Paul Behaving Badly: Was the Apostle a Racist, Chauvinist Jerk? by E. Randolph Richards & Brandon J. O'Brien

Author:E. Randolph Richards & Brandon J. O'Brien
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2015-03-31T16:00:00+00:00

WAS PAUL A CHAUVINIST?

We’ve done our best to defend Paul against the charge of chauvinism and we believe Paul should be acquitted. Nevertheless, some of the things he says certainly do sound chauvinistic, at least to twenty-first-century Western ears. If that’s true for you, we suggest you keep a couple of things in mind when you read Paul.

First, remember that Paul’s writings are “occasional writings.” We have explained this before, but it bears repeating: all of Paul’s writings are letters that were addressed to specific recipients to discuss a specific set of problems or questions. Some occasion prompted Paul to write each letter. Paul tells Timothy, “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas” (2 Tim 4:13). He also tells Philemon to prepare a guest room (Philem 22). These statements were directed at real, specific people in the past. When we read Paul’s letters, we are reading someone else’s mail. Because we only have half the story—Paul’s response, but not the original question—we have to be very cautious jumping to conclusions. Paul points out to the Corinthians, who doubted the resurrection, “Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?” (1 Cor 15:29). We really don’t know what Paul was talking about, but the Corinthians knew. We must practice a bit of humility when we pull statements from Paul and pronounce them as “Paul’s view on women.”

Second, because Paul’s letter had original recipients (and we are not them), we have to be careful when we universalize Paul’s statements that were intended as responses to specific situations. Paul saying that there were some gullible women in Ephesus is not the same thing as saying that all women in the world are gullible, or even that all the women in Ephesus were gullible. There were some gullible, weak-willed women in Ephesus sponsoring dinner parties for false teachers who were leading some church members astray. Paul steps in with a heavy hand because his church is in danger. But his response to specific women should not be extrapolated as his view of all women everywhere.

Finally, we have to be careful not to read the letters selectively and focus only on the statements that support or offend our sensibilities. It is indisputable that Paul had strong words for easily-deceived, weak-willed women who couldn’t hold their tongues or their liquor. But focusing on these less-than-noble comments about some women can cause us to overlook that Paul praises and publicly acknowledges other women who served alongside him in ministry. In Paul’s list of greetings at the end of Romans, he calls out Rufus’s mom and Julia and Nereus’s sister, who he calls “saints” (Rom 16:13, 15 NRSV). Paul identifies three female colleagues: Junia, who he calls “outstanding among the apostles” (Rom 16:7), Phoebe, a “deacon of the church in Cenchreae,” and Priscilla who, along with her husband Aquila, Paul praises as his “coworkers in Christ Jesus” (Rom 16:1, 3).

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