Is the idea of a female co-pastor / wife co-pastor biblical?

Bishops, deacons, and elders were appointed in the early Church and described in I Timothy and in Titus. They were all men; no woman was among the number. We read of no woman evangelist, pastor, or teacher in a public sense in the New Testament. No woman is named as performing a public miracle. There are two witnesses in Revelation 11. They are prophets, not prophetesses or a prophet and a prophetess; both are men.

Now, the positive teaching of Scripture regarding the woman is that "she is to be in subjection," to "learn in silence with all subjection;" "not to speak in the assembly." "For I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence (compare 1 Cor. 14:34-35; 1 Tim. 2:11).

From these Scriptures, then, it is very evident that (1) If the assembly be gathered as an assembly, in which teachers may teach, or exhorters may exhort, women are NOT to speak; (2) Whereas a teacher may invite saints to a meeting over which he may assume responsibility, and may instruct them as an authoritative teacher — the woman is not allowed to take such a place; and (3) It is equally contrary to the mind of the Lord for the woman to appear before the world as an authoritative evangelist.

The elders, or bishops, then, had this position of overseers, as caring for the saints, watching over them, seeking to help them, and looking after them in all spiritual matters. The object was that the members of Christ should answer to His love, and be maintained in happy order, and in the precious unity which was then realised. Wolves were abroad, and the bishops were to protect the flock from their ravages — a valuable office indeed. This position, however, was given to them by the apostles, and by them only, or by theirdelegates, as instructed by the apostles. It is instructive to note that the wife of the bishop, or elder, is only mentioned. She is not recognised, as having any position. She has no spiritual function. Woman's injunction is to be quiet. That is her place in the assembly. The deacon's wife, on the other hand (ver. 11), might have a most important place, and fill a most useful niche in the assembly — as helping her husband — and therefore what she was to be, morally, is indicated.

It is well to remark the place accorded to revelation, when the assembly met together; It took precedence of everything. If a prophet was speaking, and the Spirit revealed something to another, the first was to hold his peace. A fresh revelation from God at any moment was in season, and opportunity was to be offered for its promulgation. Yet women, even if prophets, were to be silent in the assembly. Philip’s four daughters, whilst prophesying outside of the meeting, would have been disorderly if attempting to speak within it. And no plea of a divine revelation would have availed them to have averted the censure of the assembly, or of the apostle; the Word clearly shewing that the Holy Ghost would at such a time use only the men.

Besides assembling for worship and edification, believers met for prayer. What place had the women in the general prayer meetings? That women might pray, 1 Cor. 11 tells; but that women must be silent in the general prayer meetings, 1 Tim. 2 makes clear. For as 1 Cor. 14 gives us the assembly met for edification, 1 Tim. 2 gives us saints met for prayer. For whom they might pray outside the range of the Church, and their perfect freedom in prayer having been first mentioned, we have next stated who should lead in prayer, and who are to be silent. “I will therefore that the men pray everywhere.” And as to public teaching before men he is equally explicit. “Let the woman learn in quietness, with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority (or, to have dominion) over the man, but to be in quietness.” (1 Tim. 2:8, 11-12.) In the assembly she was to be silent; elsewhere, before men, to be in quietness. In such terms does he regulate such meetings. And from such we learn, that he would have regarded a female leading in prayer before men as usurping, or exercising authority over the man. How differently he viewed this from what some do in these days! But he goes further, and assigns reasons for what he has said, carrying us backward in thought to the creation, and then leading us onward to the fall. “For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” The very order of creation forbids her acting in such a way, as well as what took place at the fall. We should learn from the fall her unfitness for such a place; we should see from the history of creation that it never was her place.

As in public ministry, so in the ruling of a local assembly, or the ordering of things in the Church, we gather women had no place. Of local charges there were two kinds — eldership and deaconship. Both elders and deacons were to be married men, husbands of one wife. The qualifications of an elder are stated in 1 Tim. 3, and the character of such as should be appointed to the office in Titus 1. In neither passage have we any mention of their wives; yet, when the qualifications of a deacon are enumerated in 1 Tim. 3, the fitting demeanour of their wives is described. Why this difference, this silence in the one case, and the mention of them in the other? Was it not because in ruling the Church the elders’ wives could not take part, but in the duties of a deacon, caring for the temporal wants of the saints, she could help her husband, and find herself quite at home in that work.

Again, we gather that many of the apostles were married men (1 Cor. 9), but we have no hint in either the Acts or the Epistles of anything their wives did. They were surely a comfort and help to their husbands as they laboured; but both apostles and elders were discharging duties in which they could not share.

