The objective of our study has been to examine Women in Ministry’s fundamental thesis that the role distinctions of husband-headship and wife-submission originated as a result of the Fall (Gen 3:16) and apply exclusively to the home. Consequently, he contends, in the church women can serve even in headship positions over men.

Our study has shown that the author’s thesis, though ingeniously defended, does not do justice to the biblical witness. We have found that the principles of male headship and female submission are rooted in the order of creation and apply not only in the home but also in the church. The Fall marks not the institution of the wife’s submission but its distortion into oppressive domination.

Respect for the principles of male headship and female submission is evident in both the Old and the New Testament. Women served with distinction in ancient Israel and in the New Testament church in various vital ministries, yet they were never ordained to function as priests, elders, or pastors. The reasons were not socio-cultural but theological, namely, the recognition that God created man to serve in a servant-headship role in the home and in the community of faith.

The nature of this investigation has required that considerable attention be given to headship and submission in the man-woman relationship because of Women in Ministry’s attempt to restrict it to the home. The study of this important principle should not be seen as an end in itself, but rather as an exploration of a divine plan designed to ensure unity in diversity. "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body" (1 Cor 12:12-13). The reason why God gave different gifts and functions to men and women is not that we may argue about who is the greatest in the kingdom, but that men and women, as joint heirs of the gift of eternal life, may use their different gifts to build up the body of Christ and bring human beings with their many differences into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. In willingly following the divine plan, we will find our greatest strength and harmony both in our homes and in the church.

