Because Christianity is bigger than Biblical manhood or Biblical womanhood (Blog of Retha Faurie)

I previously showed how 1 Tim. 2:11-15 cannot be taken on face value. But here is one thing in it that the complementarians don’t even take on face value, but read things into that are not supported by anything else:

Driscoll state it this way:

Without blushing, Paul is simply stating (in 1 Tim 2) that when it comes to leading in the church, women are unfit because they are more gullible and easier to deceive than men. While many irate women have disagreed with his assessment through the years, it does appear from this that such women who fail to trust his instruction and follow his teaching are much like their mother Eve and are well-intended but ill-informed”.

Oops. Methinks Driscol is the deceived and ill-informed one here. What verse does he get it from that women are more easily deceived? I will quote the passage word for word:

1Ti 2:13-14 For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

Note, these words does not call women deceived. Nor does it call anyone easily deceived. It say that “the woman” (Eve) was deceived, Adam was not. Both sinned. Adam sinned, we can conclude, without being deceived, which would make him a deliberate sinner.

In a testimony on the Baptist board, Scarlett O tells how she found out this truth:

I was taught all of my young life that “women are more easily deceived” and that this was supposedly a direct quote from the Bible and was the reasoning why men were given control over women. So, as a teenager I took that to mean that women were stupid and I acted accordingly. Not taking responsibility for my own actions and not using my brain – doing things that I deeply regret because, hey, I was just a dumb girl. I found out as I read the Bible for myself that neither this phrase nor this concept are in the Bible.

The Bible says that Eve, personally, not women in general, was deceived. And there is nothing in the Bible about her being EASILY deceived……which implies stupidity or inferiority. That phrase, “easily deceived” is not in Bible – from the King James Version to the Message and all versions/translations/paraphrases in between.What IS in the Bible are several passages where men and women are deceived sin and deceived by others… ~Sin deceives all people.

I was taught a lot of things about women when I was young. I was taught that Bathsheba intentionally seduced David and that David was just an innocent bystander in that adulterous affair. I was taught that Eve and therefore all women are “more easily deceived”. I was taught that these very words were in the Bible. They are not…

Then one day, I read the Bible for myself and found out that a lot of things that my traditional and fundamental background had taught me was not true…

… in a Biblical marriage, the wife is the “help” or literally as the Hebrew word (“ezer”) defines it, the “succor” or “relief”. This is the same word “help” or “succor” or “relief” that is use many times over for God, Himself. Especially by David.

… How can she be a relief to her husband if she is “easily deceived”?

Why would God create a counterpart for Adam who was stupid or gullible?

He didn’t. He created a counterpart that was “meet” for him. Appropriate for him. A counterpart. And she was, as Adam was……”very good”.

And she wasn’t “easily deceived”. She was “deceived” not because it was her nature to be stupid, but because she reacting incorrectly in that one instance when Satan tempted her and she allowed herself to get into a conversation justifying her behavior with him.
And we all, both male and female, do that.

Although I’ll disagree with her on points like the meaning of male headship (she briefly mention that in one sentence), she is right about this: Women are not more easily deceived. When we put aside our Bibles and act stupid like Scarlett did, we could be deceived – probably as easily as any man who does the same.

Comments on: "Women are more easily deceived?" (13)

  1. Sadly, there are many men that seen very insecure in whom they are.

    The deliberate sinner is trying to tell the other gender they are gullible and deceived.

    I’m thankful I know men and women that ‘good’. Its to bad they refuse to see. It would set them free!

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  2. Kristen said:

    90% of all the deceptive cults have been founded by men.

    Studies have shown that when a business has women alongside men in the leadership, the business is less likely to fail from the taking of short-sighted, stupid risks.

    Men and women balance one another when men allow women to use their brains and when men listen to women’s counsel.

    “Help” in the Hebrew tends to imply that the one who needs the help, not the one providing the help, is in the weaker position. The description of woman as “ezer kenego” (face-to-face help) is meant to counter the inference that the woman, being the “help,” is superior!

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  3. Molly Hintz said:

    Paul addressed men and women in the Corinthian church, “But I am afraid that JUST AS Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” 2 Cor. 11:3

    Paul seems to believe that men and women are equally susceptible to the serpent’s ways. As I have shared this scripture with both men and women, spiritual blindness seems to have lifted! It is obvious that gender is not the issue!

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  4. […] are more easily deceived and the suggestion that men are more cerebral. For one thing, the Bible doesn’t say that women are more easily deceived. Sure, it says some things you can fairly easily twist into meaning that, but people like the […]

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  5. I stumbled across your blog doing some research. I’m afraid you may have tried to skew the Bible to meet what you wish it to say.

    You quoted one verse, saying it does not say what it says, without addressing context. Here is the passage…

    vs 11-15: “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teachor to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.”

    It was “the woman” – not “women” – who was deceived, true. But Paul uses this to argue that womEn should not have authority over a man. And he uses it to lead into how womEn can undo the curse.

    If Paul is not saying that women are more easily deceived, what is the purpose of vs 14?

