Paul believed that angels, and possibly uninvited demonic spirits as well, were present in the charismatic gatherings of his followers as they invoked the Spirit of Christ, who shows his presence and power through manifesting various gifts of the Spirit.5 Eating at the “table of the Lord,” as Paul refers to their sacred meal, is an occasion of segregated holiness for the group, when the spiritual presence of Christ is quite literally imbibed through the bread and the wine (1 Corinthians 10:21). Paul entertains the possibility that demons might be brought along by those who might have also eaten recently at an idol’s temple and been unwittingly bonded with them (1 Corinthians 10:14–21). These spiritual realities and dangers make the proper conduct and modesty of women of vital importance to the well-being of the group as a whole. Paul had just warned the group that those who were punished in the days of Moses had eaten and drunk in holiness but then “rose up to dance” in sexually immodest ways (1 Corinthians 10:6–7).
Paul is adamant about his stance. His tone is strident and uncompromising. He sarcastically says that if women insist on cutting their hair they should just shave their heads like common prostitutes—and if they find that shameful, then they should cover their heads! (1 Corinthians 11:5–6).
Paul obviously anticipates that some women will object to his views, some perhaps because of Greco-Roman fashion, in which women routinely put their hair up above their neck and ears. However, it is possible that others object on the grounds of what Paul has taught them, that there was “no longer male or female” in Christ. If such was ever the case, would it not be so in the assembly, when all were gathered as one, eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ’s body? Also, since these women were praying and giving prophecies ecstatically in the Spirit, were they not acting directly under the authority of Christ? Would they need any man as their “head” or mediator?
Surprisingly, Paul considers none of this and abruptly closes the door on further discussion with his final declaration: “If anyone is disposed to be contentious, we recognize no other practice, nor do the churches of God” (1 Corinthians 11:16). But even while laying down the law Paul cannot resist giving at least a nod to the ideal. Even though these male and female roles are still operative in the “old” creation, he observes, almost parenthetically: “Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not without man, nor man without woman; for as woman was made from man, so the man is now born of woman. And all things are from God” (1 Corinthians 11:11–12). Since Paul is speaking of an alternative to the order of creation in which woman was made from man and for man, he must here have the “new creation” in mind, or as he says—in the Lord. The reference to “the man” seems to refer then to Christ, the new Adam/Man, even if by extension all the select group, whether male or female, who are “born of women” are included as part of the new Adamic race. The idea is that in the old creation woman needed man to exist (Eve from Adam), but in the new creation the male needs the woman to exist (Jesus from Mary)—not referring primarily to human birth in general, but the birth of the Man—Jesus Christ, through the woman Mary. As Paul says in Galatians, “When the fullness of time arrived, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4). I am convinced this is the best interpretation of these difficult verses. Paul’s affirmation that the first creation, while important to honor, is balanced by the new creation, with the ultimate “Man” (i.e., Christ as “last Adam”) coming from a woman, fits precisely the tension Paul faces in both affirming the old reality and denying its priority over the new.
Although Paul apparently allowed women a limited role in the group gatherings, so long as they were exercising prophetic gifts of the Spirit, he lays down a general rule a bit further on in the same letter to the Corinthians:
As in all the churches of the saints [the chosen ones], the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. (1 Corinthians 14:34–35)
By referring to the Law or Torah, Paul is going back again to the created order in Genesis. When Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, Eve was told that, as part of her punishment, “your desire shall be toward your husband and he shall rule over you” (Genesis 3:16). As with Paul’s previous discussion about women covering themselves with their hair, Paul will brook no compromise on this point, ending his discussion with an appeal to his own authority as one in contact directly with Christ: “If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized” (1 Corinthians 14:37–38). Here we see that in Paul’s churches the single test, in the end, was whether one submitted to what Paul said or not—regardless of any kind of claim to one’s own spirituality or prophetic gifts.
Paul’s rigid instructions demanding that women be modest, silent, and submissive, with no direct access to Christ other than through their husbands, seems to stand in blatant contradiction to Paul’s teaching about baptism into the one body and being in Christ. Some interpreters of Paul have gone so far as to suggest that Paul’s insistence on the silence of women in 1 Corinthians 14:33b– 36 is an interpolation added by a later pious scribe who wanted to take the opportunity to bring Paul into conformity with the writer of 1 Timothy, writing as late as A.D. 100, who had claimed his letter was from Pauclass="underline"
Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. (1 Timothy 2:11–14)6
As appealing as such a suggestion might be as a way to ethically “sanitize” Paul for our modern sensitivities, I think we should resist this kind of editing of his letters. There are no manuscripts of 1 Corinthians that omit this passage, and Paul’s demand that women be silent and submissive fits precisely with what he says earlier in his discussion of women’s hair. He grounds his dogmatic rulings on the public behavior of women in his understanding of Genesis, which describes how God set the parameters of the present physical creation.
What is much more likely is that the author of 1 Timothy, based on his reading of 1 Corinthians 11, is repeating and expanding Paul’s advice. He specifically mentions that women should not braid their hair or wear provocative attire, and that their learning in silence also prohibits them from teaching or having any kind of authority over men! The writer, however, in reinforcing Paul’s point about the woman being created after the man, expands this view of subordination with a new argument, also taken from Genesis: “For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet the woman will be saved through the birth of the child” (1 Timothy 2:14–15).