This is Part 6 of our multi-episodic series on Paul and Hebrew Roots. This installment is entitled: “Paul: Emancipator or Subjugator of Women.”
I Corinthians 14:34, 35, and 1 Timothy 2:11,12 have long challenged my sensibilities and understanding of how women are to be viewed and treated in the Body of Messiah.
Would you allow to read these passages to you once more? I know that I read them in the introduction. But Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14:34,35:
“Let your women keep silence in the churches (ie., ekklesias): for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.”
And then in 1 Timothy 2:11,12 he writes:
“Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”
How These Passages Played Out In My Early Years
I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church. During those formative years, I was exposed to the practical manifestation of a plain reading and understanding of these crucial Pauline passages.
Thus women were not permitted to be preachers or ministers, nor were they permitted to hold leadership roles in the church.
Changing Times, But Still Little Improvement
Over the last several decades there has been a softening of this tradition and doctrine in the Baptist Church as a whole. However, overall women holding leadership and teaching positions in the Southern Baptist Church are a clear minority. One can only imagine that the number of women holding and exercising leadership positions in the Hebrew Roots/Messianic Communities is as bad, if not worse.
More Women Than Men, But Less Women Leaders
This is all the more interesting to me given what we know of the number of women practicing their Christian and Hebrew Roots Faith today, when compared to their male counterparts.
According to the “Pew Research Center,” in an article they published on March 22, 2016, entitled “The Gender Gap in Religion Around the World:”
Globally, women are more likely to affiliate with a religious faith; women attend more worship services more often than men in predominantly Christian countries (greater than 7% more); more women than men pray daily (greater than 10% more).
I have no data to support the ratio between women to men in our Hebrew Roots/Messianic communities. Nevertheless, according to a March 13, 2014 article entitled “The Rise of the Hebrew Roots Movement,” (a hit piece against our beloved Faith I should note) journalist Menachem Kaiser estimated there were some 200,000 to 300,000 Messianics worldwide at the time he wrote his article. Add to this my personal observations having attended a number of Hebrew Roots and Messianic events, the women in attendance at these events outnumbered the men. Yet I rarely, if ever, saw women leading the proceedings, teaching, or ministering at these events.
More Statistics
But returning to mainstream Christianity for a moment (since there’s a lot more hard data to reference than in Hebrew Roots) in Barna Group’s “The State of pastors 2017: Leading in Complexity,” dated January 26, 2017:
“One of every 11 Protestant pastors is a woman—triple as many as 25-years ago, yet women often lead smaller congregations than men.”
Why The Disparity?
Interestingly, this Barna article suggests the reason for the disparity is due to the unreasonably high expectations western society places on women as a whole to perform in the workplace.
But I would bet you dollars to a doughnut that the real reason (or let’s say the overwhelming reason) for the low numbers of women church leaders in the world today is due to an ancient The misogynistic mindset that has dominated much of the world since the fall, along with a twisted understanding of these two Pauline passages of 1st Corinthians 14 and 1st Timothy 2.
Whose To Blame?
Please bear in mind that I am not laying the blame for the disparity that exists in women to men holding leadership roles in the Body of Messiah/Christ solely on the shoulders of the males that make up the Faiths. The mindset that women should not be in positions of authority in the Body of Christ/Messiah seems to not only rest with a number of men, but with a great many women as well.
Historical Reasons
Christian researchers have determined that long-held misogynistic views and mistreatment of women can be traced back to ancient Greece.
These, and other, misogynistic views and ill-treatments of women found their way into Rabbinic Judaism, and by the close of the Apostolic age, into what we call today Christianity.
Greek Philosophy To Blame?
In fact, it was Socrates (c. 470-399 BCE) who coined the phrase for women being “the weaker sex.” Socrates went so far as to contend that being born a women was a divine punishment. He was quoted as saying, “Do you know anything at all practiced among mankind in which in all these respects the male sex is not far better than the female” (Plato, Timaeus, translated by H.D.P. Lee, Baltimore: Penguin, 1965; 24A-C, 90C, 91A).