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    • I indeed care about context, and discuss the rest of the passage in different places on this blog. See https://biblicalpersonhood.wordpress.com/tag/1tim2/ . What is more, I utterly hate it when people quote the passage without adding context – for example, when they quote “saved in childbirth” without the context of salvation by grace, not works.
      Read the passage again – if your Bible translation is good on this passage, it says “A womAn” (not womEn) should not teach or have authority over “A mAn.” Paul does not argue that womEn should not have authority over a man, but that A womAn should not. And the Greek also say she – “A womAn” – will be saved in childbearing, not womEn. That may sound to your English ears like he speaks of women, but in Greek, the language Paul wrote in, “a woman” probably referred to exactly that – a specific women Paul and Timothy whom he wrote these words to, knew.
      If this was about not teaching/ having authority because of easy deception, logic says the command would not have been about men/ a man, but a blanket command. If women are too easily decieved to teach or have authority, they would also be too easily decieved to teach/ have authority over children or other women.
      While we don’t really know why Paul connected it to Eve’s deception (one likely answer, considering the reigning religion of the region, is that this particular woman taught among others that women was made first and that the goddess of the region saves/ protects); but there are good reasons to not suggest, from this text, that women are more easily deceived.

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  6. […] are more easily deceived and the suggestion that men are more cerebral. For one thing, the Bible doesn’t say that women are more easily deceived. Sure, it says some things you can fairly easily twist into meaning that, but people like the […]

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  7. This is why a woman should be silent and not to teach(on Gods word). God said it, what more do you want? If you think women’s rights then we know where it comes from, world ideology. God is not saying to dam women, its just that women are more easily led astray, regarding Gods word. Besides eve, Lots wife also couldn’t leave her home without looking back, she LOVED THIS WORLD. Like too many “Christians” LOVE THIS WORLD today. Yes men have a great responsibility to obey Gods word appropriately and yes I agree that men do take advantage of Gods word and do wrong with it, they will get theirs but God does say women are more easily deceived, and if you cant take that at face value then I suggest you find a good pastor like Charles Stanley and ask him. “Genesis 3:6- And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food(the lust of the flesh), and that it was pleasant to the eyes(the lust of the eyes), and a tree to be desired to make one wise(the pride of life), she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (words in brackets I added, these are the three things that proves you love the world). God says if you love the world then the love of the father is not in you. That also should be taken at face value, anything else is pride.

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    • “a woman should be silent and not to teach(on Gods word). God said it, what more do you want?”

      God said repeatedly he wants all to prophesy, all to bring their speaking gifts to church. If there are two passages that seem to say the opposite, it does not nullify all God’s commands to speak. The “women silent” verses are more easily placed in a limited context than the “all should prophesy” “all should witness” texts. If God said all should prophesy, what more do you want?

      “its just that women are more easily led astray”

      Repeating an assertion is not evidence.

      “she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat… God says if you love the world then the love of the father is not in you.”

      Both sexes ate, the “lust of the flesh” as you call it was in both. Yes, the love of the father was not in the first two humans when they ate. But it could be in men or women today. (For all we know, the love of God could have been in either of the two, or both, later on. Katharine Bushnell makes a good case that Eve believed in God by the time her first child was born.)

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  8. there is something that God gave to the man that he didn’t give to the woman that demons find a door to the woman. The devil never tempted the man but tempted the woman because he realized some form of weakness. The bible says that the man was formed in the image of God but it doesn’t say that the woman was formed in the image of God.The women are still being used in the world today to cause destruction to the earth and lead men to hell with their immodesty.

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    • The reason why she was tempted is speculation about things not spelled out in the Bible, talking about women causing destruction is so one-sided that it shows a heart that does not love as God does – both sexes sometimes builds and sometimes destroys.

      But the reason you are not welcome on my blog is for alledging that women are not made in the image of God. That is a lie from the pit of hell. Whether you mean it or is a troll, goodbye. https://biblicalpersonhood.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/women-not-in-gods-image/

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    • KnowtheWord1 said:

      Have certain men read their Bible? Genesis 1:27? Genesis chapter 1-3?
      In the image of God, created he him; male and female created he them.
      Him = them.
      Man had a dual nature: male and female. Period! When he separated out the feminine nature,and created woman from man, it did not take away the fact that she was the image of God, for man was spirit being who was male and female, and was the image of God!
      God blessed THEM and called THEIR name Adam.
      Whether we like it or not. He later formed a man from dust, then a woman from the man. The spirit man, which was the image of God, was male and female. The dust flesh is temporary and carnal and will perish.
      Interesting how some men only know certain parts of the bible.

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      • KnowtheWord1 said:

        Notice the masculine spirit, which was the image of God, stayed with Adam; and the feminine spirit, also the image of God, was taken out, and put in Eve. The feminine spirit, female was there all along. It never says the female was less in the image of God than the male. Or that when he took the feminine spirit, that was there all along in Adam, and put it in a separate being called woman, which he took out of man; that it somehow made her lose her original state of being part of that dual nature that is the image of God.
        Wow. Let’s read our Bibles and pray for understanding?
        Men tend to shirk responsibility and shift blame.
        If you go to hell a woman didn’t lead u there; your own rejection and rebellion will.
        No ones forcing you there.

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