What Does the Bible Say About Women Preaching?

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. - Dr. Bart D. Ehrman

In the history of Christianity, there have been many debates about whether women should be allowed to preach. While there may be biblical injunctions against women teaching in the church, the New Testament also portrays women as prophets and leaders. So, what does the Bible say about women preaching?

In this article, I’ll investigate what the biblical evidence actually says, how the earliest Christians understood women's roles, and why attitudes toward women preaching changed over the first few centuries of Christianity. Rather than assuming that the Bible speaks with one voice on the subject, I’ll examine the relevant texts in their historical context and trace how they were interpreted by later generations of Christians.

If this topic interests you, by the way, check out the course, Must Women Keep Silent? featuring Dr. Travis Proctor.

Women in the Early Jesus Movement

Does the Bible allow women preaching? In order to talk about biblical views of that subject, we need to begin with the status of women in the earliest phase of Christianity. Throughout the New Testament, there is ample evidence that women not only participated in the early church, but that they also took on leadership roles. These leaders included Mary Magdalene (Luke 8:2), Phoebe (Rom. 16:1–2), and Junia (Rom. 16:7). But did the relatively high status of women continue throughout Christian history? And what did later Christian authors believe about women being preachers?

There are examples in early Christian literature where women preachers are tacitly approved by Christians. For example, 4th-century bishop Ambrose of Milan calls Miriam, the sister of Moses, a prophetess. Since a prophet is a spokesperson for God, this role would have involved preaching. The anonymous author of the 4th-century text known as The Apostolic Constitutions speaks of Miriam as well:

Notice the other women prophets mentioned. Deborah is another Hebrew Bible prophet spoken of approvingly by early Christians. Origen of Alexandria, for instance, wrote of Deborah as an impressive prophet in his Homily Five on Judges, but he later emphasizes that she was not a public preacher, perhaps showing the discomfort later Christians would have with the notion of women preaching.

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Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, is later called the “apostle to the apostles,” since the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection have Jesus sending her to tell the good news to his apostles. In that sense, she could be viewed as the first woman preacher in Christianity. In addition, at least one group of early Christians saw Mary as a valid preacher. Did Jesus have women preachers? The Gospel of Mary tells of how Mary had received secret knowledge from Jesus which she then preached to the other apostles. Although this text was written later than the New Testament books, it shows how high Mary’s status was among some Christians. But what did Jesus say about women preaching?

It turns out that Jesus didn’t say anything directly about women preaching in the Gospels. Some might interpret his command to Mary to tell the disciples about his resurrection as a tacit approval of women’s teaching, but this is certainly not explicit in the Gospels.

Elizabeth Clark writes that women were certainly significant in early Christianity probably due to one principle factor:

Likewise, Elaine H. Pagels notes that

Speaking of Paul, let’s look into his opinion on women as preachers.

Pauline and Pseudo-Pauline Verses about Women Preaching

What does Paul say about women preaching? Paul wrote a number of things about women’s roles in the church. For instance, in 1 Corinthians 11:5, he wrote that “any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled shames her head—it is one and the same thing as having her head shaved.” While the command to cover the head may seem severe, this verse nevertheless demonstrates that women did prophesy aloud in early church gatherings. Note that Paul does not disapprove of this, only of women doing so with their heads uncovered.

In addition, we have to remember the famous Galatians 3:28, where Paul says, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Could this mean that Paul believed that being “in Christ” removes old social limits? If there is “no male and female,” this certainly could imply that women’s preaching was as permissible as men’s.

On the other hand, other biblical authors clearly prohibited women from preaching. In 1 Timothy 2:12, a text written in Paul’s name but probably not written by Paul, the author writes, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent." This same idea can be found in a genuine Pauline letter, as well.

Note how similar these two passages are. Because of this, and several other reasons, most scholars now view this passage in 1 Corinthians as a later interpolation, something Paul didn’t actually write. This makes sense if you compare it with other Pauline verses where Paul clearly approves of women leaders in the church as I mentioned above. The pastoral letters, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus, were all written after Paul had died, according to most scholars. As Bart Ehrman writes,

In other words, the author of the pastoral epistles was both asserting and reflecting later church views in which women’s roles in the church were being limited.

What was the cause of this shift toward more subordination of women in the church? One factor might be pagan criticisms of the participation of women in Christianity, a reflection of the fact that many elite Roman men regarded women as naturally subordinate and unsuitable for public authority. 

For instance, a 2nd-century pagan author named Celsus, whose work we only know from Origen’s quotations of it, mocked Christianity for attracting only “the silly and the mean and the stupid, with women and children.” The very fact that this was considered a valid criticism shows that by the 2nd century, women in the Roman Empire had a very low status, a value that spilled over into Christian culture.

