I have a question regarding the role of women. Can a woman assist a man in teaching a Sunday school class for 7-8th graders? What does the Bible say about it? If you can be of assistance to me in any way I would appreciate it. Thanks and God bless! ~ Ryan Wilson
Essentially the question arises: “Is a Christian woman biblically permitted to teach teenage male Christians in a Bible class where she is the teacher?” The passages of Scripture that come to bear on this question are the passages of Scripture that concern the woman’s role in the church and religion. Further, the question is how to apply those verses to the real life circumstance of the presence of Christian young men in our Bible classes. Christian women predominately fulfill our teacher responsibilities in our Bible classes, but when should our Christian women defer to male Christians to teach our newly baptized, teen and preteen male children? The problem is magnified when we often have a shortage of willing or able male Christians to lend themselves to our Bible classes. The fact that a male Christian and a female Christian, in the question posed, may teach a class together (team-teach) is immaterial to consideration of passages of Scripture that affect whether God permits Christian ladies to teach young male Christians as their class teacher.
The passages that concern the role of women as teachers of men are: “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence” (1 Timothy 2:12). “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God” (1 Corinthians 11:3). “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law” (1 Corinthians 14:34). “And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly” (Acts 18:24-26).
First Timothy 2:12 is the closest of the passages cited above to applying to the question under consideration. A Christian woman is forbidden to subordinate a Christian man to her (in religion and in the home). This she would do were she to be a class teacher in which class the occupants were subject to her and men were present. First Corinthians 11:3 is simply one of many verses that reminds us of how God has ordered the roles he has assigned men and women in the church and in the home. First Corinthians 14:34 extends the respective, God-assigned roles of men and women in religion to the worship assembly, which does not directly have to do with a Bible class. Acts 18:24-26 shows that in a situation that is not structured with a teacher/class scenario where no one is subject to anyone else, a woman may participate in the teaching process. That is not the same as team-teaching Christian males who are, in fact, subject to the teacher duo.
However, the answer to our initial question turns on when does a boy become a man. Hardly anyone would avow that baptism turns a boy into a man. Frankly, the Bible does not answer the question posed above as to when Christian women should defer to Christian men the task of teaching Bible classes in which Christian young men are present. Prudently, usually Christian women stop teaching Bible classes in which young males are present when they enter their teen years. This practice is to ensure that 1 Timothy 2:9 is not violated, instead of opting for seeing how close one can get to violating 1 Timothy 2:9 without actually violating it. Since we do not know precisely when we ought to consider our young males Christians as men for the sake of 1 Timothy 2:9, it is better to exercise prudence.