Endnotes

1. Nancy Vyhmeister, ed., Women in Ministry (Berrien Springs, Mich., 1998), p. 257.
2. Ibid., p. 434.
3. Richard M. Davidson, "Headship, Submission, and Equality in Scripture," Women in Ministry, ed. Nancy Vyhmeister (Berrien Springs, Mich., 1998), p. 259.
4. Ibid., p. 284.
5. Ibid., p. 260.
6. Ibid.
7. Richard M. Davidson (note 3), p. 261.
8. Ibid.
9. Nancy Vyhmeister (note 1), p. 342.
10. Richard M. Davidson (note 3), p. 262.
11. Werner Neuer, Man and Woman in Christian Perspective (Wheaton, Ill., 1991), p. 70.
12. Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 46.
13. Richard M. Davidson (note 3), p. 262.
14. George W. Knight III, The Role Relationship of Men and Women (Chicago, 1985), p. 31.
15. Richard M. Davidson (note 3), p. 262.
16. Raymond C. Ortlund, "Male-Female Equality and Male Headship," in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism, eds. John Piper and Wayne Grudem (Wheaton, Ill., 1991), pp. 103-104.
17. Gerhard von Rad, Genesis, trans. J. H. Marks (Philadelphia, 1961), p. 80.
18. Ibid.
19. James B. Hurley, Man and Woman in Biblical Perspective (Grand Rapids, 1981), p. 211.
20. Raymond C. Ortlund (note 16), p. 103.
21. Richard M. Davidson (note 3), p. 263.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Letha Scanzoni and Nancy Hardesty, All We’re Meant to Be: A Biblical Approach to Women’s Liberation (Waco, Tex., 1974), p. 28; cf. Paul K. Jewett (n. 35), p. 110.
25. Susan T. Foh, Women and the Word of God (Phillipsburg, N. J., 1979), p. 62.
26. Richard M. Davidson (note 3), p. 284.
27. H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Genesis (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1950), p. 153.
28. Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 56. The story makes the most sense if, as Ellen White says, Adam was not with Eve at the tree. Had he been at the tree, how could one account for his silence during Eve’s dialog with the serpent? Eve’s giving some of the fruit to her husband "with her," then, takes place when she finds him and persuades him also to eat.
29. Ibid., p. 59.
30. Richard M. Davidson (note 3), p. 284.
31. Werner Neuer (note 11), p. 76.
32. H. C. Leupold (note 27), p. 172.
33. Richard M. Davidson (note 3), p. 267.
34. Ibid., p. 268.
35. Ibid., p. 269, citing Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 59.
36. George W. Knight III (note 14), p. 31.
37. Donald Guthrie, The Pastoral Epistles: an Introduction and Commentary (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1957), p. 77. See also H. P. Liddon, Explanatory Analysis of St. Paul’s First Epistle to Timothy (Minneapolis, 1978), p. 19.
38. Paul K. Jewett, Man as Male and Female (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1975), p. 60.
39. The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Washington, D. C., 1957), vol. 7, p. 296.
40. George W. Knight III (note 14), p. 32. The same view is expressed by Douglas J. Moo: "In vv. 13-14, then, Paul substantiates his teaching in vv. 11-12 by arguing that the created order establishes a relationship of subordination of woman to man, which order, if bypassed, leads to disaster" ("1 Timothy 2:11-15: Meaning and Significance," Trinity Journal 1/1 [1980]: 70).
41. For a fuller discussion, see chapters 1 and 2 of my book Women in the Church: a Biblical Study on the Role of Women in the Church (Berrien Springs, Mich., 1987).
42. Richard M. Davidson (note 2), pp. 270-271.
43. Ibid., p. 273.
44. Ibid., p. 272.
45. John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1979), p. 67.
46. Jacques B. Doukhan, "Women Priests in Israel: A Case for their Absence," Women in Ministry, ed. Nancy Vyhmeister (Berrien Springs, Mich., 1998), p. 38.
47. G. R. Driver and J. C. Miles, The Babylonian Laws (Oxford, 1952), pp. 359-360.
48. For documentation and discussion, see Elisabeth Meier Tetlow, Women and Ministry in the New Testament: Called to Serve (Lanham, Md., 1980), pp. 7-20.
49. Jacques B. Doukhan (note 46), p. 38.
50. Ibid.
51. Ibid., p. 33.
52. Ibid., p. 34.
53. Ibid., p. 35.
54. James B. Hurley, Man and Woman in Biblical Perspective (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1981), p. 52.
55. John Meyendorff, "The Orthodox Churches," in The Ordination of Women: Pro and Con, ed. Michael P. Hamilton and Nancy S. Montgomery (New York, 1975), p. 130.
56. Jacques B. Doukhan (note 46), p. 37.
57. Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 61.
58. H. C. Leupold (note 27), p. 179.
59. Clarence J. Vos, Woman in Old Testament Worship (Delft, England, 1968), p. 207.
60. Richard M. Davidson (note 3), pp. 281, 280, emphasis his.
61. A lengthy analysis of these texts is available in my book Women in the Church (note 41), chapter 6.
62. W. Larry Richards, "How Does a Woman Prophesy and Keep Silence at the Same Time? (1 Corinthians 11 and 14)," Women in Ministry, ed. Nancy Vyhmeister (Berrien Springs, Mich., 1998), pp. 313-333.
63. Richard M. Davidson (note 3), p. 275.
64. Ibid.
65. Ralph H. Alexander, "An Exegetical Presentation on 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 and 1 Timothy 2:8-15," Paper presented at the Seminar on Women in Ministry, Western Baptist Seminary, November 1976, pp. 5-6.
66. Fritz Zerbst, The Office of Woman in the Church (St. Louis, Mo., 1955), p. 33.
67. For a fuller discussion of this issue, see my Women in the Church (note 41), pp. 164-173.
68. Richard M. Davidson (note 3), p. 276, emphasis his.
69. Stephen B. Clark, Man and Woman in Christ (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1980), p. 187.
70. Donald A. Carson, "‘Silent in the Churches:’ On the Role of Women in 1 Corinthians 14:33b-36," in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism, eds. John Piper and Wayne Grudem (Wheaton, Ill., 1991), p. 151.
71. For a fuller examination of 1 Timothy 2:11-15, see chapter 6 of my book Women in the Church (note 41); in the present treatment I am stating only my conclusions.
72. For information on the improved social status of women in the Roman world in New Testament times, see Mary Lefkowitz and Maureen Fant, Women in Greece and Rome (Toronto, 1977); J. P. V. D. Balsolon, Roman Women (London, 1962).
73. Philip B. Payne, "Libertarian Women in Ephesus: A Response to Douglas J. Moo’s Article: ‘1 Timothy 2:11-15: Meaning and Significance,’" Trinity Journal 2 (1981), p. 190; see also David M. Scholer, "1 Timothy 2:9-15 and the Place of Women in the Church’s Ministry" in Women, Authority and the Bible, ed. Alvera Mickelsen (Downers Grove, Ill., 1986), pp. 195-205; Catherine Clark Kroeger, "1 Timothy 2:12–A Classicist’s View," in Women, Authority and the Bible, ed. Alvera Mickelsen (Downers Grove, Ill., 1986), pp. 226-232.
74. See Carroll D. Osburn, "Authenteo (1 Timothy 2:12)," Restoration Quarterly 25 (1983), p. 11.
75. Acts of Paul 41, 42, in New Testament Apocrypha, eds. Edgar Hennecke and Wilhelm Schneemelcher (Philadelphia, 1965), vol. 2, p. 364; Tertullian challenges the use that some made of Thecla’s example to defend the right of women to teach and to baptize, by pointing out that the presbyter who fabricated the story was convicted and removed from office (On Baptism 17).
76. The suggestion is made by Martin Dibelius and Hans Conzelmann, The Pastoral Epistles, Hermeneia (Philadelphia, 1972), p. 48.
77. Richard M. Davidson (note 3), p. 280.
78. Ibid., p. 279
79. Nancy Vyhmeister (note 1), p. 342.
80. Donald G. Bloesch, Is the Bible Sexist? (Westchester, Ill., 1982), p. 56.
81. Ibid.
82. Michael Novak, "Man and Woman He Made Them," Communio 8 (Spring 1981), p. 248.
83. Donald G. Bloesch (note 79), p. 56.
84. Vern Sheridan Poythress, "The Church as Family: Why Male Leadership in the Family Requires Male Leadership in the Church," in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism, eds. John Piper and Wayne Grudem (Wheaton, Ill., 1991), pp. 245-246.
85. C. S. Lewis, "Priestesses in the Church," in God in the Dock, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1970), p. 238.
86. Ibid.
87. Cited in W. Andrew Hoffecker and John Timmerman, "Watchmen in the City: C. S. Lewis’s View of Male and Female," The Cresset 41/4 (February, 1978): 18.
88. E. L. Mascall, "Women and the Priesthood of the Church," in Why Not? Priesthood and the Ministry of Women, eds. Michael Bruce and G. E. Duffield (Appleford, England, 1972), pp. 111-112.