1 Timothy 2

• Key quote:

  'I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety'
• Key quote:

  'A woman should learn in quietness and full submission'
• Key quote:

  'I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man'
• Many biblical scholars argue that there was an issue in the Christian community (probably Ephesus) to which 1 Tomothy was addressed
• Ephesus was the most important centre for fertility worship in the region, and many converts would have come from that background; some of the women may have been temple prostitutes- this is supported by the Greek word translated as 'assume authority'
• The Greek word translated as 'assume authority':

  It is the only time it occurs in the New Testament, and in other Greek literature it does not have that meaning until centuries later. In the time to which 1 Timothy belongs, it has sexual connotations in the sense of someone 'leading someone on'
• If this is the case, it would explain why the author of the letter wrote as he did