Why it is important not to conflate prophecy and teaching in discussions about women preaching - by Denny Burk

Found here. My comments in bold.
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Having just recently published an analysis of the issue of women teachers, we are delighted that the below article appeared regarding the same subject. This gives us the opportunity to examine the claims of Mr. Burk.

We are not entirely convinced that conflating prophecy and teaching is the primary reason for "egalitarians" thinking that women can teach.
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In evangelical debates over women in ministry, two biblical texts have always stood as a prima facie obstacle to the egalitarian view:

1 Timothy 2:12 “But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.”

1 Corinthians 14:34 “The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says.”

At first blush, these two texts seem to settle the matter in favor of the complementarian position. After all, this is the sense adopted in the vast majority of English translations. How could they all be wrong? (It's a bit odd that the author puts his total faith in the translators. He seems to suggest that the translators cannot be wrong, which is an odd idea. 

However, we have made the case that the translators were at the least imprecise, and at worst colored by cultural bias. We shall recap parts of that argument below.)

Clearly Paul does not intend for women to be teaching/preaching within the church, right?

Egalitarians have marshaled a variety of exegetical arguments against this prima facie reading. (No quotes are supplied.) 

They argue that, despite appearances, Paul doesn’t really mean to shut down women from exercising their teaching/preaching gifts in the gathered assembly. Egalitarians point out that Paul clearly understood women to be gifted teachers (e.g., Acts 18:26; Titus 2:3). Moreover, the very same book that enjoins female silence also allows for women to prophesy to the entire church (1 Corinthians 11:5). These female prophets—along with their Old Testament counterparts like Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah—demonstrate that whatever Paul means in 1 Timothy 2:12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34, he can’t mean to impose a universal ban on women teaching men. He must mean something else.

One of the major problems with the egalitarian argument at this point is that it conflates the gifts of prophecy and teaching. For example, Gordon Fee writes:

It seems altogether likely that Paul intends “praying and prophesying” to be not exclusive of other forms of ministry but representative of ministry in general. And since “prophets” precedes “teachers” in the ranking in 1 Corinthians 12:28 and prophesying is grouped with teaching, revelation and knowledge in 1 Corinthians 14:6, one may legitimately assume that women and men together shared in all these expressions of Spirit gifting, including teaching, in the gathered assembly.1

Fee’s logic here is clear. Because Paul allows women to prophesy to the gathered assembly and because prophecy is a greater gift than teaching, then certainly he would allow women to teach as well.

This account of things, however, misses the fact that Paul treats prophecy and teaching as two different gifts and that he therefore regulates them differently in his churches. Paul never issues a blanket prohibition on female prophecy to men in any of his letters, but he does on female teaching. Why is that?

To answer that question, we have to understand what the difference between prophecy and teaching is. (We would dispute that 1 Timothy 2:12 is referring to the gift of teaching.)

The gift of prophecy consists in spontaneous utterance inspired by the Spirit. Prophecy therefore consists of divine revelation. The gift of teaching, however, is different. Teaching does not consist in new revelation (We would dispute that NT prophecy consists of new revelation.)

but in instruction based on revelation that has already been given.2

This difference between teaching and prophecy is crucial because the gift of teaching is not merely passing along information from one person to another. The gift of teaching in Paul’s writings has a certain content and mode. The content of the gift of teaching is the authoritative apostolic deposit, which is now inscribed for us in the New Testament (Col. 2:7; 2 Thess. 2:15; 1 Tim. 4:11; 6:2; 2 Tim. 2:2).3 This teaching therefore is done in the imperative mood. It contains explanation, but it also includes commands and prohibitions. For that reason, it is always authoritative because it instructs people what they are to believe and to do.4 (Is the author suggesting that contemporary teaching is an authoritative apostolic deposit, or is he saying that the gift of teaching was only for the apostles?)

1 Timothy 4:11, “Command and teach these things.”

2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

It is very clear that when Paul has the gift of teaching in mind, he is thinking of instruction given with imperatives and commands. As Douglas Moo concludes, “teaching always has this restrictive sense of authoritative doctrinal instruction.”5

That is why Paul issues the prohibition that he does in 1 Timothy 2:12. Women must not teach men. ("A woman" and "a man" is not "women" and "men." It is sloppy to change the singular to the plural. It is this kind of confusion that prevents us from understanding what Paul was teaching here.

As mentioned, we spent considerable time analyzing this passage, and determined that it is dealing with the husband/wife relationship.

We suggested an alternate rendering based on the fact that in the Greek "a man" can be rendered "a husband," and "a woman" can be rendered "a wife." That would look like this:

11 A wife should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a wife to teach or to domineer over (or take charge from) the husband; she must be silent. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve.

We believe this rendering would clear up the author's confusion.)

Why? Because of the order of creation (1 Timothy 2:13). The role of leader in the first marriage was Adam’s. (Ah, the author swerves into the truth. He acknowledges that the reference to Adam was contextually about the marriage relationship, but does not take the next step: The previous verse is also about marriage!)

