The relationship between Paul the Apostle and women is an important element in the theological debate about Christianity and women because Paul was the first writer to give ecclesiastical directives about the role of women in the Church. However, there are arguments that some of these writings are post-Pauline interpolations.Odell-Scott, D.W. "Editorial dilemma: the interpolation of 1 Cor 14:34–35 in the western manuscripts of D, G and 88." Web: 23 Mar 2018.
Female disciples
The Gospels record that women were among Jesus' earliest followers. Jewish women disciples, including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna, had accompanied Jesus during his ministry and supported him out of their private means. Although the details of these gospel stories may be questioned, in general they reflect the prominent historical roles women played as disciples in Jesus' ministry. There were women disciples at the foot of the cross. Women were reported to be the first witnesses to the resurrection, chief among them was Mary Magdalene. She was not only "witness", but also called a "messenger" of the risen Christ.
From the beginning of the Early Christian church, women were important members of the movement. As time went on, groups of Christians organized within the homes of believers. Those who could offer their home for meetings were considered important within the movement and assumed leadership roles.Margaret MacDonald, "Reading Real Women Through Undisputed Letters of Paul" in Women and Christian Origins, ed. by Ross Sheppard Kraemer and Mary Rose D'Angelo (Oxford: University Press, 1999), p. 204 Such a woman was Lydia of Thyatira, a wealthy dealer in purple cloth. After hearing Paul preach, she and her household were baptized.
The earliest Christian movement, most notably Paul’s movement, was very attractive for wealthy women and widows. They often opened their houses for worship by particular religious movements. According to Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, in the 1st century a woman's place was in the home and the otherwise private areas of life. Turning the private domestic setting into the public religious setting opened up opportunities for religious leadership. Pauline Christianity did not honor its rich patron; instead, it worked within a "motif of reciprocity" by offering leadership roles, dignity and status in return for patronage. Through building up their own house church, women could experience relative authority, social status and political power and renewed dignity within Paul's movement. This concept is reflected in Paul's relationship with Phoebe, Chloe, and Rufus's mother.
Epistolary evidence
By the time Paul began his missionary movement, women were important agents within the different cities. Letters generally accepted as Paul’s are Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and Philemon. His casual greetings to acquaintances offer solid information about many Jewish and Gentile women who were prominent in the movement. His letters provide vivid clues about the kinds of activities in which women engaged more generally.Frontline: from jesus to christ - the first christians: paul's mission and letters. PBS. Retrieved on 2011-02-13.
In the Letter to the Romans, Paul sends greetings to a number of people and specifically mentions:
Priscilla and her husband Aquila. She and her husband are mentioned six times in the Bible, as missionary partners with the Apostle Paul. They were also partners in the craft of tentmaking. The author of Acts states that they were refugees who came first to Corinth when the Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome. Paul mentions that at some point they had risked their lives for him. When Paul refers to Priscilla and Aquila, Priscilla is listed first two out of three times. Some scholars have suggested that she was the head of the family unit. Mary and "the beloved Persis" are commended for their hard work. He greets Julia, and Nereus's sister, who worked and traveled as missionaries in pairs with their husbands or brothers. He also sends greetings to Tryphena and Tryphosa, who "labour for the Lord's work", and to Rufus' mother. Barbara Leonhard notes that "the fact that Paul singles them out indicates his respect for their ministry." He commends to their hospitality, Phoebe, a leader from the church at Cenchreae, a port city near Corinth. Paul attaches to her three titles: diakonos meaning a deacon (lit. "servant"), sister, and prostatis meaning "a woman in a supportive role, patron, benefactor".‘προστάτις, ιδος, ἡ (προΐστημι, cp. προστάτης; Cornutus 20 p. 37, 20; Lucian, Bis Accus. 29 θεὰ προστάτις ἑαυτῶν; Cass. Dio 42, 39 al.; PGM 36, 338; also pap ref. New Docs 4, 243) a woman in a supportive role, patron, benefactor (the relationship suggested by the term πρ. is not to be confused w. the Rom. patron-client system, which was of a different order and alien to Gk. tradition [s. JTouloumakos, Her 116, ’88, 304–24]) προστάτις πολλῶν ἐγενήθη καὶ ἐμοῦ αὐτοῦ she has proved to be of great assistance to many, including myself Ro 16:2 (Ltzm., Hdb. ad loc. The masc. προστάτης took on a technical sense and is found w. this mng. in Israelite [Schürer III, 102] as well as in polyth. [OGI 209; SIG 1109, 13; CIG I, 126; GHeinrici, ZWT 19, 1876, 516ff.—EZiebarth, Das griech. Vereinswesen 1896, index s.v.; Poland, Gesch., index s.v.; WOtto, Priester u. Tempel im hellenist. Ägypten II 1908 p. 75, 1] religious circles).