Women Within The Christian Context Part 2: He Said, She Said, Paul Said

***WARNING***: Writing on both 1 Corinthians 11 and 1 Timothy 2 would be way too long of a post. For the sake of my own sanity, I’ve condensed my thoughts. I did not realize how ambitious this series would be.

Preface

The difficulty of writing about women within the context of Christianity is the inevitability of addressing the more controversial, yet baffling passages that Christians continue to fight over. 50% of Christians love these passages and the other 50% resent them. As a result, there’s a few things I need to bring up before I jump into the crux of the post. 1) Paul’s epistles are almost always in response to particular circumstances or controversy (Ephesians being the exception). For example, in 1 Corinthians Paul covered a number of different issues: divisions and quarrels, sexual immorality, lawsuits among believers, marriage and singleness, freedom in Christ, order in worship, the significance of the Lord’s Supper, the right use of spiritual gifts, and the resurrection. 2) What is challenging about reading Paul’s epistles are the many voices that are influencing Paul’s words. That is to say, because Paul is responding to particular congregations’ understanding of Christianity, Paul will often reference those communities’ thoughts and words in his own writing. Parsing out what Paul is saying among the many voices is hard; even among scholars, there isn’t an agreement on a “correct” interpretation. 3) Therefore, as Christians, we should avoid running the risk of “explaining” Paul in terms that might make sense to us while ignoring what he himself is saying. It’s tempting to do that precisely because in our western culture we don’t like the implications of:

“A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman from man.” (1 Corinthians 11:7-8 NIV)

1 Corinthians 11

1 Corinthians 11:7-8 seems to place man in a position of superiority, to which women must submit to being second-class. More importantly, it gives a sense of structure or arrangement to Creation. God>man>woman. This make sense when reading Genesis 2 story; God made Adam, then God made Eve. Man came first, then woman after. Therefore, man is senior to woman. Okay, that’s the end of my post. That’s it. The End. Just kidding!

The Greek word for “glory” is often translates to “splendor, majesty, honor, or excellence”. And the Greek word for “image” often denotes “representation” or “manifestation”. Therefore, 1 Corinthians 11:7-8 logic seems to state that men are the physical representation or manifestation of God’s grandeur, but women come close to it; only because women come from men. Basically, the verses are stating men are similar to Jesus.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14 NIV)

The question we, as Christians, need to ask ourselves is, “is this good theology?”. The short answer is a resounding “no”. Why? One way to understand Paul’s words in this chapter (and specifically these two verses) is to look at the Creation story against the Genesis 2’s story.

“Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1: 26-27 NIV)

Genesis 1 states that both men and women are made in God’s image. This is significant because it’s declaring that the individuals of a community, made up of men and women who live out God’s story together, are equally representing of God’s glory. Therefore, it is both men and women who are the physical representation of God; not just the men or the women, but both. In other words, as the german theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes:

“The Church is the physical manifestation of Christ (and/or God) on Earth.”

1 Timothy 2

I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that this passage is the foundation for those who want to deny women a place in the ordained ministry of the church, with full responsibilities for preaching, presiding at the Eucharist, and exercising leadership within congregations. When people say that the Bible embodies patriarchal ideas and attitudes, this passage (particularly verse 12) is often held up as the prime example.

“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.” (1 Timothy 2:11-12 NIV)

As you read 1 Timothy 2 in its entirety, you pick up a very standard view of how everyone imagines men and women ought to behave. Men are macho, loud-mouthed, arrogant thugs, always fighting and wanting their own way. Women are empty-headed creatures, with nothing to think about except clothes and jewelry. There are “Christian” versions of this too: the men must make the decisions, run the show, always be in the lead, telling everyone what to do; women must stay at home and bring up the children.

I fully acknowledge that the very different reading I’m going to suggest may sound as though I’m simply trying to make things easier for myself; trying to fit Paul into our culture. There is good, solid biblical work behind what I’m going to say and I genuinely believe that it may be the right interpretation.

It is important to recognize that the passage is commanding that women, too, should be allowed to study and learn, and should not be restrained from doing so in verse 11. They are to be “in full submission”; this is often taken to mean ‘to the men”, or “to their husbands“, but it is more likely that it refers to their attitude, as learners, of submitting to God or to the gospel – which of course would be true for men as well. Then verse 12 should not be read as “I do not allow a woman to teach or hold authority over a man”. It means (and in context this makes much more sense to me) “I don’t mean to imply that I’m now setting up women as the new authority over men in the same way that men previously held authority over women”. In other words, what Paul is saying, like Jesus in Luke 10, that women must have the space and leisure to study and learn in their own way, so that men and women alike can develop and share whatever gifts of learning, teaching and leadership among each other.

A great example of this is the story of Phoebe. For those of you who don’t know her story, Phoebe was a first-century Christian woman that Paul has designated as a deacon. The word “deacon” in Paul’s writings sometimes refers to a Christian designated to serve with the overseers of the church or “servants” in a general sense. However, Paul’s use of the term “deacon”, in regards to Phoebe specifically, suggest that Phoebe’s ministry may have extended beyond charitable works to include preaching and evangelization. In other words, she would’ve read Paul’s letters and answer all questions in Paul’s place among a congregation of men and women. Teaching and leading God’s people.