Socrates perspectives on women were of course handed down to his equally famous pupil Plato (c. 427-347 BCE), and then on to Aristotle (384-322 BCE). Aristotle, for instance, held that it was barbaric for a Greek man NOT to distinguish between a wife and a slave. And ultimately, according to John Temple Bristow in his book entitled, “What Paul really Said About Women,” “Aristotle laid a lasting philosophical foundation for the notion that females are inferior to males.” Thus it could be thought that he helped formalize the practice of sexual discrimination and inequality. And it was this arm of Greek philosophy that Post-Apostolic Christianity infused into their interpretation and understanding of some of Paul’s writings and teachings regarding women and women’s roles/functions in the Body of Messiah/Christ.
Greek Anti-Women Sentiments Filter Into Christianity
So it seems that this Greek derived, anti-woman mindset infiltrated Christianity and became firmly established in the minds and writings of the so-called Church Fathers and church leaders. Is it so hard then to see how Christianity and even Hebrew Roots to a greater or lesser extent, interpret these rather eye-raising Pauline passages in such an anti-woman fashion?
Problems With Paul’s Writings
A plain read of these passages doesn’t seem to give us much in the way of interpretative wiggle room. Clearly, as it is interpreted, Paul is emphatically instructing the Corinthian Assembly to not allow the women in their midst to speak. And to add insult to injury, so to speak, Paul asserts that the women’s silence was mandated by law.
So I ask you: What imagery and feelings do these passages of I Corinthians and I Timothy stir in you? How do you view Paul in light of what he has written here? Was he a brilliant misogynist? Was he channeling his former Pharisee days when he no doubt managed various local synagogues with a firm hand, ensuring that men and women were separated and women were not allowed to speak or be heard in those supposed hallowed halls?
Or maybe these passages are examples of what Paul’s apostolic colleague Peter described as “hard to be understood” which unfortunately many folks within and without the Body of Messiah—both men and women—”wrest—twist—as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction?”
Questions To Answer
A few questions about these passages should naturally haunt the astute student of Scripture:
1. What women is Paul referring to here? The Corinthian Assembly women? Or any women of the assemblies he oversaw?
2. What authority was Paul giving his instructions from? He states quite emphatically that “it is NOT permitted unto them to speak.” Is Paul speaking from his authority as an Apostle or from some other established authority within or without the Body of Messiah?
3. Was it not this same Paul who elsewhere in his writings penned: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Does this passage not present a conflict to these two passages?
4. Did not Paul claim to have been taught the Gospel of the Kingdom directly from Yahoshua Messiah? Would it seem reasonable then to conclude that Paul received these instructions from Y’shua, who Himself had many female disciples who went on to become leaders in the Body of Messiah. Oh yes.
And 5. Did not Luke throughout portions of his writing, the Book of Acts,as well as Paul in his various epistles, document examples of the mighty works and exploits of a number of Messianic women teachers, preachers, deacons, prayer warriors, assembly leaders, financiers and at least one apostle?
A Dichotomy Exists Here On The Subject of Women Leadership In The Body Of Messiah
So what do we make of any of this—this dichotomy of attitudes towards women in the Body of Messiah by Paul?
In one vane, the Great Apostle to the Gentles asserts that women are to be seen and not heard in the churches—the ekklesias—the assemblies that he established and oversaw—some would go so far as to say the Churches of God as a whole.
And then in another vane he asserts that men and women are equal in Messiah—such that there are no restrictive roles for men and women in assemblies or Churches of God.
Clearly, the dichotomy that exists between these two sentiments is so extreme, unless Paul is indeed schizophrenic or moody in his oversight of the assemblies he established. For one day he’s extolling the greatness of the women leaders of the Body of Messiah who could not have been silent or dependent upon their husband to teach them the Gospel of the Kingdom. Then on another day telling those same women to go sit in a corner and be quiet for a minute.
Was Paul Assigning Subjugated Roles To Women Of The Body?
