| Bowas |
07-12-2009 10:07 PM |
Re: Can Women Pastor ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam
(Post 771555)
The scripture quoted is 1 Timothy 3:2 where it says a bishop/elder must be "the husband of one wife". Some have taken that to mean that a bishop/elder must be a married man, being single, or widowed, or divorced would disqualify him for ministry. Others take that to mean he could not be polygamous. Others have taken that to mean he could not be divorced and remarried.
That chapter also gives the requirements for deacons. Verse 12 says that deacons are to be the husband of one wife. Yet in Romans 16:1 the Apostle Paul (same person who wrote 1 Timothy) calls Phebe or Phoebe a servant/deacon/minister of the church in Cenchrea and instructs the congregation in Rome to receive her and assist her in whatever business she needs help with. This shows that a woman can (1) be a minister/deacon/servant and (2) can be involved in the business aspect of a church.
Even though Paul had said that an elder/bishop and a deacon/servant/minister should be the husband of one wife he had no problem commending Phoebe as a minister/deacon/servant. So if a woman can be a deacon/servant/minister with the requirement that she be "the husband of one wife" why couldn't a woman be a bishop/elder with the requirement that she be "the husband of one wife"? Maybe that requirement is generic and is just a prohibition against polygamy?
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Here is what Clark commmentary has to say on this passage.
Phoebe is here termed a servant, διακονον, a deaconess of the Church at Cenchrea. There were deaconesses in the primitive Church, whose business it was to attend the female converts at baptism; to instruct the catechumens, or persons who were candidates for baptism; to visit the sick, and those who were in prison, and, in short, perform those religious offices for the female part of the Church which could not with propriety be performed by men. They were chosen in general out of the most experienced of the Church, and were ordinarily widows, who had borne children. Some ancient constitutions required them to be forty, others fifty, and others sixty years of age. It is |
