What did St Paul think of women?

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.

Hakawaka

Active member
Jul 1, 2021
308
157
43
#21
Paul thought well enough about women, but Paul being an apostle is bound to tell the truth both to them and about them. Just because the modern world doesn't agree with Paul about women doesn't make Paul bad or disrespectful, it rather just means the modern world is wrong and evil in that it has departed significantly from the soudness of the truth and God especially on the matter of women being a very recurring problem of the modern world.
This is it. Modern world feminist movement has just brainwashed everyone away from traditional values.

This is not something unique to Paul. It was common culture pretty much everywhere. The way God ordained it.

I blame the western sexual revolution and introduction of birth control. In a natural state these "im a woman hear me roar" types would be a lot less yappy and 'empowered' as they would be constantly pregnant.

The muslim world is also slipping into feminism as of late, it will happen worldwide, feminism, LGBT mania, why? Because it will be like the days of Lot, like the days of Noah prior to Jesus return. So get ready fellas.
 

MsMediator

Well-known member
Mar 8, 2022
1,090
736
113
#22
This is it. Modern world feminist movement has just brainwashed everyone away from traditional values.

This is not something unique to Paul. It was common culture pretty much everywhere. The way God ordained it.

I blame the western sexual revolution and introduction of birth control. In a natural state these "im a woman hear me roar" types would be a lot less yappy and 'empowered' as they would be constantly pregnant.

The muslim world is also slipping into feminism as of late, it will happen worldwide, feminism, LGBT mania, why? Because it will be like the days of Lot, like the days of Noah prior to Jesus return. So get ready fellas.
The 1950s housewives were not all happy. It is minimizing someone's experience when a group is painted with the same brush. See the movie Revolutionary Road; unhappy depressed housewife with a husband who has a fling with a office worker. In fact, I had that a husband having a relationship with the office secretary was kind of a thing. Betty Friedan's 1963 book, The Feminine Mystic is actually a survey of unhappy housewives not really unhappy single women. Even the parent figures in Leave it to Beavers were married multiple times. All woman are different; some may want to be constantly pregnant others not so much. I would say the happiness levels among women in the olden times and now are about the same. People in good marriages are happy. Desperate singles will be unhappy.
 

Daniel_Hoseiny

Active member
Apr 16, 2024
191
105
43
39
Netherlands
#23
I love the writings of Paul, he was an incredible man, yet I am in need of some clarification about his views of women and how they may still apply to this day and age.
I get the impression he didn't like women much, didn't want them to speak out, he felt marriage was not ideal unless a man or woman just couldn't control themselves. Then better marriage than fornication.

What biblical evidence is there about him, was he ever married and did he respect women? I wonder what he would think of women in important church positions as these days.
שלום עליכם
Shalom, God's peace be with you.

He was not a misogynist. He just supported the patriarchal tradition with it's biblical hierarchy, wherein a woman has a submissive position in regard to man, not because she is a second-class human, but because she has a different service inside the family and society. This service is being a good mother and a housewife. And this is challenging task. The service of a leader is too hard for a woman.

God be with you. Praise Jesus.
 

Edify

Well-known member
Jan 27, 2021
1,559
656
113
#24
I find many christians' reactions to Paul's teaching about women disingenuous.... but not on purpose in every situation.
Such people break a cardinal biblical rule consistently... they refuse to consider the CONTEXT of the scripture they use.
Please do not be guilty of parroting someone's favorite teachings that have no biblical basis.
 

CS1

Well-known member
May 23, 2012
13,058
4,341
113
#25
I love the writings of Paul, he was an incredible man, yet I am in need of some clarification about his views of women and how they may still apply to this day and age.
I get the impression he didn't like women much, didn't want them to speak out, he felt marriage was not ideal unless a man or woman just couldn't control themselves. Then better marriage than fornication.

What biblical evidence is there about him, was he ever married and did he respect women? I wonder what he would think of women in important church positions as these days.
FYI, Paul had female friends, and he honored them in many of His Epistles.
 

SaysWhat

Active member
Jan 17, 2024
268
49
28
#26
שלום עליכם
Shalom, God's peace be with you.

He was not a misogynist. He just supported the patriarchal tradition with it's biblical hierarchy, wherein a woman has a submissive position in regard to man, not because she is a second-class human, but because she has a different service inside the family and society. This service is being a good mother and a housewife. And this is challenging task. The service of a leader is too hard for a woman.

God be with you. Praise Jesus.
In the old testament women are mentioned as leaders. And some in new testament.

Today women have the fastest growing IQ compared to men. Imo Because the suppression of women over the centuries which is a type of intellectual chains.
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,184
6,604
113
62
#27
The head of the man is Christ.
The head of the woman is man.

These aren't statements of value. They merely represent hierarchy.
 

Bruce_Leiter

Active member
Feb 17, 2023
427
191
43
#28
The Bible (and Paul) reflects God's teachings, which are between two cultural extremes, the male dominance of the past and the equalitarianism of the present. To interpret Paul's writings, we have to go back to Genesis 1, where God made humans male and female, implying equality of status before God. In Genesis 2, he gives Adam and Eve different roles or functions, since he created Adam first and then Eve, who is Adam's helper, though still equal in status before God.