His leadership was established in part on the basis that God created him first (a principle of primogeniture). The order of creation establishes male headship in marriage (cf. 1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:23), and a woman teaching and exercising authority (Where does this "exercising authority" come from? it's not in the text.)

overturns this order. After all, how can a wife submit to her husband if she is telling him what to do when she preaches? (Again the author is sloppy, substituting words again. Preaching is different than teaching. 

And, there is no hint in 1 Timothy 2:12 that public speaking is involved. And we would dispute the idea that "telling him what to do" is occurring.) 

Avoiding this potential conflict is the reason why Paul bases the gender norms for teaching upon the gender norms for marriage. (Again we note the author does not make the connection. Paul uses Adam and Eve, the prototypical marriage, as the reason for the previous verse. This has to mean that the previous verse is also about marriage!)

This also explains why Paul commands women to be silent in 1 Corinthians 14:34-36. Paul is not commanding absolute silence, or else he would be contradicting his allowance of female prophesying in 1 Corinthians 11:5. No, Paul is specifically commanding female silence during the judgment of prophecies.6 (This is quite a leap, in actual fact. The author does not quote the 1 Corinthians 14:34-36 passage for us. We have found this reluctance actually quote Scripture is too typical of self-styled Bible expositors. Therefore we shall do so, with additional verses for context:

31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, 32 and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. 33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.

As in all the churches of the saints, 34 the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak but should be in submission, as the Law also says. 35 If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church

The author omits a critical phrase from his citation of 1 Corinthians 14:34-36, and that is the verse 33 which says, For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. ¶ As in all the churches of the saints... Why is this critical? Because it shows us that Paul is ending the one thought by arriving at his conclusion: For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. Then, he begins a new thought and a new paragraph: As in all the churches of the saints... He is changing the subject! 

Therefore, Paul is not making a statement here about women teaching or prophesying, rather, he is addressing a particular concern about women talking about something they wanted to have explained.

The author does us a disservice by not quoting the passage, and then leaving out critical information.)

What happens if a husband prophesies, and his wife is a prophet as well? Is the husband supposed to be subject to his wife during the judgment of prophecies? Are husbands and wives supposed to suspend male headship during corporate worship? Paul’s answer to that question is a clear no. (These questions become nonsensical in light of our explanation.)

Paul does not want anything to happen during corporate worship or in any other setting that would upset the headship principle that he so carefully exhorted his readers to obey in 1 Cor. 11:2-16. For that reason, Paul enjoins women to refrain from the judgment of prophecies. He’s not commanding an absolute silence on the part of women. Indeed he expects them to be praying and prophesying. He does, however, command them to be silent whenever prophesies are being judged. And the women are to do so out of deference to male headship.

Notice that the explanation in verse 34 indicates that headship is indeed the issue: “The women… should be in submission…” The Greek word translated as “submission” is the same one from verse 32. A woman cannot be subject to her husband while simultaneously expecting him to submit to her judgments about his prophecy. (This "expecting" is completely foreign to the text. There is no hint at all that women were "expecting" submission of men.)

To avoid this conflict, Paul says that while women may prophesy, they may not participate in the judgment of prophesies. In this case, the judgment of prophecies is tantamount to teaching, which Paul absolutely prohibits in 1 Timothy 2:12.

What is the bottom line here? The fact of female prophecy in the Old and New Testaments is no argument in favor of female teaching/preaching. The gifts of prophecy and teaching are distinct in Paul’s writings, and Paul therefore regulates them differently. While Paul allows women to prophesy in the presence of men, he does not allow them to teach men (1 Tim. 2:12; 1 Cor. 14:34-36). This feature of the New Testament’s teaching about gifts and ministry is lost whenever the gifts of prophecy and teaching are conflated. This is a confusion that careful readers of scripture should wish to avoid.

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1 Gordon D. Fee, “Praying and Prophesying in the Assemblies” in Discovering Biblical Equality: Complementarity without Hierarchy, ed. Ronald W. Pierce, Rebecca Merrill Groothius, Gordan D. Fee (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2004), 149.

2 Thomas R. Schreiner, Spiritual Gifts: What They Are & Why They Matter (Nashville: B&H, 2018), 21.

3 Douglas Moo, “What Does It Mean Not to Teach or Have Authority Over Men?,” in Recovering Biblical Manhood & Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism, ed. John Piper and Wayne Grudem (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1991), 185.

4 Indeed the standard lexicon for the Greek New Testament says that the word translated as teach means “to tell someone what to do” (BDAG, s.v. didasko).

5 Douglas Moo, “What Does It Mean Not to Teach or Have Authority Over Men?,” 185.

6 D. A. Carson, “Silent in the Churches” in Recovering Biblical Manhood & Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism, ed. John Piper and Wayne Grudem (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1991), 151-53.