TIme for me to jump in and discuss this with my friend, Crossnote!
"I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet." 1 Tim. 2:12 ESV
"διδάσκειν δὲ γυναικὶ οὐκ ἐπιτρέπω, οὐδὲ αὐθεντεῖν ἀνδρός, ἀλλ’ εἶναι ἐν ἡσυχίᾳ." 1 Tim. 2:12 Greek.
Authority - in Greek, Exousia. A noun in both languages.
Authentein - αὐθεντεῖν. Authentein. NOT authority in Greek! This word is a verb - and infinitive, to be exact. That means, the translation needs to be "to....." So authority does not fit this at all. A noun, not a verb, and an infinitive at that. So translators literally need to add the word "exercise" because authority does not work in this sentence.
αὐθεντεῖν is also a hapax legomena. That is a word that is used only ONCE in the Bible. So Paul used it for a reason, because he has written in other places about "authority," (Romans 7:1, 13:1, 13:2, 13:3; 1 Cor. 9:18, 11:10, 15:24; 2 Cor. 10:8, 13:10; Eph. 1:21, 2:2; Col. 2:10; 1 Tim. 2:2, Titus 2:5) I think we an safely assume he knows the difference between exousia and authentein.
Because authentein appears no where else in the Bible, we have to look at extra-biblical contemporaneous sources to try and get a handle on the meaning. First, we know it has to be a verb, and not a noun. But this word actually has over 50 meanings. So if you look at the frequency of where the word appears the most, and drop off the meanings that obviously don't apply here (like murder and copulate) the most common use of this word is "domineer."
So most likely, Paul is speaking to Timothy, in a private letter about a situation in Ephesus, which is likely to do with the priestesses of Diana or Artemis, coming in and domineering meetings. And not just in teaching, but in worship, and maybe trying to cause problems, so people will leave the church and go back to the temple of Artemis. (So very much cultural and situational, not universal!)
Paul is chiding the women for two reasons. One - because they are not to dominate the assembly and the men leaders. Why are the men leaders only? Because Jewish, Greek and Roman women were not generally taught to read, or to learn. So the men were the ones who could quote the OT and also read any of the letters of Paul or the other Apostles, which were circulating by then.
"A woman is not - to domineer". A much better translation both in the correct usage of the word, and in using the proper grammar.
Strange how KJV translators decided to make this a verse to keep women from teaching and preaching, by actually using the wrong word, and how many translators have continued this outright error.
The part about "not teaching" comes from the same cultural background. Women who were not studied in the Word of God, were not teach, because they needed to learn first. So, once again, KJV has a bad translation for the word ἡσυχίᾳ or asuchia. It means "quiet" not silent. So we cannot base our exegesis on the word "silent."
In fact, the later part of this statement in 2:12 is very liberating for women. First, they are allowed to learn. So Paul is encouraging women to "study to show themselves approved." The other thing is, when a rabbi took on students, they had to sit quietly to learn. So these women are being equated with rabbinical students.
Thus, a faulty translation to discourage women from following the call of God. God called me twice to go to seminary, and the first time I disobeyed God because of passages like 1 Tim. 2:12. How grateful I am that God called me a second time, to learn, to grow and to follow God's calling on my life. So for those of you who do not know, I am an ordained pastor.
Although I will say Eph. 4:11 is incorrect also in many translations of the Greek.
"And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;" Eph. 4:11 KJV
"And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers," Eph. 4:11 ESV
"αὐτὸς ἔδωκεν τοὺς μὲν ἀποστόλους, τοὺς δὲ προφήτας, τοὺς δὲ εὐαγγελιστάς, τοὺς δὲ ποιμένας καὶ διδασκάλους," Eph. 4:11 Greek
Poimenas or ποιμένας is the plural of poimane and it does mean shepherd. In fact the NT has no actual word "pastor" in it anywhere. So perhaps we need to use a different word, instead of "pastor" myself included!
Finally, to point out one more error in KJV, the word "some" or tis, ti, in the Greek does not appear in Eph. 4:11. The word used, as you can see above in the Greek is tous, which is the accusative case article plural, or "the." That is a lot of mistakes for one passage!
Sorry, not going to exegete 1 Cor. 14. This post is already too long. Maybe later??