In chapter three, God includes as part of the curse men's rulership (dominance) over females (3:16), but it was a curse.

In Paul's writings, we need to be careful not to interpret the meanings of his words from the popular dictionary meaning, but with the Bible's own meanings. In other words, the words in Ephesians 5 "submit" and "love" must be taken in their biblical contexts and in other passages' usages. To submit as a wife (woman) means a voluntary giving in to the will of someone with a measure of greater authority. To love as a husband (man) means to serve the wife (woman) so that God will lift him up to be the servant-leader of the marriage or church.

Paul, therefore, rejects male dominance and male-female equalitarianism. After all, the shekel or denarius has to stop with one of the partners, or divorce will eventually happen as they drift apart with separate decisions.

I'm very thankful that during my 56 years of marriage, my wife was willing to submit to the many calls that God gave me as a pastor to go to seven different churches, though she was reluctant to move sometimes because God gave her teaching jobs in each place.
 

SaysWhat

Active member
Jan 17, 2024
268
49
28
#29
The head of the man is Christ.
The head of the woman is man.

These aren't statements of value. They merely represent hierarchy.
What's the hierarchy of a woman who has never married or have kids?
 

NotmebutHim

Senior Member
May 17, 2015
2,938
1,609
113
48
#31
Whatever Paul's human thoughts on women might have been (as his flesh was still corrupt), what he wrote in Scripture about women was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

$0.02
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,184
6,604
113
62
#32
Whatever Paul's human thoughts on women might have been (as his flesh was still corrupt), what he wrote in Scripture about women was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

$0.02
That was worth at least a quarter.
 

Nehemiah6

Senior Member
Jul 18, 2017
26,074
13,774
113
#33
What's the hierarchy of a woman who has never married or have kids?
If she is a Christian, Christ is her Head. therefore she must cover her head during worhsip.
 

Webers.Home

Well-known member
May 28, 2018
5,817
1,072
113
Oregon
cfbac.org
#34
.
What's the hierarchy of a woman who has never married or have kids?

The Christian version of gender hierarchy is based primarily upon origin and
primogeniture irrespective of marriage and/or family.


For example: the man was created in the image of God, whereas the woman
was created in the image of the man, viz: the man was a discrete specimen
created with material taken from the Earth's soil, whereas the woman was
constructed with material taken from the man's body, thus she was the flip
side of the same coin instead of made a whole other coin of her own, viz: he
was the senior of the two on the one coin and she the junior.


* Women will never be truly equal with men except artificially by means of
man-made statutes because the divine scheme of things is a fixed frozen
sea, i.e. I doubt God has any plans to go back and do it over so as to
appease progressive women's gripes about their station in life.
_
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
60,133
29,445
113
#35
Whatever Paul's human thoughts on women might have been (as his flesh was still corrupt), what he wrote in Scripture about women was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

$0.02
1 Cor 7:12 To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If a brother has an unbelieving wife
and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13 And if a woman has
an unbelieving husband and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him.
 

MsMediator

Well-known member
Mar 8, 2022
1,090
736
113
#36
The hierarchy is in the church.
Unmarried women are under the headship of her father until married.
That's traditional practice but not sure if this is scriptural. I understand if unmarried women were not working, someone would have to provide for the woman including her retirement then I assume it would be her father.
 

brighthouse98

Senior Member
Apr 16, 2015
665
336
63
71
#38
Don't be too hard on our brother Paul, His statements about women were that they have their place in the body of Christ just never to be the acting head of the body of Christ in the Church. He also made it very clear to men how to treat our ladies! (1 Tim5:2-4) So Mary don't think you are not important!!! Because you surely are!!
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,184
6,604
113
62
#39
That's traditional practice but not sure if this is scriptural. I understand if unmarried women were not working, someone would have to provide for the woman including her retirement then I assume it would be her father.
It's not simply about physical provision. Traditionally, women would remain in their parents home until marriage, but she doesn't need to live at home to still be under the care of her father. A father does more than provide materially. He should be providing spiritually and emotionally as well. That can be provided inside or outside of his home.
 

daisyseesthesun

Well-known member
Aug 23, 2024
656
382
63
#40
I love the writings of Paul, he was an incredible man, yet I am in need of some clarification about his views of women and how they may still apply to this day and age.
I get the impression he didn't like women much, didn't want them to speak out, he felt marriage was not ideal unless a man or woman just couldn't control themselves. Then better marriage than fornication.

What biblical evidence is there about him, was he ever married and did he respect women? I wonder what he would think of women in important church positions as these days.

Mary,


when I was young I heard a story that was told to me by a minister. He said there was a woman who was named
Hypatia of Alexandria. who was a prominent figure in society so much so that she rose up above all men. She held a high office and was greatly favoured. Now the bishop's nephew Cyril was jealous of her prominence so he spread a false rumor and soon after a mob of men killed her.



Men lord some of these verses over us women but God never meant it to be a heavy burden upon us but a gift of protection because God knows how jealous men can get.