Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 14:1 (Spring 2009)
Article: On The Loquacity Of Women, Homeboys, And 1 Tim 2:11-12
Author: Peter R. Schemm, Jr.

JBMW 14:1 (Spring 2009) p. 18

On The Loquacity Of Women, Homeboys, And 1 Tim 2:11-12

Peter R. Schemm, Jr.

Associate Professor of Theology

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Wake Forest, North Carolina

I guess I had no idea that one of the most popular rap songs of 1985—and one that my friends and I sometimes quoted to one another as high school seniors—was so theologically interesting. The group was known as Run D.M.C., and they broke into hip hop with a track titled “You Talk Too Much.” Perhaps you have heard it in a movie or an advertisement. The chorus (if we may call it that) says,

You talk too much,

You never shut up,

I said you talk too much,

Homeboy, you never shut up.

The success of the rap, in part, was due to the reality it conveyed. Some of the homeboys simply talked too much. And they needed to be corrected. This idea rang true in “the hood” as well as at the local country club.

Why is this song theologically interesting? Because it suggests a curious theological proposition about the nature of male and female.

Fast forward to the year 2008, and I find myself in a chapel service at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary listening to a sermon. Early in the message the speaker reflected on his propensity to talk too much. I think he was warning us about the length of the sermon. He said this: “My wife calls me motor mouth…. ‘You talk more than other men…. You talk too much.’ …” His wife’s assessment was spot on. Chapel ran about twenty minutes over that day. I actually enjoyed the message. But the point remains. “You talk too much.… Homeboy, you never shut up.”

Why is a preacher’s personal admission about talking too much so theologically interesting? Because it undermines the common assumption that women talk more than men.

Now we are prepared to ask the question that forms the basis for this essay. Do women talk more than men? That is, are females inherently more loquacious than males simply because of their gender? If so, what are we to make of the above examples? Are they simply men who are more “in touch” with their “feminine side”?

The answer is not as simple as one might think. And we ought to be careful in how we use Scripture to answer this question—as well as other questions like it. That is really the larger point of this two-part essay (I hope to offer a second installment, “On the Gullibility of Women”). In short, the purpose of the essay is to show the importance of exercising a responsible hermeneutic when it comes to reading gender passages in Scripture.