LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2010, Page 323

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323

THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

Louis: CPH, 1995), 436–37.
42. Bruce Winter writes, for example: “The adult male inhabitants of
Roman Corinth did not wear their hair long, for to do so indicated their
denial of their masculinity—they were parading as homosexuals” (After
Paul Left Corinth, 132).
43. Woman was taken out of man and was created for man, to answer
his aloneness and be a helper fit for him. She therefore exists as a testimony
that brings “glory” and honor to the man. Paul does not say that woman is
the “image” of the man, since that would not be true. She is not a mirror
image or replica of the man. Neither does Paul deny that woman was also
created in the image of God (see Gen 1:26 and 5:1–2; cf. “God creates man
and woman” above, 8ff.).
44. In 1 Cor 11:10, the ESV translates the Greek word exousia (literally, “authority”) with “symbol of authority.” BDAG (353) points out that
various opinions are held regarding the meaning of the term. Some think
Paul chose the term for the veil because it meant figuratively “means of
exercising power.” Others think that as a term for the veil it conveyed the
sense “symbol of womanly dignity.” Whatever the term’s precise meaning,
the custom of wearing of the veil in that time and culture was an appropriate
way of signifying the created relationship of wife to husband.
45. We have discussed this text in earlier documents; e.g., see Women in
the Church (32–33). See also note 1.
46. Franzmann, 288. Paul’s rhetorical question in v. 36 suggests the
congregation’s excesses contained an element of defiance or thumbing its
nose at the broader church.
47. Concerning “to speak” in 1 Cor 14:34, see Women in the Church,
32–33. Also, Henry P. Hamann states: “Lalein [“to speak”] is not really
contrasted with the idea of order. The contrast in the Greek sentence marked
by the ou gar … alla [“for not … but”] sets in opposition lalein and hypotassesthõsan, speaking and being subordinate. A speaking is involved
which is the opposite of being subordinate, speaking with authority, teaching, preaching with the implicit demand for obedience.” Henry P. Hamann,
“The New Testament and the Ordination of Women,” in Women Pastors?
The Ordination of Women in Biblical Lutheran Perspective, Second Edition, ed. Matthew C. Harrison and John T. Pless (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2009), 17–18.
48. The verb “to speak,” as Paul uses it here and in many other places,
designates official proclamation to a group (Rom 15:18; 1 Cor 2:6–7; 2 Cor
12:19; Eph 6:20; Phil 1:14; Col 4:3–4; 1 Thess 2:2, 4, 16; Titus 2:1, 15).
As Paul’s counsel elsewhere shows, however, Paul does not command the
absolute silence of women in public worship assemblies (e.g., 1 Cor 11:4–6;
Eph 5:19; Col 3:16). See also 44–46 below and also Women in the Church,
33.
49. For an example of the wrong use of one’s “hands,” see what Paul
says about his former life in 1 Tim 1:12–15.
50. While the (male) pastor exercises the responsibility to teach and
preach the Word of God, a woman is not subject to him as a man (his individual authority), but only to the authority of the Word of God as he rightly
proclaims it. See C. F. W. Walther, Church and Ministry (St. Louis: CPH,
1987), Thesis 9.
51. The Greek word, occurring only here in the NT, is authentein. See
the CTCR’s report on this word at http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/
media/CTCR/041505%20AUTHENTEIN%20FULL%20TEXT.doc. Recent research has shown that the most defensible translation of the term is
“to exercise authority over.”
52. See previous CTCR reports, Women in the Church: Scriptural
Principles and Ecclesial Practice (1985), The Service of Women in Congregational and Synodical Offices (1994), The Service of Women in Congregational Offices of Executive Director/President or Assistant Executive
Director/Vice-President (2004), and The Service of Women in Congregational and Synodical Offices with Guidelines for Congregations (2005), all
online at www.lcms.org/ctcr.
53. As some exegetes, ancient and modern, have pointed out, Paul may
also be alluding to Gen 3:15. That is, the woman’s Seed will win salvation
for both men and women.
54. Charles A. Gieschen, “Ordained Proclaimers or Quiet Learners?
Women in Worship in Light of 1 Timothy 2,” in Women Pastors? The Ordination of Women in Biblical Lutheran Perspective, Second Edition, ed.
Matthew C. Harrison and John T. Pless (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing

