What Does the Bible Say About Women Pastors?
1) Direct answer
No. The Bible does not authorize women to be pastors or to teach and exercise authority over men in the church.
2) Scriptural explanation
- 1 Timothy 2:11-14: “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man...” Paul grounds this in creation and the fall, not in culture.
- 1 Corinthians 14:34-35: “Let your women keep silence in the churches… for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.” That speaks to public authoritative teaching in the assembly.
- 1 Corinthians 11:3: “The head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” God set an order.
- 1 Timothy 3:1-5; Titus 1:5-6: The overseer/elder must be “the husband of one wife,” ruling his own house well. The office is given in male terms and tied to male headship.
- Titus 2:3-5: Older women are commanded to teach the younger women—what to teach and to whom is clearly defined.
- Acts 2:17; Acts 21:9; 1 Corinthians 11:5: Women can pray and prophesy under proper order (with a covering), but that is not the same as holding pastoral authority.
3) Simple clarifying logic
- God’s order is Christ over the man, and the man over the woman. That is not about value; it is about the roles God set.
- The New Testament gives explicit qualifications for pastors/elders. If God intended women to pastor, Scripture would say so. Instead, it repeatedly restricts teaching authority over men.
- Examples sometimes raised—like Deborah or Huldah—show that God can use women mightily, but those were not New Testament church offices. The church’s government is laid out plainly in the pastoral epistles.
- Phoebe was a servant (Romans 16:1). Service is honored, but that text does not place her in the overseer role.
- If women pastors were approved, Scripture would not forbid women to teach or to have authority over the man in the church. The Bible does not contradict itself.
4) Reinforcing statement
Now notice, this does not silence a woman’s ministry in its God-given place. Women can:
- Pray, prophesy, testify, sing, and serve.
- Teach children and younger women.
- Labor in many helps and ministries.
But the pastoral/elder office and the authoritative teaching of men in the assembly are reserved to qualified men, as the Bible says.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
And knoweth it not
65-0815 §20
...ed out a letter. I said, "Well, sister, she just don't understand." The boys told me their mother was a woman preacher, and that she didn't go for the message. And now, she says in here... She said now, he said, "Women should not have authority over men." Said, "How about Phoebe in the Bible, Paul's helper." Certainly. She was a seller of goods. And Paul asked the people... Do you think Paul would say, "Let the women keep silent in the churches," not permitting them to speak, and turn around and say, "Now, Phoebe,...
Jehovah-Jireh, part 1
62-0705 §90
Won't you come? Come down out of the balcony, come down. Come up. What about you, you people that professing to be Christians, Abraham's seed? God bless you, women. God bless you, my sisters. Yes. God surely will honor it. You are honest. Maybe your pastor has failed to tell you that. Go home and get your Bible, and find out whether it's right, or not. You know it's right, before I even say anything. You Pentecostal women, you wouldn't wear make-up for anything. There's nothing in the Bible about make-up; only Jeze...
Questions and Answers
59-0628E §89
...ke that... You can't hit Father, Son, Holy Ghost one place and Jesus in the other, when nobody was ever baptized in the name of Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Every person in the Bible was baptized in the name of Jesus, and those that wasn't baptized that way had to come and be baptized over again before they could even get the Holy Ghost. They might act like they got a lot of power. You've got to follow God's infinite plan. That's exactly right. All right. "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is wrong". Now, for women preachers...
Hear ye Him
58-0126 §19
I don't mean to be rude now. Your pastors are here to preach this Gospel. But if they don't do it, I want you to hear it this time, of this part. It's a wrong thing for a woman to cut her hair. The Bible said so. And she disgraces her husband when she does it. And the church used to not do that, but today, because the pulpit is weak, they do it. And women wear these little bitty clothes that looks like a man's clothes: slacks, or something, they call them. Did you know the Bible said that's a filthy and an abominat...
Lean not unto thy own understanding
65-0120 §38
...velation. or vindication of the Word. And that's the reason, today, that the churches are blind, is because they won't accept revelation that's been vindicated. If the Word says so, and it's revealed, and then it's proven, still they won't accept it. That's the reason these Jews, the Jews of this day, will not... You cannot talk to them about Christ, because the veil is still over their face---blinded. And the church---you can't talk to them about the full gospel, and the power of God, because the god of this world...