I recently came across a popular teaching on these passages that was put out by a Sabbath and Feast keeping congregation (ie., I wouldn’t necessarily classify them as Hebrew Roots or Messianic per se). The pastor of the congregation put forth that these Pauline passages requiring women be silent in the assemblies is really about women being restricted to certain roles in the “church.” Those roles, according to the pastor, are basically limited to teaching other women and children, and maybe rare discussions with men who are ignorant of certain aspects of the Faith, just as long as the interaction/discussion is supervised and done in private…or whatever. Furthermore, if the women have any questions about anything that comes out of the church proceedings, the answers to those questions must be given by the women’s’ husbands.
Women Not Being Assigned Subjugated Roles
If one is willing to treat these texts accordingly and in context, one cannot but help see that Paul was in no way addressing roles of women in the Body of Messiah. He didn’t need to. Those roles had already been in operation for years by the time Paul wrote these letters.
In fact, both he and Luke covered those roles in their respective writings: women were knowingly and publicly filling leadership roles in every known area of the Work of the Gospel and in the Body of Messiah.
Contextually Paul Trying To Establish Order
Contextually speaking, Paul was trying to establish order out of chaos in the Corinthian Messianic assembly.
Certain individuals in the assembly were causing disruptions during assembly gatherings and Paul as the assembly’s overseer was trying to establish order in the assembly. Thus Paul, in these passages, was explaining to his readers what Godly behavior in the assembly and during the assembly proceedings looked like.
The Importance Of Godly Wisdom When Examining Paul’s Writings
When dealing with these and other difficult and seeming contradictory passages of Paul, it is imperative that we seek after Godly wisdom. And I fear that maybe this is what’s lacking in our Faith Community these days.
We have no end of men in line anxious to tell us what to believe and follow. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter one bit what these men say about a matter: it’s what Abba has to say about it. For when we possess Godly wisdom, when a matter is put forth to us, we will ultimately through the leading of the Holy Spirit (ie., Father’s Ruach HaKodesh) be able to discern Truth from error, misinformation and even lies.
Regarding True Wisdom that comes only from YHVH, Paul wrote:
“After all, is there anyone who knows the qualities of anyone except his own spirit, within him; and in the same way, nobody knows the qualities of God except the Spirit of God. Now, the Spirit we have received is not the spirit of the world but God’s own Spirit, so that we may understand the lavish gifts God has given us. And these are what we speak of, not in the terms learnt from human philosophy, but in terms learnt from the Spirit, fitting spiritual language to spiritual things. The natural person has no room for the gifts of God’s Spirit; to him they are folly; he cannot recognize them, because their value can be assessed only in the Spirit. The spiritual person, on the other hand, can assess the value of everything, and that person’s value cannot be assessed by anybody else. For who has ever known the mind of the Lord? Who has ever been His adviser? But we are those who have the mind of Christ”—that is the mind of Messiah (1 Cor. 2:11-16; NJB).
A Heart Check Is In Order
So then, what am I saying here? Simply this: as we delve into the eternal riches of Scripture, it is incumbent upon us to first assess the state of our hearts. Again, we keep coming around to aggadah being that central thing that governs our entire walk of Faith. Consequently, it will be the state and location of our hearts that will determine our ability to receive and then walk out Truth.
Secondly, let us lean on the Ruach HaKodesh such that Truth is revealed to us in a meaningful and powerful way. Let us not lean to our own understanding (Pro. 3:5).
Therefore, if our hearts are where they’re supposed to be and we are relying upon the leading and guidance of the Ruach HaKodesh (ie., Yah’s Holy Spirit), then we will find and live out the Truth of the matter, and that includes the Truth about Paul’s views of women in the Faith and in the assemblies.
What Does This Have To Do With Hebrew Roots?
Some of you may be wondering why this subject is so important to Torah Observant Disciples of Yahoshua Messiah? If you’re a man, why should you even care? If you’re a woman and you’re not a member of organized religion or of a church or fellowship or assembly, why should you care?
Well, here’s my thoughts on this.
Understanding what Paul really meant in his more controversial and challenging passages will better help us understand the Gospel message that was given to him by Master Y’shua.