House, 2009), 86. Paul makes it clear that salvation is through “faith” and
not “child-bearing” by mentioning “faith and love” (1 Tim 2:15).
55. What is said here about a mother’s calling does not imply that childless or unmarried women cannot be saved or occupy a place in life less
pleasing to God. See Human Sexuality regarding the single state, 8–9, and
with regard to childlessness, 18–20.
56. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1960), 167,
169.
57. See footnote 10 above. Franz Pieper refers to orthodox theologians
employing a wider and proper sense of the image of God, with the wider
sense continuing after the Fall, although he prefers only a narrow usage.
Christian Dogmatics, Vol. 1 (St. Louis: CPH, 1950), 518. Ep. VI, 2 offers
creation in God’s image as cause for the law written on the human heart,
something that continues after the Fall. Luther also preferred a more constricted use of image, but was unwilling to condemn Augustine’s contention
that the image of God, more broadly conceived, continues after the Fall.
“Lectures on Genesis,” AE 1:60.
58. City of God, Book 12, 27.
59. See also C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed (London: Faber & Faber,
1966), 40ff., quoted in Gilbert Meilaender, Things That Count (Wilmington, Del.: ISI Books, 1999), 57.
60. Human Sexuality, 7.
61. See “The Breakdown of Community in the Name of Individualism,”
below.
62. Human Sexuality, 7.
63. Human Sexuality, 18–19.
64. This does not suggest that these temptations are exclusive to one sex
and unknown to the other.
65. See 1969 Res. 2-17; 1986 Res. 3-09; 2004 Res. 3-08A and Women
in the Church, 44–47; and The Service of Women in Congregational and
Synodical Offices with Guidelines for Congregations.
66. The circumstance of a Christian woman married to an unbelieving
or unchurched man is similar to that of a single woman with respect to the
concerns of this paragraph.
67. The U.S. divorce rate has been declining modestly in recent years,
yet it remains significant. Despite questions about how to interpret divorce
data, even conservative estimates suggest that at least one third of marriages end in divorce. Moreover, the decline in divorce is misleading, since
a growing number of couples live together apart from marriage. It is much
more likely for such relationships to be dissolved than it is for marriages to
end in divorce. See David Popenoe, “The Future of Marriage in America,”
Rutgers National Marriage Project, http://marriage.rutgers.edu/Publications/
SOOU/TEXTSOOU2007.htm. The percentage of children born to unmarried mothers in the U.S. currently is 39.7%. See the National Center for
Health Statistics, May 2009; at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/
db18.htm.
68. See Popenoe.
69. By “homosexual relationship” we are referring to individuals of the
same sex who engage in sexual activity together.
70. There is more to consider concerning a Christian view of homosexual behavior and “marriage.” For example, see Human Sexuality, 32–36.
71. Although, in Rom 1:24, Paul notes that homosexual conduct has a
certain unique seriousness in its “dishonoring” of the body God has created.
72. This same challenge exists for a married person whose spouse is
unable to engage in sexual relations.
73. Eve Tushnet, “Experience and Tradition,” Commonweal, June 15,
2007, 21.
74. In Luke 20:34–36 (also Matt 22:23–33; Mark 12:18–27), Jesus
teaches that marriage and the natural family are only for this present age.
His followers now belong to two families, natural families and the family
of God. In the ages to come that begin with the bodily resurrection there is
only the family of God.
75. As Paul emphasizes in 1 Cor 7:35.
76. “Understanding Intimate Partner Violence Fact Sheet,” 2006 http://
www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pdf/IPV-FactSheet.pdf.
77. E.g., the popular work by John Gray, Men Are from Mars; Women
Are from Venus (New York: Harper, 1993).

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