Can Women Serve as Deacons? (Arguments for and Against)
Here are the two cases, both rooted in the biblical text, for why women can/cannot serve as Deacons.
Questioned by security
My friend, David Skull, writes about an encounter he had and asks some useful evangelistic questions on the back of it. A short, but helpful read.
Why I Didn’t Deconstruct After Church Hurt
This is a helpful one on church hurt and deconstruction.
Non-Political Lessons from “Original Sin”
Tim Challies: ‘I do not intend to say anything about the authors’ findings as they pertain to American politics, for that is hardly my area of expertise or my forte as a writer. The United States isn’t even my country! However, as I read the book, I found myself pondering a few lessons that go beyond politics and apply to individual Christians and churches. And isn’t this part of the benefit of reading? There is always something we can learn as we read. Let me list a few of my takeaways.’
Sex, Love, and Marriage in Africa
Working in a multicultural ministry area, and even having people in our congregation from the country in focus in this post, I always find it fascinating to hear about cultural differences and how different people contextualise the gospel. This was a fascinating look at the issues of sex and marriage among the Kwakum in Cameroon. This one particularly focuses on why teaching about ghosts is quite important in that context.
What Does the Bible Say About Polygamy?
Some of us live in contexts where this is a live issue. Here is what the Bible says.
From the archive: How is giving people books they don’t really understand fulfilling our pastoral responsibility?
‘Have we failed as pastors if our people never read a word of John Calvin or John Frame? As I read the Bible, my job is to feed the sheep, equip them for works of service and to encourage them to remain faithful in their Christian walk by continually pointing them to Christ. I can’t help but feel Jesus couldn’t care less whether my people have read Berkhof or Bavinck (He never did and nor did his apostles). What he cares about is whether our people have understood the Word, whether they have heard it and become doers of it.’
On the first article about women deacons, second part: Arguments for Women Deacons, section 2, fifth reason in favour, the author writes: “The answer is actually quite simple: Paul “bookends” the paragraph with general statements pertaining to all deacons (1 Tim. 3:8–10 and 1 Tim. 3:13), inside of which he addresses, with brief specificity, both female (1 Tim. 3:11) and male (1 Tim. 3:12) deacons.”
This is supported by a subtlety of Greek usage that the author doesn’t make explicit, which I will explain. In Greek, masculine nouns for people can be used in the plural to refer to either a single-sex male group or a mixed-sex group, and any distinction between the two has to be derived from the context (or co-text) as it cannot be deduced from the word itself. (This causes no end of difficulties and arguments about plural usages of ‘anthropos’ and ‘adelphos’.)
The whole of 1Tim 3:8-13 is written with plural nouns (including v.12 which is changed to singular in the NIV – doh!). Therefore it is entirely legitimate to understand the masculine plural in v.8 to refer to a mixed-sex group of deacons*. v.11 uses the feminine-specific plural word ‘gynaikas’ for the female subgroup, while in v.12 the masculine plural can be deduced to refer to a single-sex male subgroup because of the subsequent co-text use of the masculine-specific word ‘andres’. v.13 then ‘bookends’ the passage with the masculine plural (‘hoi’) referring to the whole group, in a style which fits with the rhetorical template typical of scriptural teaching (as explained by Kenneth E Bailey in his books) – also known as the ‘club sandwich’ format.
In contrast, the passages giving the requirements for elders (1Tim. 3:1-7 and Tit.1:6-9) are written using masculine singular nouns (‘episcopos’, ‘aner’) so it is clear that a man must be appointed – and possibly written this way in order to avoid the uncertainty that would be introduced by using plural nouns.
I suggest that this observation allows a greater conviction in support of women as deacons than the author of the article allows himself to express.
*Also contra the NIV prior to the 2011 edition, which reads “Deacons, likewise, are to be men worthy …”