There are women within and without our Faith Community who are being told their role in the Body of Messiah is to only raise and teach their children and mentor younger women. It stands to reason that these precious women of Faith are possibly being duped. Was this seeming silencing of women part of the all inclusive Gospel of the Kingdom message that our Master brought us? Maybe, just maybe, you may be used of YHVH to deliver Truth to someone who is in need of receiving it; someone who needs to be freed from the shackles of religion.
All Hands On Deck!
In the dark days ahead, leading to the End of Days and the Tribulation, we’re going to need every person on deck, so to speak. That means, we’re going to need men, women and children out there in the trenches teaching and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to a lost and dying world. There won’t be any time for misinformation and doctrinal foolishness. Master expects all of us to be working and exercising the gifts that He has lavishly bestowed upon His Body. We do not have the luxury of allowing modern day Pharisees who are knowingly (or for that matter unknowingly) stuck in the Greek, Stoic, Rabbinic Judaism mindsets of yesteryear to influence our Work in the Gospel of the Kingdom and our individual places in the Body of Messiah. We all have jobs to do and regardless if you’re a man or woman, Father has bestowed upon you gifts and expectations that you will use those gift for the furthering of the Kingdom and the edification of the Body of Messiah.
Women Have An Obligation To Fulfill Their Calling In Messiah
I know some of you out there have been in the Faith for some time, especially those of you who are women. What I have to say to you is: don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t have a ministry in the Body of Messiah because you’re a woman; or you’ve not been in the Faith long enough; or for whatever reason. Your gender in no way affects your call.
My friend, I’m here to tell you today: Get up off your behind and get to stepping. I don’t care if you’re a woman or a man: if you have a call on your life to teach, preach, prophesy, minister, establish or lead a fellowship, start a podcast or YouTube channel, write a book, start or lead a prayer group, what have you—you best gitter done.
The Parable of the Talents
Master gave us the parable of the talents where He described a man who traveled into a far country. And before departing out on His trip, He called in His servants and gave each a certain number of talents (Mat. 25:14-46). And while this man was away conducting His business, His servants went about putting those talents to work, with the exception of one servant who for whatever reason chose to do nothing with the talents given him by his Master.
Upon the servants’ Master’s return, He calls His servants in unto Himself and demands they each give an account of what they did with the talents He gave them. Each servant gave a good report of what they did with the talents that were given to them and how they made those talents increase their Master’s bottom line. However, the one servant who chose to do nothing with the talent given him revealed that he, out of fear and ignorance, hid the talent—adding nothing to his Master’s bottom line.
You know the rest of the story: the servants who put the talents given them to work and produced increases for their Master’s kingdom were rewarded, while the servant who hid the talent given him was sorely punished.
What shall you do with the talents the Master has given you?
Act Now!
What we will find in the next installments of this series is that people in the First Century Body of Messiah did not allow grass to grow underneath them—ESPECIALLY THE WOMEN. The gifts and callings that these great women of Yah received were aggressively put to use and worked during the first century and we are the beneficiaries of their work.
Was Paul an Emancipator or Subjugator of Women in the Body of Messiah?
No, Paul was NOT telling the women of the Corinthian Assembly of Messianic Disciples of Yahoshua to prettily sit off to the side in the Body of Messiah while the men evangelized the world. He wasn’t establishing roles for women, for women had already been filling leadership roles in the Body of Messiah for a few years by the time first-Corinthians was written. Shaul vehemently taught that gender was irrelevant in the Body of Messiah.
So what are you gonna do with this essential information? This admonishment?
I’ve said this countless times before and I don’t mind saying it again: It’s all about Him and not one bit about us. None of this is about our comfort zones; our gender; our level of education; our circle of friends; our positions in church hierarchies; our station in life; or our past. For Yahoshua and then Paul employed women from every sector of society to be ministers, preachers, teachers, prophets, administrators, patrons and even apostles. And neither meant for women to be silent or idle.
Indeed, Paul was an emancipator of women in the work of the Gospel and in the Body of Messiah.
May you walk in the power and might of Yah’s Holy Spirit (ie., His Ruach HaKodesh) and may you and your families be well and blessed. I bid you a warm and blessed Shalom.
