mondar said:
I am not absolutely sure I am following you at this point. If I understand what you are saying...
Because there is a tension between 1 Cor and 1 Tim and the issue of the unmarried, you think this carries over into the discussion of roles in the Church? I am not sure how you connect these two things?
Hopefully I can explain my thought processes here. There are really only two texts in the entirety of the Scriptures that seem to deny women all authority in the church for any reason, for all time. Those two texts are found in 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy. I'm going to write them again, just to keep them upfront, so to speak:
1 Corinthians 14:34 "Let the women keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but let them subject themselves, just as the Law also says.
1 Timothy 2:12 "But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet."
Either these texts deny women all authority to teach or exercise authority over men for all time, or they don't. Many will say, "These verses say it all and to question things any further makes you a Jezebel" or something along that line. But I would like to put these texts into context just to see if the conclusion that they do indeed deny all women any authority or teaching ability to men, for all time really holds up. If it is indeed God's truth that they do indeed deny all women authoritative and teaching positions, the rest of the Scripture will bear this out. If the rest of the Scriptures do not bear this out, then we need to question if we are being taught God's truth or a tradition of man in this matter.
The context of both of these verses are the letters that Paul wrote to Corinth and to Timothy at Ephesus. So, for me, by looking at the full of what Paul was saying to the Corinthians and to the Ephesians about men and women is helpful because it establishes whether Paul was speaking for the entire church for all time, or addressing specific issues within those two churches.
mondar said:
I dont know if this will help, but the issue of 1 Tim seems to be regarding widows under the support of the Church. If you remember from Acts 6 there was an issue concerning the support of Hebrew vs Greek speaking widows. It appears that widows were supported by the Church. In 1 Tim Paul instructs younger widows to remarry and raise a family. This is a very different contextual question then the issue of 1 Cor 7 aestheticism looms in the background. The question concerns perpetual virginity. The question seems to regard perpetual virginity as a superior spiritual state. Paul denies this, but affirms that it means the person can be wholly devoted to spiritual endeavors. He is speaking in broad general terms, and not referring to the specific case mentioned in 1 Timothy of a widow in the support of the Church. To assume the contexts are the same would be non-sequitur. The so called "different" instructions are in regard to two different contextual settings for the instruction.
I'm not sure that Paul was speaking only generally to the Corinthians or that 1 Corinthians 7 is speaking of a superior spiritual state. Actually I'm not sure at all what you mean by this statement, so if you could clarify that would be great. I think in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul is pointing out that in a very practical way, those who are single have much greater freedom in devoting their time to the things of the Lord than those who have the daily cares of family life to attend to, therefore it's better for virgins and widows to remain unmarried. As one who was single until I was 38, I can attest to the truth of that. When I was single, I had far more time and freedom to go places and do things regarding mission work, spreading the gospel and studying the Bible. Now that I have a husband, two kids and a houseful of critters, the extent of my dealings in the things of the Lord is largely (but not totally) concentrated right here at my PC.
However, in 1 Timothy, Paul seems fairly adamant that the younger widows be remarried.
Now I agree with you, that the so called "different" instructions are in regard to two different contextual settings for the instructions. However, I don't think the differing contextual settings are some how a "superior spiritual state" (admitting that I'm not sure what you mean by this) in Corinthians and specific instructions for widows in the corporate church, but rather that there was an issue regarding widows in Ephesus that wasn't present in Corinth. Reading the texts just seems to lend itself to the conclusion that Paul's advice is that while it's better for people to remain single, there's nothing wrong with getting married, but Paul was speaking to Timothy that, as the pastor at Ephesus, there was some kind of issue with the widows there that made it far better that they remarry.
And, this is where the crux of the matter is to me. If Paul can give different, seemingly contradictory (albeit NOT) instructions to the church at Corinth and the church at Ephesus, then it calls into question if his specific instructions to Timothy at Ephesus is a pointed command of God's for the whole church for all time, or a specific instruction to Timothy to deal with an issue at Ephesus, in which the church might learn from should a similar occasion arise.
If it is the latter, then that also calls into question whether or not the dictate that women should not teach or hold authority over men is one that is a command of God's for all time. Especially since we know that God has indeed called women in the past to hold authoritative positions, and has gifted women with the gift of prophesy. (And it seems only in discussions about women in authority that the gift of prophesy is not considered authoritative. :gah )
Again, I do think that in the final analysis, men are generally called to the authority in the church, but given that God has clearly made exceptions to that, I think the church should at least be open to the idea that He still might do so. Especially in this day and age when so many men pastors are handing their churches over to many false doctrines and heresies.
To me, the authority we, men and women, are under is Jesus Christ. Not man.
:biglaugh :rolling :biglol 
:yes :amen