peer way, according to gifts.” Second, I’d like to offer a more congregationalist distinction between authoritative teaching that occurs in the context of the gathered church, and teaching that occurs outside it.Īndrew Wilson distinguishes the two domains described above by distinguishing two different kinds of teaching-what Wilson calls big-T versus little-t teaching. And any congregationalist who agrees with Wilson or Tim Keller or John Frame is relying upon a Presbyterian understanding of teaching and authority (which is not to say a Presbyterian must adopt Wilson’s position). First, I’d like to offer the simple observation that what seems to be driving the different approaches to 1 Timothy 2:12 are Presbyterian versus congregationalist conceptions of teaching and authority. There are two things I hope to contribute here. The question is, what are the criteria for saying when we are in the first domain versus the second domain? What’s the fence between one side and the other? And everyone agrees that there is a certain kind of teaching that women must not do, based on 1 Timothy 2:12: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.” (I’ve been told this conversation at Mere O is good, but I haven’t listened to it.)Įveryone agrees that there are times when women will open their Bibles and instruct men, as Pricilla does with her husband Aquilla when instructing Apollos (Acts 18:26). Previously, Tim Keller has also presented Wilson’s side of things here, while John Frame has offered that same side here. In order, see Piper here, Wilson here, Schreiner here, Wilson here, and Piper again here. In case you’re just tuning in, a good in-house conversation among complementarians is going on between John Piper, Thomas Schreiner, and Andrew Wilson over whether or not women can teach in a church gathering under the authority of the elders.
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