Thoughts From My Notebook That I Ponder ????
On the Subject of Women Teaching ….. BY GLEN MILLER

In 1 Corinthians 14:34 & 35, Paul says, "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but (they are commanded) [added, not in the original] to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." This was the teaching of the Jewish Talmud. There are many Scriptures contrary to this statement.

Genesis 2:24 says, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave [be glued together as with super glue] unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." The two - husband and wife shall be one, and no where does the Scripture ever say that God or Jesus told the woman that she has no right to speak in public - quite the opposite.

Let us see what Scripture says about a women's place to minister. In John 20:17 it says, "Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father: but go to My brethren, and say unto them, …" Jesus sent Mary Magdalene, a woman that He had cast SEVEN demons out of, to be the first to preach or proclaim His resurrection. If a woman is not supposed to minister, why didn't God arrange for a man to be there at the sepulchre? He sent her to go tell them. This is spoken of again in Mark 16:9 and in Matthew 28:5-7 when the angel told her to go tell the men (disciples).

Again, in John 4:28-30, we find Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman at the well and it says, "The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did:" What did she do? She preached to the MEN of the town and they came out to Jesus. If a woman is not supposed to preach, why didn't Jesus stop her?

We find Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, through which the lineage of Jesus came. We know of Miriam, Huldah, and all three of Philip's daughters, all were prophetesses; Deborah was a judge; and Anna was in the temple when Jesus was brought to present Him to the Lord.

God told Mary, not Joseph, that she was going to bring forth JESUS. Luke 1:31.

Women aren't supposed to prophesy, but Elizabeth did. This is contrary to Scripture as some interpret it, saying Paul said a woman can't teach. Did he really say that or was he quoting from the Talmud? Paul himself said in Galatians 3:28, that there is neither male nor female.

Hannah went to the temple in 1Samuel 1:9-10, which was open to the men and women with no restrictions, and petitioned God.

David brought the ark up from the house of Obed Edom and put it in an open tent and gave everyone - equally, men and women - a loaf of bread - a portion of meat and a cake of raisins. There is no mention ever, until Herod's temple and the tradition of the Sanhedrin that women ever had a separate place in the temple.

Jesus did not pay attention to the rabbinical laws and rules concerning women when He talked to the woman at the well. Jesus astonished the disciples by talking to her alone. Then what did she do? She went and preached. She did what? She preached to the whole town, which, according to the Sanhedrin, was off limits. You say women can't preach? Jesus is the final authority and He did not tell her she was not supposed to do that! John 4:3-42.

On the day of Pentecost there was no distinction between men and women. Actually, there are more women recorded in the New Testament than men. Some examples are: Priscilla, Phoebe, Lydia, Timothy's mother, Lois, and his grandmother, Eunice.

Jesus taught the casting out of devils, seven from Mary Magdalene, also the woman that touched the hem of His garment, whom satan had bound for seventeen years, and many other incidents.

In 1Peter 3:7 it says, "Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together [equal, as glued together] of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered."

Wonderful books on this subject that explain in great detail, God's plan for women in the church are, "Women in the Church" by Dean Guest and "Who Said Women Can't Teach" by Charles Trombley. These titles are available from Lake Hamilton Bible Camp catalog.

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