Can a woman teach a third-grade boy who has been baptized?
Question:
We have a boy in the third grade who, after discussing it with his parents and with their agreement, was baptized. His Bible school teachers are female. Can they scripturally continue to teach the class with the boy in the class? I've heard the justifications both ways.
- If he's mature enough to become a Christian, then he's mature enough to be considered a "man" so that a woman should not usurp his authority and
- even though he knows enough to determine right from wrong and understand that baptism is essential, he's still a boy and not a man and therefore can still be taught by a woman at this age.
What are your thoughts from your understanding of the Scriptures?
Answer:
I'm going to direct you to this question: Can a woman teach a teenage boy? because it covers the issues you raised, though it was asked about an older boy. I think the key point is that if we consider this boy a "man" then we must state that his mother would no longer be able to teach him. Such would not make sense. Greek, like English, has a variety of words to describe a person at different ages. The word in I Timothy 2:12 for an adult man. Do we claim that if he is old enough to be baptized, then he is old enough to get married? In Greek, the same word for "man" is also the word for "husband."
What we have done in La Vista is begin shifting classes that contain young Christian boys to being taught by adult men when we have the teachers available. This is more to cover the scruples of people than a belief that it is required. But where a child's parents and the teachers don't object, we have used women to teach young Christian boys.
