Sticking Up for Paul: Part 2

In my last post, I discussed the biggest criticism I hear about the Apostle Paul—that he’s arrogant. In this post, I want to address the second most frequent: that Paul doesn’t like women and doesn’t support them having leadership in the church.

Like we saw with Paul’s “arrogance,” it is indeed possible to read certain lines and phrases in Paul’s letters and conclude that this is the case. For example, there are verses in a couple of the Pauline letters that forbid women from exercising authority or even from speaking in the ecclesial context (1 Cor 14:34-36;1 Tim 2:11-15)!

First, let’s look at some possible underlying reasons or goals of the letter these verses are found. Both 1 Corinthians 14:33 and 1 Timothy 5:13 suggest that there are women in the local church who misuse their freedom and wealth; rather than contributing to the needs and mission of the church, they distract others during worship and cause division. These circumstances may be playing a role in this particular advice on women’s participation.

Second, we need to look at the larger Pauline corpus. The sheer number of positive references that Paul makes to female ministers and their leadership far exceeds the references to women not having authority. (Even within the same letter, Paul sometimes makes seemingly disparate comments about women in visible roles within worship.See 1 Cor 11:5 vs. 1 Cor 14:33.) Here’s a few examples of Paul’s clear endorsement of women in ministry:

“I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon (also can be translated“minister”) of the church at Cenchreae, so that you may welcome her in the Lord as is fitting for the saints and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself as well” (Rom 16:1-2).

“I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers...” (Phil 4:2-3)

In regard to these specific women who serve alongside Paul and whom Paul acknowledges as leaders, there seems to be nothing unusual or scandalous about their service in the church. Neither does Paul use different language to describe their jobs from those of men: “deacon” or “minister” and “co-workers.”

Regarding more general comments on women, Paul brings up an odd topic in 1 Cor 11: women should wear head coverings when they pray and offer prophecy in worship. At first, it seems like Paul tries to keep women inferior or separate. But actually, this is a means of allowing both men and women to participate in worship. Paul’s argument is that a man is an image of God so his head shouldn’t be covered. His visible head directs people’s attention to God. A woman, with beautiful longhair, draws attention to herself. If she covers her head, she neutralizes it. Paul explicitly states that this way, all the people in worship can pray and prophesy publicly without anyone navigating attention away from God. The goal is actually to help women participate more fully and visibly in worship!

Biblical demands that we consider all the evidence. So, what do we make of this dichotomy? This dichotomy means there is more than one way to make decisions using Paul’s advice, and that difference depends on how we read. We can read and see Paul’s desire for inclusive participation as the underlying principle for church practice, or we can make decisions about women and leadership based on the verses that prohibit it. Both positions can be supported by verses in Paul’s letters, so the real question is: how do we handle the specifics in light of Paul’s overall hope for the church? In the words of Jesus in Luke 10:26, “how do you read what is there?”

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