Saint Paul Essay

Submitted By mstee00
Words: 560
Pages: 3

The articles “St. Paul, Friend or Enemy of Women?” and “Was Paul For or Against Women in Ministry?” both in unison described Apostle Paul’s feelings about women, and their roles in the church. He believed that women were created second, and sinned first, so they should keep quiet. This meant obeying your husband, and most importantly to him, having no authority in the ministries. Paul thought that women should not teach God’s word, and it was unacceptable if they did do so. However, when the Hellenistic Jewish-Christian church that he joined began to baptized people, Paul became more tolerable of women having some sort of power in the church. Yet, Apostle Paul only thought that females could teach under certain regulations. For example, their heads must be shielded when speaking the word of God. To Paul this showed that women were still secondary to men. These articles wanted to show that Paul was not a misogynist that believed males controlled entirety, but he did not think that men and women were equal. This is why when he did accept women with authority in the ministries, there were conditions that came with them. However, in the second article, the main goal was to prove that today women are accepted teachers in the church, without these conditions. We are all one in the body of Christ, no matter what our social class, background, gender or ethnicity is. I know that most of us heard of the phrase “when in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Well, this is what I think of Apostle Paul from reading these articles. At first, he was totally against women ministering in the churches. However, when the baptism formula was invented by the Hellenistic Jewish-Christian church that he joined, his demeanor changed. When Christians were baptized, this meant that they were all one in Christ. Everyone was equal, women and men, slaves and the freed and Greek and Jewish people. There was no social status, everybody was one. This is when Paul started to accept women being leaders in the church house. Yet, he still had some minor problems with females. This is why I believe that Apostle Paul was a “frenemy” of women.