The apostle Paul often gets a bad press. While many non-Christians regard Jesus and his values in high respect, the same isn’t true for Paul. More often than not he’s seen as the epitome of all that’s unattractive about ‘organised religion’ – narrow-minded, bigoted, and set in his ways. Whether it is over matters of sexual ethics, slavery or women, Paul has been roundly criticised. It was, after all, St Paul who allegedly provided the foundation for the Church of England’s recent rejection of women bishops that so shook and shocked both ecclesiastical hierarchy and wider society.
In the light of that vote, and a new two-part TV documentary, in which David Suchet travels In the footsteps of St Paul, shortly to be broadcast on BBC, it is worth looking briefly at Paul’s attitude to women in what is probably right to call his most considered piece of written prose.
This is his letter to the congregation in Rome – and it is important to recall that is was a letter. Paul wasn’t writing timeless theological tracts, but letters. Back in the 50s of the first century, there were no creeds or gospels (it would be twenty years before Mark picked up his quill). The message of Jesus had been delivered to rural peasants but now, thanks to the efforts of Paul and men like him, was spreading rapidly in the cities of the eastern Roman Empire. Working out what it meant to live a Christian life in these radically different environments was no easy matter. And it’s the questions and concerns of these early Christian groups that Paul tried to address in his letters.
Bearing this in mind, it is particularly illuminating to look at chapter 16 of his letter to Rome. This is the very last section of a letter written to a church Paul didn’t found and wasn’t too familiar with. In this final section, he lists all the people he knows at Rome, and asks that they vouch for him. What is striking is that a third of all the people are women, and they are referred to by Paul as deacons, apostles, and leaders of house churches.
Perhaps most importantly, the letter to Rome – undoubtedly one of the most important that Paul would ever write – was sent to the church by the hand of a woman, Phoebe. She might well be the one to read it out, and would certainly be expected to explain anything that wasn’t clear. If we ever needed any reassurance regarding Paul’s high regard for women’s abilities, this is surely it!
This does not constitute a knock-down argument on all matters of authority, and arguments can be drawn from other texts that were written by Paul and his companions and followers. But it should remind us that we all too readily hear Paul the caricature before we hear Paul the man and that, as with the Lord he followed and gave his life for, we need regularly to re-assess this most vigorous, courageous and provocative of thinkers.
Dr Helen K Bond is a Senior Lecturer in the New Testament and Director of the Centre for Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh's School of Divinity.
In the Footsteps of St Paul is broadcast on BBC One 9am Sunday 23rd December (part 1) and 9am Monday 24th December (part 2).
