A MAN AHEAD OF HIS TIME . . .

The Revd Deacon Polly M. Bowen

The 2^nd year EFM classes are currently studying the writings of St. Paul. This is a man who has come down to us carrying a great deal of baggage – ideas picked up over the centuries and handed on to us. We get at best an incomplete picture of the 1^st century saint, a man so misunderstood that many people write him off as unnecessarily harsh, a misogynist at worst and irrelevant at best. Listening to the comments from beginning Bible students over the years prompts me to defend the man.

If there is any area in which Paul is thoroughly misunderstood, it is in his treatment of women. And why not? Even the Church has misunderstood his writings for centuries. Women have been relegated to an inferior status explained as “God’s will,” and Paul’s writings have been cited as “proof.” How could this happen?

In Paul’s writing, the definitive statement appears in Galatians 3:28. This is one of those Bible verses we all ought to have memorized: There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Once one sees that Paul understands that the gospel of Christ breaks down all barriers, and notes that this passage specifically includes males and females, no further proof ought to be required. Paul is obviously the most enlightened man of his time.

But in fact, there is much more. His first letter to the Corinthians, read in the context of all his works, presents a compelling case for mutuality in marriage (Ch. 7). There is empowerment for women in this chapter, for it prescribes a male-female reciprocity quite unusual for the time. A few pages later Paul affirms the gifts of women in the Christian assembly, specifically noting that they are to prophesy (Ch. 11). This chapter, read by itself, has often been used to bolster the anti-woman argument, but coupled with such texts as I Corinthians 10:23 and the aforementioned Galatians 3:28, one must give Paul the benefit of the doubt. The Christian way of life means freedom, but sometimes freedom must be reigned in for a greater good. We do not know all of the problems that existed in the Corinthian Church, problems which apparently called for the prudent application of the gift of freedom within Christian circles.

1 Corinthians 14:34-35 presents a problem: it simply contradicts everything we have said this far.  Many commentators label it an interpolation and thus dispense with the problem, but Pauline Scholar Richard Cassidy offers another solution. He suggests that it is a “slogan-statement” proffered by the Corinthians, and that Paul repeats it and counters with verse 36 – addressed to the men and indicating that there is no gender-preference in the Word of God.

The letter to the Colossians addresses male-female relations with the injunction to wives to subject themselves to their husbands (3:18). Again, in-context reading will recognize this as empowerment; women are addressed as having independent status, so that any subjection is a free choice. Paul affirms their freedom, but urges caution when it comes to defying the cultural norm. An attitude of mutuality and reciprocity between husband and wife is the important thing, as attested in the letter to the Ephesians (5:21ff)). Here the mystery of the one flesh is stressed, and the image of Christ and the Church are found in the joining of husband and wife in marriage. “Head,” according to Biblical scholar Frank Stagg, suggests anchoring support rather than domination, and thus loses its threatening connotation.

In a culture in which women were property and had few rights, these were revolutionary ideas, yet Paul embraced them, urging caution only for the greater good of the reputation and spread of the Gospel. But he never advocates a passive return to the old ways; Christ has broken down all barriers, he says, even those between men and women.

Paul was a man ahead of his time.