As Paul suffered not a woman to teach, so none of the other apostles hint at any divergence from this order being allowed. At Corinth he corrected the evil, and we hear no more of it till we read the epistle to the angel of the church in Thyatira; none surely will make that example a precedent for such a thing now. At Corinth, and at Thyatira, such a custom was reproved, and disallowed. Shall the commandment of the Head of the Church be set at nought? Shall the injunctions of the apostle writing under the guidance of the Holy Ghost be unheeded? Private service in helping only the Word does not forbid. Priscilla with her husband helped Appollos. Amongst her own sex also, woman has a sphere. Only before men, and in the assembly, her place is to be kept, and God’s order to be conformed to.

The apostle Paul was led by God's Spirit to write: "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence" (1.Tim.2:11-12). Thus for a woman to teach in God's Assembly is definitely contrary to God's Word, not only in the days of Thyatira, but in the present day. The evil results of a woman teaching in Thyatira were manifest in her leading astray servants of the Lord into the worst evils. As Eve was deceived by Satan and led Adam into sin, so Satan has often worked since. When the woman gets out of her ordained sphere and takes the place of a teacher, she is often deceived by Satan and leads others into evil teachings of which he is the father. Many of the false and unscriptural religious cults of our day were started by women.

Now, those of my readers who took pains to notice the conduct of the Holy Ghost regarding ministry, as it is shown in the Acts and in the Epistles, must have observed that not one instance is recorded of a woman having been either an evangelist, a pastor, or a teacher. Such an omission is certainly very significant, and I do wonder that Christian women are not more careful in avoiding, in the nineteenth century, what the Holy Ghost did not introduce in the first! Should this word meet their eye, may they ponder it. The Lord will not tolerate lawlessness.

But there is not only negative evidence against the ungodliness of women assuming the place of God's gifts for the church (pastors and teachers) or for the world (evangelists), but positive testimony is also against it.

The fact stated in the 9th verse deserves full consideration. Philip had four unmarried daughters, of whom it is declared that they prophesied; that is, they had the highest form of gift for acting on souls from God. Such prophesying was yet more than teaching or preaching. We cannot doubt, therefore, that they used their gift on the one hand; and on the other that it was forbidden to use it in the assembly. 'It is shameful', had Paul written in his First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 14:34-35), 'for a woman to speak in [the] assembly.' At Corinth it seems that some were bold enough to attempt this and other innovations: but it also seems to have been at that time a very unusual and unheard of notion.

In general, Christian women understood their place better in these early days. Still, there might arise some such desire here or there. At any rate, the apostle found it necessary in his First Epistle to Timothy to write (1 Tim. 2:12), 'I permit not a woman to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man, but to be in quietness.' The word αὐθεντεῖν does not convey the sense of 'usurpation', but the possession or exercise of power, where it does not mean committing murder. The woman is not set in authority, nor is she to act as if she were. As to this, there can be no dispute for subject minds. 'If any one thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize the things which I write to you, that it is the commandment of the Lord' (1 Cor. 14:37). The Lord's will for us is on record unmistakably, if indeed we respect scripture.

These verses apply to a wider sphere than that of the gathered Assembly. They speak of proper conduct as between man and woman and would include any public testimony where both sexes are present. They refer to public teaching of mixed audiences, for exercising authority over man is spoken of. Woman is never to set herself up as a teacher or to teach in meetings of mixed sexes, for then man is at her feet as a learner, which is reversing God's order.

We find, however, that Titus 2:3, 4 instructs elder women to be "teachers of good things," and "That they may teach the young women," etc. Here elder women are given the right to teach, but the sphere is defined to young women and the teaching is rather of an informal character on practical subjects pertaining more to the home and family (v. 3-5). Helping ignorant women on Scripture and free intercourse with them on the Word is quite proper. One would encourage sisters to labor diligently for the Lord in such spheres. Even the quiet communication of the Gospel in conversation with men is proper for a woman, if done in a modest becoming way Such work, of course, may slip into formal teaching, and then a woman is out of her place. If she sets up a regular public teaching lecture on Scripture, even if only women were present, we believe it would be taking the place of a teacher and a violation of I Timothy 2:12" I suffer not a woman to teach."

During a women's meeting, it is customary for some women to speak. Since the topics are related to faith and often involve discussing Bible verses, there is, at least in essence, a form of "preaching." And if they discuss certain biblical verses, there is, at least in essence, teaching. However, these "teachings" do not have the approval of the Word of God. On the contrary, God does not permit women to teach (1 Timothy 2:12).