An Argument Made Both Ways From Scripture

Churches that ordain women and churches that decline to do not typically divide over whether scripture speaks to the question at all; both sides argue from it directly, which is part of why the disagreement has proven durable rather than a matter that further study alone could resolve. Those opposed to ordaining women commonly point to New Testament passages restricting the exercise of teaching authority to men within the gathered church, and to a doctrine of headship they read as establishing a created order between men and women that ordained ministry should not set aside. Those in favor commonly point instead to Paul's declaration in Galatians that in Christ there is neither male nor female, to women named in the New Testament as apostles, prophets and deacons, and to a reading of the restrictive passages as addressed to specific first century circumstances rather than laid down as permanent law for every church in every age. Both readings claim to take scripture's authority seriously rather than set it aside, which is precisely why the churches that hold each position generally describe the other not as ignoring the Bible but as misreading it. The practical result is that the question remains argued on exegetical grounds within nearly every tradition that has faced it, rather than settled once for the wider church.