Additionally, Rodney Stark notes that by the 2nd century, women were increasingly being disdained as sources of temptation and sin. Meanwhile, Karen Jo Torjesen writes that while women were important in the ministries of Jesus and Paul, they were gradually excluded from any leadership positions as Christianity became a more established institution. So how did later church fathers interpret verses from the pastoral epistles on the silence of women?

Reception of Bible Verses About Women Preaching

Many early church writers cited the verses on women’s silence as normative rules for maintaining order and subordination. For instance, in a text called The Veiling of Virgins, Tertullian wrote this in the 2nd century:

In addition, the aforementioned Apostolic Constitutions says

Likewise, 4th-century bishop John Chrysostom writes about the commandment in 1 Corinthians for women to keep silent in churches:

It’s fairly clear, then, that the church fathers took “Paul” at his word, agreeing wholeheartedly that women should not preach. But what else was going on in the Mediterranean world of the 2nd–4th centuries that might have influenced this idea?

Other Developments for Women in the 2nd–4th Centuries CE

While this certainly did not help all women, it is clear that imperial power and patronage increased for wealthy women in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. For instance, Empress Julia Domna, the wife of Emperor Septimius Severus (145–211 CE), exercised enormous political authority. In addition, legal restrictions like traditional guardianship over women continued to fade in practical application for wealthy Roman women, allowing them greater autonomy in wealth management and property ownership. However, these social changes obviously did not affect the majority of ancient women.

Within Christianity, however, the increasing development of asceticism and monasticism became more common, a development that would benefit some women. How? By the 4th century, some upper-class Christian women were using asceticism and voluntary virginity as a vehicle to gain spiritual authority, study Scripture, and fund independent religious communities that predated formal monastic life. It also gave them freedom from the required roles of wife and mother, and thus, a bit of autonomy.

However, there was eventually a widespread backlash. As church hierarchies grew more and more institutionalized in the 4th century, official public leadership roles for women in the church narrowed, and female teachers faced growing suspicion of unchastity or heresy.

In addition to the loss of church offices for women, we can see the violence of this backlash in the story of the woman philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria. In the late 4th century CE, she was so well-respected that she became the head of the Neoplatonic school in Alexandria, teaching public lectures on mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy to male and female students, including some Christians.

Nevertheless, in his book City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria, Edward J. Watts writes that Hypatia was so appreciated that she was asked to give advice to Orestes, the Roman prefect of Alexandria, who was feuding with Cyril, bishop of Alexandria. Rumors were spread, allegedly by Cyril and other Christians, accusing her of preventing Orestes from reconciling with Cyril. 

In response, she was savagely murdered by a Christian mob in 415 CE. Ancient church historian Socrates Scholasticus writes that she was violently pulled from her carriage and dragged into a nearby church, where the mob tore her body into pieces and dragged her limbs through the town, eventually setting them on fire.

Despite the fact that Hypatia was a pagan philosopher, Socrates Scholasticus wrote admiringly of her virtue and self-possession, writing, "Surely nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity than the allowance of massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort" (Church History, 7.15).

Conclusion

What does the Bible say about women preaching? As we’ve seen, the question does not have a single, straightforward answer. Instead, it reflects a conversation that unfolded over centuries. The earliest Christian movement included women who prophesied, taught, hosted churches, and, in some cases, exercised significant leadership. Figures such as Mary Magdalene, Phoebe, Junia, and the women prophets mentioned by both Scripture and later Christian writers demonstrate that women's participation in the life of the church was never absent from Christianity's earliest history.

However, the New Testament preserves competing voices. Paul's undisputed letters acknowledge women prophesying in Christian assemblies and emphasize the unity of believers "in Christ," while later texts, such as the Pastoral Epistles, restrict women's authority and teaching. Many scholars argue that these differences reflect the changing circumstances of the church as it became more institutionalized and increasingly concerned with public order, respectability, and hierarchy within the Roman world.

The reception of these passages followed a similar trajectory. Most church fathers interpreted the commands for women to remain silent as universally binding, using them to justify excluding women from preaching and other forms of public leadership. Yet even these same writers often praised biblical women such as Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah as genuine prophets, illustrating a tension between honoring women's roles in salvation history and limiting their authority in the contemporary church.

Seen in its historical context, the debate over women preaching was shaped not only by biblical interpretation but also by changing social, political, and ecclesiastical realities. As Christianity moved from a small network of house churches to an established institution within the Roman Empire, leadership became more centralized, and opportunities for women narrowed. By late antiquity, public female teachers increasingly faced suspicion or outright hostility, a trend reflected in both church legislation and tragic episodes such as the murder of Hypatia.