Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] The Silencing of Women as an interpolation written by Bart Ehrman, read by Ken Teutsch.
[00:00:14] In my previous post, I began to address the question of whether we have the original text of one corinthians 1434 and 35, where Paul tells women that they must be silent in the churches. I first had to show that the similar passage of one Timothy 1015 is not by Paul because one Timothy itself was not written by Paul. This is a standard view among scholars that Paul did not write one and two Timothy and Titus. I won't get into the reasons here, but if you look up Timothy or Titus as a word search on the blog, you'll find posts that address the matter. Apart from that, doesnt Paul say something similar in his undisputed letters in the harsh words of one corinthians 1434 and 35?
[00:01:02] Indeed, this passage is so similar to that of one Timothy 211 15 and so unlike what Paul says elsewhere that many scholars are convinced that these too are words that Paul himself never wrote, words that were later inserted into the letter of one corinthians by a scribe who wanted to conform Paul's views to those of the pastoral epistles. The parallels are obvious when the two passages are placed side by side.
[00:01:33] First Timothy 212 15 let a woman learn in silence, with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man. She is to keep silent, for Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness with modesty.
[00:02:05] Women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
[00:02:21] It is to be noted that both passages stress that women are to keep silent in church and not teach men. This is allegedly something taught by the law, that is, in the story of Adam and Eve. Women are therefore to keep their place, that is, in the home, under the authority of their husbands. It is not absolutely impossible, of course, that Paul himself wrote the passage that is now found in one corinthians. But as scholars have long pointed out, Paul elsewhere talks about women leaders in his churches without giving any indication that they are to be silent. He names a minister in synchrea prophets in Corinth, and one of the chief apostles in Rome.
[00:03:02] Even more significantly, he has already indicated in one corinthians itself that women are allowed to speak in church, for example, when they pray or prophesy, activities that were almost always performed aloud in antiquity. How could he allow women to speak in chapter eleven but disallow it in chapter 14?
[00:03:22] Moreover, it is interesting to observe that these harsh words against women in one corinthians 1434 to 35 interrupt the flow of what Paul has been saying in the context up to verse 34. He has been speaking about prophecy and then does so immediately afterwards, again in verse 37. It may be, then, that the verses were not an original part of the text of one corinthians at all, but originated as a marginal note that later copyists inserted into the text after verse 33 others inserted it after verse 40. However, the verses came to be placed into the text. It does not appear that they were written by Paul, who then wrote them, evidently someone living later who was familiar with and sympathetic toward the views of women advanced by the author of the pastoral epistles. To sum up, in Paul's own churches there may not have been an absolute equality between men and women. Women were still to cover their heads when praying and prophesying, showing that as females they were still subject to males. But there was a clear movement towards equality that reflected the movement evidenced in the ministry of Jesus himself. Moreover, Paul's preference for the celibate life, a view not favored significantly enough by the author of the pastorals, may have helped promote that movement toward equality, in that women who followed his example would not have had husbands to go home too, in order to ask questions. Indeed, we know of such women from the second and later centuries, ascetics who preferred the freedom that the single life brought to the restrictive confines of ancient marriage.
