No now I"m surprised to learn that there are female priests in the Protestant priesthood.
"Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; the woman was deceived and became a transgressor." Timothy 2:11-14 ESV
Scripture is quite clear on that topic, what happened "sola scripture" in this case?
Scripture is not as clear as you think.
Tradition (including exegesis) is clear, but not the original.
If you look into Rom 16:7, you may find
Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
Here we have a couple (man and wife), and both are called apostles (not from the twelve, but apostles like Paul). If a woman can be an apostle, why can't she be a pastor (protestant usually avoid speaking of priests in that context)?
When you look into tradition, you will find a name Junias (invented in the 13th century) which allowed to declare Junia(s) as a man and so "solve" the problem of female apostles. But not only is there no instance of the occurrence of "Junias" (
iounias in Greek) in the antique, there is also no Greek name that could abbreviated as Junias. The only Greek names starting with Juni- are Junia ans Junios.
This is the most blatant example how the message of the Bible was distorted when it dealt with the role of women in the church, but in virtually every other passage quoted against female pastors etc. there is a more or less severe distortion.
The passage you quoted is close to be an exception of what I said in the previous sentence. Indeed, Paul forbids female teaching, and he bases it on the fact that Adam was the
head of Eve (unlike in English, the Greek word for "head" does not mean "boss, leader", it has more to do with more honor, being ahead in a row, or being the last "highlight", and so on). But if you look into the context, you see problems:
1.Tim 2:8
I desire then ...
This reminds of
1.Kor 7:12
To the rest I say (I, not the Lord)...
It is therefor legitimate to ask whether this passage is a command from God or from Paul.
The other problem is in V.15:
Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.
Saying that a woman is saved by bearing children is contrary to almost everything Paul (and other NT writers) say about being saved!
We therefore have a passage difficult to explain. There was an exceptional situation (some commentators speculate about details, often referring to some sort of "Gnostics") which urged Paul not to allow a woman to preach.
To use such an unclear passage as a leverage to annul clear passages (as, e.g. Gal 3:28) is no sound exegesis, but this was the tradition from the middle ages up to the 20th century.
I see no biblical teaching against female church leaders, so ordination female pastors (or "priests" in Catholic/Anglican churches) is quite compatible with
sola scriptura.
