Probably no other passage is more divisive and at the heart of many people’s views regarding the role of women and teaching in the church than 1 Timothy 2:12.

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet

Personally, I’m not keen on any interpretation that renders the verse basically irrelevant for today by means of a hermeneutic that relies on cultural contextualization. So, if it is relevant, then what does it mean? What exactly does it restrict?

A middle ground approach that I’m becoming familiar with says that what is being restricted is a certain type of teaching. Theologian John Frame describes it as the special office of teaching vs the general office of teaching and this middle ground approach would say that what is being restricted is the special office, which can be more or less described as authoritative teaching which establishes and defends the doctrine of a local church.

The view seems biblically sound as far as I can tell. But what I’m less sure of is that this view sufficiently defends a woman preaching on a Sunday morning gathering. There are practical questions that need answers, such as “how do we determine whether teaching is authoritative teaching? Does it depend on who is teaching? Or who is being taught? Or what is being said? Or the context in which it is being taught?

It seems to me that the context in which teaching occurs ought to be a significant determining factor and as far as I can tell, even Frame would agree. It’s simply not clear to me how you could have a woman give the sermon on a Sunday morning and not consider it to be authoritative teaching of the local church.