Sárospataki Füzetek 19. (2015)

2015 / 4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Enghy Sándor: Ézsaiás és Jeruzsálem. Jeruzsálem jelene és jövője az Úr szava és az Úr napja tükrében (Ézs 2-4)

Meaning and Significance of the Instruction about Women in 1 Timothy 2: 12- IS

In 1 Timothy 2 Paul does not use occasional arguments when he regulates the behaviour of men and women in the Christian congregation. Although the city of Ephesus was dominated by its Artemis cult, in comparison with contemporary world cities its situation was not exceptional.3 From Rome the type of the “free women” became more and more fashionable, according to Bruce Winter, in particular with the well-to-do.4 This tendency could have been one of the reasons for Paul giving specific instruction to Timothy, the pastor of the congregation in Ephesus.

As far as we know, Paul does not derive his line of thought from a Jewish tradition of interpretation. It is his original retelling of the Genesis narrative. In verses 13-15, he points to the historical role of Eve at creation, at the fall and in redemption. By doing so Paul places his church order, which is aiming at rest and peace within the congregation, in a redemptive-historical framework.

0.2 Authority

The meaning of the verb omOsvTeiv in verse 12 is difficult to establish. Before the New Testament period that word was only sporadically used. Baldwin did extensive lexicographical research on this word; he distinguishes a progressive range of five basic meanings: to rule, to control/to dominate, to exercise authority, to act independently, and in later texts: to commit a murder.5 The fact that Paul combines such an unusual term with the much more frequently used verb SiSdoKeiV indicates his intention to make a complementary nuance in meaning as clarification.6

3 Winter, Bruce W.: Roman Wives, Roman widows, The appearance of new women and the Pauline communities, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2003); Baugh, Steven M. “A Foreign World, Ephesus in the First Century," in (eds.) Kostenberger, Andreas J. & Schreiner, Thomas R. Women in the Church, An Analysis and Application of 1 Timothy 2:9-15; Second Edition, 13-38. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2005, 13-38; contra the position of Sharon Gritz, Hodkin: Paul, Women Teachers, and the Mother Goddess at Ephesus, A Study of 1 Timothy 2:9-15 in Light of the Religious and Cultural Milieu of the First Century, Lanham: University Press of America, 1991.

4 Winter seems to overstate his case. In Asia Minor the prominence of women was most noticeable on the western coast. Trebilco, Paul: Jewish Communities in Asia Minor, Cambridge, University Press, 1991,104-126; idem, The Early Christians in Ephesus from Paul to Ignatius, Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2004,11 -52, 507-528.

5 Baldwin, Flenry Scott: "An Important Word: AőOsvxéco in 1 Timothy 2:12," in Women in the Church, 39-51.

6 Kostenberger endeavoured to prove that the Greek construct with ot>8s coordinates activities of the same order, that is to say activities that are either both viewed positively or negatively by the writer. Fie likes to value positively both teaching as well as exercising authority, so that Paul is denying to the woman both activities though they are worthwhile in themselves. Kostenberger, Andreas J.:"A Complex Sentence:The Syntax of 1 Timothy 2:12,"in Women in the Church, 53-84. Payne disputed the view of Kostenberger, demonstrating that syntactic constructions with oÚK + oúőé + áXXá normally are used to combine two elements over against something else (Polybius, The Histories XXX 5,8; Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 7,127). Paul uses such a construction in eleven cases: Rom. 2:28-29; 9:6-7,16; 1 Cor. 2:6-7; Gal. 1:1,11-12,16-17; 4:14; Phil. 2:16-17; 2Thess. 3:7-8; 1 Tim. 2:12 (cf. John 1:13).The only instance that two distinct

2015-4 Sárospataki Füzetek 19. évfolyam 61