Paul
What are our presuppositions about Paul?
Does Paul have an engendered and hierarchical view of the created
order?
How radical a notion of equality did he have? Galations 3:28 There
is no longer Jew or Gree, there is no longer slave or free, there
is no longer male and female,; for all of you are one inChrsit
Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring,
heirs according to the promise.
Or
Biblical Authority: Presupposition - scripture is to be read
as prescribed laws
by which we should govern the life of our community without regard
to
1) the original context, 2) changing social situations or 3)changing
presuppositions about the significance of gender difference.
No speaking in church
Wear veils
1 Cor 14:34-35: Silence
1) these verses contradict 1 Cor 11:5 - wear head covering when praying and prophesying
2) Women elsewhere in Paul's letters are involved in speaking ministries:women active in Rome Aquila and Prisca, Junia, etc. Authority of Chloe?
3) Vs. 36 does not follow logically from 34-35 . "Either the word of God originated with you? Or you are the only ones it has reached?" suggests that Paul does not agree with the statement that women should be silent.
1 Cor 11:2-16: Veils
We are engendered at creation
If a wife does not have authority over her own body (1 Cor
7:4) does the veil serve as symbol of authority?
Equity in Marriage ? Does Paul presuppose Jesus' teaching on divorce
Matt 5 and 19?
Look at Matthew 19 divorce text and the language of Eunuch.
1 Cor 7:8, 25-40
Does Paul have a negative notion about human body and sexuality?
Examination of celebacy issue I Cor 7: Concession not comman.d
1 Tim 2:8-15 I permit no women to teach
1) Contradicts Col 3:16 "Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and
with gratitude in your hearts sin psalms, hymns, and spiritual
songs to God."
1 Cor 14:26 "What should be done then, my friends? When you
come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a
tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building
up."
2) prophecy comes before teaching in catalogue of gifts Rom 12; 1 Cor 12; Eph 4 : Apostle; prophet; teacher
3) Doctrinal implications:
a) Rom 5 and 1 Cor 15 Adam is accountable for Fall
If fall is the problem then men should not teach either
b) Vs. 15 salvation through works??
c) Gal 3:28 salvation is no longer mediated through men
Analysis of the Rhetorical Economy of I Timothy
The following questions are designed to assist students in discovering the picture of christian society that the author of I Timothy wishes to paint through a rhetoric of gender and marital relationships.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, pryaers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
This is the solution. What is the problem that the letter addresses? (Chapter 1)
Look at how the organization of the church is represented.
How does it differ from the picture of the primitive church that
we have painted? (3:3-5:20)
How does the epistle represent women's propensities? By what is
she measured?
(Chapter 2-3 and 5:5-16)
What are man's propensities? What is the measure of a man?
Are there differences in the way's that men's and women's speech is represented? Look at 4:7 as well as chapters 2-3
How does this rhetoric of gender and marriage differ from that found in 1 Corinthians?
What seems to be happening to the representation of Christian society as it moves into its second century? We will discuss this together at length.
Dennis Ronald MacDonald, The Legend and the Apostle: The Battle for Paul in Story and Canon (Westminster Press, 1983). We can delineate two trajectories. One represented by 1 Timothy and the other by the Acts of Paul and Thekla.
Dennis Macdonald argues that the pastoral epistles develop dialectically from Paul's ministry "that is, they were written to oppose another strand of Pauline tradition whose legends depicted him as a social radical." P. 97
MacDonald also points to the importance of the pastorals as
an affirmation of the goodness of creation and the creation of
a place for Christianity within civic society rather than as
a sectarian community that defined itself over against dominant
cultures. He ends up calling for a sort of opening of the canon
to include these stories as an encouragement not to be conformed
to this world.