Quote:
Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah
Just answer the question. This link refers to the verses you have just said should not be interpreted literally, but rather according to your logic.
What is your scriptural basis to say that women cannot be church leaders?
Since everyone knows that an elder's wife is a church leader it seems beyond any reasonable interpretation of Paul's word in Timothy and Titus.
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The link interprets the verses you use differently to you and explains that the emphasis is on the man not the wife or children. I consider gotquestions a reliable resource for mainstream evangelical beliefs and it shows that your view is not a reasonable, average interpretation.
Did you read what it said about the average person?:
As a result, just a cursory reading of this passage would lead the average person to conclude that the role of an elder/overseer must be filled by a man. The phrase “husband of one wife” also indicates that the office of elder is assumed/intended to be fulfilled by men. The same points are also made in the parallel passage of Titus 1:5-9.
So based on this paragraph your interpretation is not that of an average person and you cannot claim that yours is a "reasonable interpretation". I think many Christians would disagree that a elders wife or elders children or family dog are "church leaders".
You have no authority to declare that your own private interpretation is a "reasonable interpretation" given that I can find the majority of bible commentaries on biblehub explicitly disagree with your interpretation:
http://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_timothy/3-2.htm
Benson:
the husband of one wife — This neither means that a bishop must be married, nor that he may not marry a second wife; which is just as lawful for him to do as to marry a first, and may, in some cases, be his bounden duty. But whereas polygamy and divorce, upon slight occasions, were both common among the Jews and heathen, it teaches us that ministers, of all others, ought to stand clear of those sins.
Barnes:
The husband of one wife - This need not be understood as requiring that a bishop "should be" a married man,
Poole:
he apostle commanding ministers to be the husbands but of one wife, doth not oblige them to marry, if God hath given them the gift of continency
Gill:
though this rule does not make it necessary that he should have a wife
A literal interpretation of this passage as requiring an elder to be married is not a view held by the majority of bible scholars or churches in history. This then is a good example of you conducting "exegetical gymnastics" and stretching the truth or going beyond what scripture says to make the bible support an egalitarian viewpoint.
If the best support you can find for female elders is to infer that an elder *must* be married and to then infer that an elder's wife is also a "church leader" then this shows there is no strong basis for the egalitarian position.
Your view must take two "exegetical gymnastic leaps" to support female elders:
1. "Elders must be married" - not well supported by biblehub commentaries or gotquestions.org. We must therefore reject the thinking that this is an average or reasonable interpretation.
2. An elder's wife is a "church leader" - this would not be an average or reasonable interpretation, just as saying that the President's wife is the "President of the USA", or Bill Gates wife is the "head" of Microsoft (she is, or was, only a project manager). Although I can imagine a wife of a leader providing support and advice from time to time, this does not mean they could or should be seen as having equal authority.