Paul the Sexist Apostle

The words of the Apostle Paul have been beamed from many a pulpit, announcing to women their place in the church and in the home.

Submit to your husband.

Do not preach in the church.

Be modest.

Be quiet.

Work hard, bare children and bake for the year end fundraiser.

These scriptural sermons have been used to subdue passion in women for ages. It has estranged entire generations from engaging in their parents’ faith. Why wouldn’t it? These commandments rain down like daggers, saying without saying it, that you are less loved by God because you are a woman.

Many theologies embrace these oppressive ideas even while discarding the other writings of Paul. He’s not really an apostle, you see. It was written after Jesus, you see.

I present to you today, a challenge to the sexist Paul narrative. As a Christian who grew up outside of the church, I had a hard time understanding why women seemed so subdued within it. There are too many Biblical examples of woman in leadership for this to make sense. Why would Jesus have gone to speak with the prophetess Anna if she was not worthy of spiritual gifts? Why is the hunger for wisdom by Queen Sheba seen a compliment to King Solomon? Why would Paul send a deaconess to the Roman church if she had no place of influence?

Romans 16: 1–2

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a deacon in the church in Cenchrea. 2 Welcome her in the Lord as one who is worthy of honor among God’s people. Help her in whatever she needs, for she has been helpful to many, and especially to me.

Let’s take it one commandment at a time:

Be Modest.

The idea of modesty has often shifted into a sense of shame for occupying a female body. Is this what Paul was saying to the early church in Ephesus?

1 Timothy 2: 9–10 NLT

“I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold and pearls or expensive clothes. For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do.”

Modesty, in its true sense, is not about the human body but the human heart. Humility and resisting the urge to show off worldly affluence is the focus here. Believing modesty to be about the length of your skirt or the daring shade of eyeshadow you wear is a tragically shallow interpretation of this call to focus on good works, not appearances.

Do not preach. Be quiet.

1 Timothy 2:11–15 ESV

[11] Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. [12] I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. [13] For Adam was formed first, then Eve; [14] and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. [15] Yet she will be saved through childbearing — if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

Paul was here writing to his spiritual son Timothy who was leading the church in Ephesus. What was Ephesus known for in the ancient world? Apart from being the commercial centre of the Mediterranean, it also housed the Temple of Artemis.

Paul was called, when he became a born-again believer, to serve the Gentiles. His ministry focussed on those not familiar with the lineage of Jesus and the ancient practices that came as second nature to Hebrew believers.

He was speaking to a people who previously worshipped women, even making human sacrifices to them. The temple of Artemis also held an altar for Diana, the goddess of fertility and sex. These new believers came from entirely different world where priestesses ruled over the temple and temple prostitutes were the norm. To be as far removed from their old way of doing things, it made sense that women in Ephesus would not preach in the Christian church as they did in the Pagan temples.

Also consider that the church was set up differently in that day. Our modern setup of one preacher speaking over everyone else did not exist here (unless it was a special occasion). Most of the true fellowship was done in the home where women had visible influence in early church history.

Ah yes, Eve sinned and Adam was misled. This statement is not seen often the Bible, it is usually stated that man has sinned (as in, the human race). There is not much I will say here but to reference Romans 5, written by Paul, where he contrasts the sin of Adam and the salvation of Jesus.

Romans 5:12

Death in Adam, Life in Christ

[12] Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned —

Submit to your husband.

Ephesians 5:22–24 ESV

[22] Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. [23] For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Saviour. [24] Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

I love this chapter, especially for the verses that follow that are, more often than not, left out of the narrative.

Ephesians 5:25–30

[25] Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, [26] that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, [27] so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. [28] In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. [29] For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, [30] because we are members of his body.

If your husband loves you like Jesus loves the church, I can imagine submitting to him to be a whole different story. Someone who loves you like their own flesh, and is willing to be a martyr for you will likely not be domineering, disrespectful or unloving.

The image of Jesus and the church is used to illustrate what a marriage should be. I argue that more pressure is put on men here than on women.

Ephesians 5:31–33

[31] “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” [32] This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. [33] However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

This deep love between man and wife, sacrificial and protective, is rarely spoken of. If we are one flesh, then how can one be less than the other?

Don’t worry, I won’t hit you with the “we are different but equal” schtick. However, in a faith where “the weak are strong” (paraphrase, 2 Corinthians 12:10) it is a mystery that the church ever treated the ‘weaker sex’ as less worthy, when Christ never did.