Women can be Pastors-1 Timothy 3:1

                                                  Women can be Pastors-1 Timothy 3:1

1 Timothy 3:1 (ESV):
“The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.”

The Greek actually says "If ANYONE desires to be an overseer" and then gives a male example (husband of one wife), but in the Greek, masculine language and male examples don't exclude women unless explicitly stated.

Matthew 16:24
Then Jesus told his disciples, 👉“IF ANYONE 👈 would come after me, let 👉HIM 👈deny 👉HIMSELF👈 and take up his cross and follow me.

When Jesus said, “He must take up his cross and follow me,” that didn’t mean only men could follow Him. The word “he” in Greek works the same way it does in many languages—it can mean either a man or a woman, depending on the situation. Using the masculine form was just the normal way people spoke and wrote. So when Jesus gave that command, it applied to everyone. Nobody would ever argue that only men get to carry their cross and follow Jesus.

But that's not the only example...

Or in 2 Corinthians 5:17 — 👉“IF ANYONE👈 is in Christ, 👉HE👈 is a new creation.”
The "He" here can also be a woman.

Or in John 6:51 — 👉“IF ANYONE👈eats of this bread, 👉HE 👈will live forever.”
Again "He" can be a woman.

Or 1 Timothy 3:1 "The saying is trustworthy: 👉“IF ANYONE👈 aspires to the office of overseer, 👉HE👈 desires a noble task."

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See a pattern? These apply to ANYONE, but are often followed by the masculine "he".

When people are ignorant of language norms then its really easy to misunderstand the Bible.

The term "husband of one wife" is just a male example of faithfulness. The character requirement is faithfulness, not maleness.

Funny how people argue that "he" ONLY EXCLUDES WOMEN in the ONE example of elders and in NONE of the other verses throughout the bible.
They do this because they WANT to exclude women in this one instance, not because the Bible does.
*************************************************
In 1 Timothy 5:9 Paul writes:

“Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband.”

Here, Paul addresses female widows because they were the ones most socially and economically vulnerable in the first-century world. But the phrase “wife of one husband” mirrors the “husband of one wife” in 1 Timothy 3. Both simply express marital faithfulness.

If Paul had been writing about male widowers in need of care, the principle would be the same: they too should be known for loyalty. The grammar changes with gender, but the underlying standard does not.

This parallel makes it clear: Paul wasn’t setting up gender-exclusive categories, but giving male and female examples to express the same principle of faithfulness.

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