[u-dog]

Originally Posted by Dumbledore

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.

REDACTION HOCUS POCUS ??? Now you're just being dumb, Ledore! Redaction is a well document biblical process, a well documented literary process generally, and a well document cultural process. Hocus pocus indeed!

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.

I actually wasn't referring to the long hair passage here, though I can see why you might think I was. I was actually referring to the passage in 1 corinthians 14 where the text forbids women to speak in church. THIS IS NOT PAUL SPEAKING! look below.

Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. 30If a revelation is made to someone else sitting nearby, let the first person be silent. 31For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged. 32And the spirits of prophets are subject to the prophets, 33for God is a God not of disorder but of peace.
(As in all the churches of the saints, 34women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says. 35If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.* 36Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only ones it has reached?)
37 Anyone who claims to be a prophet, or to have spiritual powers, must acknowledge that what I am writing to you is a command of the Lord. 38Anyone who does not recognize this is not to be recognized. 39So, my friends,* be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues;

Paul is talking away about the appropriate use of the prophetic gift, then suddenly stops talking about that and starts talking about women in church and then, just as suddenly, stops talking about women and resumes talking about Prophecy. if you skip the rant about women the text reads MORE (not "as") smoothly and makes more sense. Add to this the fact that verses 34-36 uses language and catagories that are not typically Pauline AND that Paul has many friendships and working relationships with women who OBVIOUSLY had to have talked in church in order to do the things that he has credited them with doing... it is simply not credible that verses 34-36 are genuine Paul. Somebody stuck that shit in later because they wanted the ladies to sit down and shut up.

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

Horse Pucky! He was the second feminist in history. Jesus being the first.