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.
God's power to transform
65-0911 §74
...a holy woman's taste. When you start to the barber shop, or something another, and they tell you you're going to have a headache, take a thinking woman's filter---what the Bible said, see. Then turn away from it. Don't you do it. I'm your brother and I love you. Nothing I have against you. God knows. And that's what makes me say the things I do is because of love of God for you. If a man would go out there, and they won't tell you ... your pastor let you sit around and act like that, he don't love you. He can't lo...
Revelation, Chapter 4c Throne of mercy and judgement
61-0108 §122
...t think that I am throwing a reflect upon the loyalty and the gracious, precious jewel of womanhood. I'm trying to show here what a woman... Please! And to you on tape, you women that'll be listening to this tape, I am not trying to scorn you. I'm only a servant of the Lord to bring light. The lowest and immoralest and most filthy thing on earth is a woman when she's bad. And the most precious jewel that there is to a man, besides his salvation, is a good woman. And I'm speaking to that low, immoral, degraded. And...
The conflict between God and Satan
62-0531 §69
..., the Word won't mix with any modern theory. It can't have a theory and have the Word. You've got to have the Word or the theory. Now which are you going to believe? If the Bible teaches the baptism is in the name of Jesus Christ, and the church says it's Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, then who you going to believe? If Jesus said you must be borned again, and the church says come join, now what are you going to believe? If Jesus said these signs shall follow them that believe, and the church says you're just a good m...
And knoweth it not
65-0815 §21
...lso saith the law." And the law can't put a woman up to be a priest, can't put it up... You never seen a woman high priest; you never seen a woman a priest---nowhere in the Bible. You never seen a woman a preacher in the Bible. Certainly, some of them was prophetesses and so forth; Miriam and different ones, and Esther or one of them was a judge over Israel. Sometimes they were queens over them and so forth like that, king and queens. At the decease of the king, the queen had to take his place till they elected ano...
The resurrection of Jairus' daughter
54-0331 §6
...g. This is my home country, you know; it's hard here, hardest place in the world. And, you can notice a difference. It was something about school children, and you know how women are: They're so tedious about those things. And some people that goes to a little better church than what our tabernacle'd be over there. People's got nothing against me, now. They like me. And they like... But, they'd rather their children wouldn't associate with our children as long they could be with the children that goes to their own...