People have gone astray because they have taken smaller pieces of this long passage out of context. Parts of this passage that focuses on one thing are made out to be about some other things. And this is a big problem!
For example, can we successfully study 1 Timothy 2:12 by itself? No! It is the end part of the sentence that starts in verse 11. We can’t ignore that part. Can we ignore where verses 11-12 fits in the larger context? No!
This is true for other verses in this passage. Those who lift them out of context tend to come up with interpretations that go counter to what Paul is saying in the progression of thought of the passage.
Those in ministry who have gone astray, and those who are trying to correct and restore them, will benefit from this better look at 1 Timothy.
First we will determine the big pattern used by Paul in the whole of 1 Timothy. Then we will identify the parts of the pattern inside the section we are focusing on. Once this is done, we can better grasp the meaning of the parts of this important passage of 1 Timothy 2:8-3:16.
The Patterns. Paul didn’t organize his letter to Timothy in six distinct sections numbered as Chapters 1-6. These numbers were added here and there many centuries later to help readers find their place. Paul organized this letter using three typical Jewish patterns.
- The whole letter has three Sections. They focus on Paul, overseers and Timothy.
- In Section Two, 1 Timothy 1:8-3:16, Paul uses a “jump” “jump” “high jump” pattern, famously identified in other portions of Scripture by Kenneth E. Bailey.
- Inside the “high jump” part of the pattern, 2:8-3:16, Paul uses a chiastic or rainbow pattern as he writes out his instructions about how to correct and restore men and women who had gone astray in ministry.
The Three Sections. Three times Paul refers to Jesus the faithful Word or
pistos ho logos in Greek. The key idea each time is that the faithful work of Jesus makes someone faithful (Sections 1 and 3) or a group of people faithful (Section 2). Failure to spot these three sections, and failure to spot this key phrase, has led to people missing the structure of the whole letter of 1 Timothy.
- Section 1 is about Paul, 1 Timothy 1:1-17
- Section 2 is about the wayward overseers at Ephesus, 1 Timothy 1:18-3:16
- Section 3 is about Timothy, 1 Timothy 4-6
Paul uses the phrase
pistos ho logos in these three verses: 1:15, 3:1 and 4:9. You likely have not noticed these three uses of “faithful is the Word” because translators have missed the pun Paul made the first time he used it.
In 1 Timothy 1:15 Paul added a second meaning for
ho logos. Primarily, Jesus was the faithful Word who changed Paul’s life. In addition a “saying” was appropriate and he added it.
Translators have missed the most obvious meaning of these words, that Jesus was “the faithful Word” for Paul. Then they have looked around for a saying the other two times the phrase occurred. Those other times there is no obvious saying attached at all.
Paul writes using a rainbow or a chiastic pattern, a stairstep with parallel ideas centered around a key idea in the middle. Here are the parts of this passage:
2:8 About the men being retrained
2:9-15 About the women being retrained
3:1 Jesus the Faithful Word who restores and empowers!
3:2-10 Description of faithful overseers and deacons (male & female)
3:11 Restored and faithful women
3:12 Restored and faithful men
“Let these women learn!” The Greek
verb in 1 Timothy 2:11 is an imperative and deserves an exclamation point! This is the big idea of the long sentence that includes verses 11 and 12.
Why did Paul treat them with such grace? Because he himself had been treated this way by Jesus (1:13-17).
