Equality In the Bible

Dear Evangelicals:

How, oh, how can Paul say this to one church, while he tells another that women should just shut up in their church?

Hmmmm.

The key is in the wording.

That link will take you to the relevant passage, which Paul begins by saying, "I do not permit ...." (emphasis mine).

Note that Paul doesn't say "God does not permit". He's speaking of personal choice, and maybe personal animus, but not of a commandment from God. Hence "[Y]ou are all one in Christ Jesus".

Then again, there's this, in 1 Corinthians 14:34-37 (NKJV):

"Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.
 
"Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached? If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord."

How is this possible? How is it possible that the man who wrote Galatians 3:28; the man who wrote about the distribution to all of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12; the man who commends a whole host of women in Romans 16 -- not as submissive weaklings, but as fellow laborers in God's work -- how is it possible that this same man could write 1 Corinthians 14:34-37?

How is it possible that the man who wrote an entire epistle admonishing the Galatians not to adhere to Mosaic law, the man who wrote a letter to the Romans that's known as "the Christian Constitution", would drag an entire church, kicking and screaming, back to the law -- clear back to Genesis 3:16?

How is it possible that 1 Corinthians 14:34-37 is even in the Bible, when Peter famously wrote this in 2 Peter 2:21-22?

"[I]t would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: 'A dog returns to his own vomit,' and, 'a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.'"

Isn't Paul dragging the Corinthian church, like dogs, back to their own vomit by dispensing with grace and insisting on the law?

The answer may be in Hebrews 5:12-14 (NKJV), where Paul says this:

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

I don't believe that Paul is contradicting himself in 1 Corinthians 14 at all. I believe the Corinthian church, like the Hebrews, had been spiritually lax, relying on force of habit instead of study and prayer. I believe that the Corinthian church had regressed so profoundly that Paul was forced to take them back to the law -- to break them down and build them back up again, as they say in the U.S. military.

If you read only a few pages of Green Eggs and Ham, you believe that Sam spent the rest of his life refusing to eat green eggs and ham for good reason. If you read only a few passages of the Bible, you believe that women are inherently inferior to men in every way, that they must be silenced, shamed, disciplined, and broken lest the church fall apart.

Some of you will continue to take that view because, unlike Jesus, you don't think it pays to give up your power for the greater good. Looking at the way the church is going, and knowing that God is sovereign, I have to ask, how's that working out for ya?

P.S. Here's a little pro tip: Put your parents or guardians through the Equality In the Bible filter. From whom do you get your notions about gender roles?

Ten to one it's dear, old mom.