Paul, Women, and Contemporary Evangelical Feminism -- By: H. Wayne House

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 136:541 (Jan 1979)
Article: Paul, Women, and Contemporary Evangelical Feminism
Author: H. Wayne House


Paul, Women, and Contemporary Evangelical Feminism

H. Wayne House

[H. Wayne House, Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies and Greek, LeTourneau College, Longview, Texas.]

Various approaches have been used in recent years to explain the Apostle Paul’s statements on the role of women in the church. To today’s new feminine consciousness the apostle appears to be a formidable foe. He is not considered an obstacle to the secular feminist, but Paul must be considered by the evangelical Christian before one makes a final statement of conviction. This article examines how the apostle is understood by different interpreters today, and interacts with some recent developments in the interpretation of Paul on women among some feminists who claim to be within evangelicalism.1

Approaches to Paul’s Thinking about Women

Paul as a Misogynist

The apostle is seen by many feminists as one who hates women, or at least as one who accepts the inferiority and debasedness of the female. The contention is that Paul must be interpreted in the light of intertestamental rabbinic misogyny. It is argued that since Paul received his training under Gamaliel, one of the most famous rabbis, and since he was a man socialized in a very chauvinistic society, it was natural for Paul to believe in the inferiority of

women.2 In line with this idea is Richardson who says, “The goal in Paul’s exegesis appears to be, without I hope being unduly harsh, greater conformity with the Jewish (or Palestinian) view of subordination of women (1 Tim 2:11ff; 1 Cor 11:7ff, especially vv. 10, 12 ).”3

According to this view, Paul must be understood in the light of his training in the Old Testament, which purportedly denigrates women, but the intertestamental writings and rabbinic sources exerted an even greater influence on Paul’s low view of women.4

Paul as a Philogynist

Rather than considering Paul a hater of women, others have perceived him to have been one attracted to women. But if that be so, what about those supposed “anti-feminine, pro-subordination-of-women passages”? One solution is suggested by Walker, in his discussion on 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 as an interpolation:

This means, of course, that the...

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