From: Edward Hobbs (EHOBBS@WELLESLEY.EDU)
Date: Sat Sep 11 1999 - 11:48:26 EDT
(Again, apologies for lateness--computer crash.)
Jim West repeats an old saw about division of men and women in synagogues
(and churches! what buildings did they have in Paul's day?).
Bernadette Brooten laid this to rest about two decades ago-- she proved
that the supposed archeological evidence was grossly misinterpeted (the
imaginary "balcony" was used for grain-storage, not seating for women!).
And (as Randall has already stated), the segregation of women is a
much later development in the literature.
The archives have a great deal to say about this--we've been around it
a great deal. The literature is heavy, and many hold that the sentence in
14 is a later gloss (there is even text-critical evidence for this, with
the sentence moving in some OL MSS.).
Ande if Paul did write it, he really WAS a misogynist! (Women chatter;
they interrupt services; their husbands are smarter than they are, and must
explain things at home; unmarried women will have to remain uncorrected.)
It sounds like good old Polycarp to me! (As Hans von Campenhausen argued,
quite persuasively once, in regard to 1 Timothy.)
See the archives.
Now why Paul forbids women to speak is really not because he was anti-woman-
but, for a simple historical reality... to wit- churches, like synagogues,
divided the men on one side and the women on the other. Imagine, if you
will, women on one side of a house asking their husbands on the other side
of the house about what the speaker is talking about while the speaker is
talking! what a racket! Paul, thus, simply requires the women to remain
silent during the sermon and ask their questions when they get home- so they
dont disrupt the procedures. No need here to rescue Paul from misogynism.
Further, hs is not saying that women should not speak (preach)- for he
presumes they do just that in 1 Cor 11. (rather a long answer for a short
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