Women and Christianity....the longer version.
Paul was singling women out in a very Jewish manner. Women should not preach, or have authority over men, the head of the woman is the man, and they should not talk in church. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety….Then Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers,
if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.
Any of this for the men for any reason? There is an apparent pattern here, singling out women to degrade them, setting them up for a second rate status in society and the church. Degrade? Sounds cruel but it is actually the Jewish norm. Paul is proposing a continuance of Jewish customs in relation to women in Christianity. And it happened.
The custom of arranged marriages.....Women were not allowed to go off with their suitors. Dating does not become a custom until the 1900's and it is mostly connected to the advent of the automobile. Many times ladies were not allowed to pick their husbands. Courtship versus Arranged Marriages. Still a custom in different areas of the world, but for Christians it became less frequent during the 1800's and in the America's the early 1700's. But not outlawed until the marriage act of 1950, which outlawed arranged marriages, and enabled women to divorce their husbands, and made it illegal for men to have multiple wives.. Polygamy was not address by the Ecumenical councils. But for Christians, polygamy was never common and was "phased out" around the turn of the first millennium.
So we are debating whether women were allowed to speak in church? Women were not allowed to speak in pubic. And it should be no surprise that the Bible is about what men believed. The female voice is kept to a minimal in the New Testament. And as most of you know the women's rights movement does not occur until the 1900's when they received the right to vote.....etc. And as a whole the Christian churches were dead set against women's rights...and some still to this day. What would Christ do?
On the other hand Christ did not express this belief or attitude towards women. He defended them and went to their aid. The story of the adulterous woman brought before Him. The unique scenario of the forgiveness of the prostitute that washed his feet with her tears. His first documented miracle occurs at the request of His mother. He gave the woman at the well a mission for her to accomplish, which was something He knew His own Apostles could not do. Women funded and supported His ministry, offering up their homes….He had a following of women and they appeared at the cross with Him when the Apostles were off hiding somewhere. In more than one instance Christ commends women for their faith...not something He usually notes in men. Messiah means anointed one….only women anointed Him….One of the most significant events in Christianity was given to Mary Magdalene to proclaim His resurrection. The females believed, but the men thought they were seeing a ghost.
Then we can get into the study where it looks like Paul’s attitude towards women changed as his ministry went a long. Several times He commends them for their service in the ministry and maybe even commends Phoebe as a deacon?
Some translate Roman 16:1 as a female deacon and the actual scriptures seem to support this reading….I commend now to you Phoebe the sister of us also a servant of the church in Cenchrea. The word used is “also” as in an equivalent to them as servants of the church… Then also Paul commended several women, both Jewish and Gentile, and often included details of their contributions to the ministry and the community. I would not be the only one to point out that Paul like the rest of us was human and in his Christian walk with Christ learnt things as he went along.
