This is in response to the discussion about the behavior of women. I want to add that so often we get off on a tangent because of poor education about the history and background in the area at the time.

 

Paul did say that he suffered not a woman to teach . . . about keeping silent . . . and so on. He also said that women were not to cut their hair or else let them be shorn and wear a head covering out of respect for their husbands. Without quoting it all, everyone will know what passage I mean.

 

For years I abode by the long hair covering thing, thinking I could not cut my hair at all. But I love research, particularly about history from biblical times--always curious about everything. One day I went to the history section of the library and took out a video entitled “The Seven Gates of Jerusalem“. It was not “religious” but historical. It discussed the different cultures in Jerusalem back then. It did not mention that scripture (or any other). But what an awakening. Among these groups was the following.

 

There was a Jewish sect in Jerusalem that allowed the women long hair until they married. When they married, they were shorn and wore a head covering. Without going into detail I could see that Paul was answering questions regarding converts from that sect and their insistence that women be shorn and wear a scarf out of respect for their husbands. I think Paul very gently tried to address that (her hair IS her covering) and to explain. But unless we know the history of the time, we really have not a clue what he was talking about.

 

That video opened up to me a lot of understanding about Paul, that he was often answering questions that had to do with special problems met there by those ministering. I also believe the same was true about other “woman” issues. It was the custom for only men to hold any position. And in some places that staunch belief is alive even today in that part of the world, and you dare do nothing else or you will scuttle every possibility of success.

 

For example, the Fortune 500 company where I worked for years was once negotiating a contract in the Middle East. The person from our company in charge of the project was a woman. It was necessary for her to have an assistant go into the meetings in her place, with her in attendance with him as his “assistant.” Without their knowledge, she instructed him what to say, what the company would agree to do, etc. And that’s how they got the job done. If she had attempted to conduct anything, all the men in the room would have gotten up and walked out. There would have been no deal.

 

I believe that this is what the church was dealing with and Paul was addressing at the time. I could go into scriptures that refute the idea that women cannot speak or minister but I will let it go at this glimpse of adventuring into the history of the time. I have no personal reason to write this. I am not called to preach or to a position of leadership in the church. Yet it is a discovery I think worth sharing. Women who are called by Yahweh need to be as obedient as possible and, like Jesus, do what they are supposed to do, graciously bearing the reproach of those who do not understand.