—S. preceding entry. On women as benefactors, s. RvanBremen, in Images of Women in Antiquity, ed. ACameron/AKuhrt ’83, 223–42; COsiek, Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World: BR 39, ’94, 57–61 (NT). New Docs 4, 242–44. M-M.’, Arndt, Danker, & Bauer, A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature, p. 885 (3rd ed. 2000). There is no difference when the title of deacon is used for Phoebe and Timothy. Diakonos (Gk.) is grammatically a masculine word, the same word that Paul uses in regards to his own ministry. Phoebe is the only woman to be named "deacon".T. Hammer, ‘Wealthy Widows and Female Apostles: The Economic and Social Status of Women in Early Roman Christianity,’ in G.D. Dunn, D. Luckensmeyer & L. Cross (ed.), Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church: Poverty and Riches, 5 (Strathfield: Paulist Press, 2009), 65–74. Phoebe was especially influential in the early Church, seen in Jerusalem from the 4th century inscription: "Here lies the slave and bride of Christ, Sophia, deacon, the second Phoebe, who fell asleep in Christ."R. Saunders, Outrageous Women, Outrageous God: Women in the First Two Generations of Christianity (Alexandria: E.J. Dwyer, 1996), 117 Women flourished in the diaconate between the 2nd and 6th centuries. The position assigned pastoral cares to women, instructed female candidates and anointed them at baptism. They were also required to be present whenever a female would address a bishop.J. Wijngaards. No Women in Holy Orders? The Women Deacons of the Early Church. (Norwich: Canterbury, 2002) In Romans, Phoebe is seen as acting as Paul's envoy. Phoebe is named as a Patron of Paul, meaning that she would have been a financial contributor to Paul's mission. Junia is also mentioned. According to Bart Ehrman, Paul praises Junia as a prominent apostle who had been imprisoned for her labour. Junia is "the only female apostle named in the New Testament". Ian Elmer states that Junia and Andronicus are the only "apostles" associated with Rome that were greeted by Paul in his letter to the Romans.Elmer, Ian. "Was Roman Christianity founded by a woman?" Catholica. Web: 9 Dec 2009. Steven Finlan says Paul greets this couple as "kinspersons and fellow prisoners" and says that "they are outstanding amongst the apostles".Finlan, Steven. The Apostle Paul and the Pauline Tradition. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2008. pp. xiv + 229. According to Ian Elmer, the fact that Andronicus and Junia are named as apostles suggests a priori that they were evangelists and church-planters like Paul. Some translators have rendered the name as the masculine "Junias", but Chrysostom seems clear: "Indeed, how great the wisdom of this woman must have been that she was even deemed worthy of the title apostle.". Scholars dispute whether the grammar indicates that Junia was an apostle herself, or simply well known to the apostles (not being one herself).Junia (New Testament person) Chloe was a prominent woman of Corinth. It was from "Chloe's people" that Paul, then at Ephesus learned of the divisions in the congregation of Corinth. In Philippians he expresses appreciation for Euodia and Syntyche his fellow-workers in the gospel.Laput CM, Thaddeus Noel G., "Women and St. Paul", Catholic San Francisco, March 6, 2009
According to Karen King, these biblical reports seem to provide credible evidence of women apostles being active in the earliest work of spreading the Christian gospel.King, Karen L. "Women in Ancient Christianity: The New Discoveries."
In Galatians 3:28, Paul wrote "nor is there male and female," hearkening back to Genesis 1, for all are one in Christ.
Deaconesses
According to Thurston, there can be no doubt that in their first institution the deaconesses were intended to discharge those same charitable offices, connected with the temporal well being of their poorer fellow Christians, which were performed for the men by the deacons. But in one particular, the instruction and baptism of catechumens, their duties involved service of a more spiritual kind. The universal prevalence of baptism by immersion and the anointing of the whole body that preceded it rendered it a matter of propriety that in this ceremony the functions of the deacons should be discharged by women.Thurston, Herbert. "Deaconesses." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 11 Aug. 2014
Ecclesiastical directives
Silence in church The letters of Paul, dated to the middle of the first century AD, were written to specific communities in response to particular questions or problems. Paul was in Ephesus around the year 56 when he received disquieting news regarding the church at Corinth. Factionalism had developed. At the fellowship meal some got drunk while others were left hungry. There seemed to be a preference for ecstatic prayer at the expense of works of charity, with a number of members all "speaking in tongues" at the same time. It was apparently reported to him that women were appearing at the assembly without the head covering customary in contemporary Greek society, and may have been arguing over their right to address the assembly. The fledgling community appeared to be in disorder."1 Corinthians", Introduction, NAB, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2003
1 Corinthians 14:33–35 (NIV) states:
Barbara Leonhard and others"1 Corinthians 14", note 10, NAB, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2003 find this contradicts a statement in 1 Corinthians 11:5 that seems to presuppose that women are, in fact, praying and prophesying in the assembly of believers (but prefers they do it with the appropriate head covering). Leonhard notes that it is inconsistent with Paul's dealings with his co-workers in that women such as Prisca, Phoebe and Junia could not have functioned as Church leaders and apostles if they were not allowed to speak in public. She and other scholars believe this to be a "post-Pauline interpolation".
According to Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary:
According to this thesis, verses 14:33 and 14:36 were meant to be a single statement, as follows: