[Dumbledore]

Originally Posted by u-dog

The passages in the letter to the Corinthians that deal with women's leadership in the churches are considered by MANY (most?) reputable scholars to be interpolations inserted by later redactors OR at the very least compromises by Paul with his culture for the sake of the broader acceptability of Gospel in Roman/Greek society. I personally believe that they are interpolations. here are my reasons:

I'll go with "at the very least compromises by Paul with his culture". All this redaction hocus pocus is often a way modern scholars inappropriately read their contemporary ideologies (like feminism) into the text.

1. They contradict Paul's clearly understood theology (as expressed in Galations and elsewhere) that in christ there is no longer male and female.

2. They are at odds with the greetings to colleagues that Paul includes in most of his authentic letters. from these greetings it is clear that Paul relies on and values the leadership, courage, and spiritual insights of women to accomplish his ends.

3. If you read Corinthians with those passages excised there is no interuption in the flow of the language. In fact, the text reads more smoothely without them. Its really pretty clear that they were not part of the original composition.

I'm not buying the reasoning here. Paul puts gender into very strong role buckets but still affirms that women and men are equal before God. Just because the text reads smoothly when you pull out the long hair passage does not mean that it was not meant to be there.

Paul was a radical egalitarian, even by todays standards. By first century standards he was a TOTAL WHACKO!! (God bless him!)

I think he was a Jewish man with all the accompanying cultural baggage.