Joseph A. P. Wilson - Was Paul Sexist?

Both fundamentalist Christians and many atheist activists point to 1Corinthians 14:34-35 and note how Paul forbids women to speak in church. The atheists hold this up as evidence that Paul was a misogynist and Christianity is inherently sexist. But did Paul really write this? And was it Christianity which made the Greco-Roman world less egalitarian or was it actually ... the other way around? Dr Joseph A. P. Wilson of Fairfield University to look at these questions.

(Note to viewers: my apologies for the clicking in the background at various points in this conversation. It seems it was feedback from my headset's mic.)

Further Reading:

Joseph A. P. Wilson, "Recasting Paul as a Chauvinist within the Western Text-Type Manuscript Tradition: Implications for the Authorship Debate on 1 Corinthians 14.34-35", Religions, 2022, 13(5), p. 432

Ally Kateusz, "Women Leaders at the Table in Early Churches", Pricilla Papers, Spring 2020, Vol. 34, No. 2.

[mistyhaney]

I don't care if Paul was sexist, I care how people today use the text to validate being sexist. The problem is grounding what is acceptable behavior on the opinions stated in writings from 2000 years ago, anyone's writings from 2000 years ago. People should be held accountable for their behaviors not given a free pass to mistreat others because they claim to be following instructions.

[ben-theamateurexegete]

This was great, Tim. Thanks for conducting the interview. I'm always allergic to interpolation hypotheses since they tend to be based on flimsy data. (Ahem, Mythicists.) Wilson's use of Quotation/Refutation is one I've known about since my evangelical days but didn't think to employ with this particular passage until I read through Wilson's paper. Fascinating stuff!

I'll be including this in this month's Biblical Studies Carnival.

[scottbignell]

Great conversation, guys. I had not heard of the "Q-R" hypothesis before this. I'd previously sided with the interpolation view, having heard Ehrman articulate it in one of his books. But I can see how the Q-R idea actually makes better sense of the manuscript ordering variation.

[miosignore]

About Paul, what is the conseus on the location of his shipwreck and if there's anything historical in the story of the snake bite.

From what I read, Paul may have shipwrecked on the croatian island Mljet and suffered a dry bite from a Vipera ammodytes specimen there.

[ecologyst]

This interview whether intending to or not shows exactly why anybody that follows a religion basically needs their head examined.

[owlnyc]

It appears that sexism and misogyny increased as Christianity evolved.

[davidnwatu]

Please where can I get this paper Dr Joe wrote on this subject matter?

[__.Sara.__]

I agree that it's interesting that some atheists and fundamentalists share the same misconceptions for different reasons! And wholeheartedly agreeing and passionately disagreeing with your guest at nearly the same time made for a fun experience 😅 Thank you for making this video! I love Paul and I loved hearing you discuss this! 💕

[__.Sara.__]

Watching this again 😄 I love your channel so much!

[KorKhan]

Looking forward to watching it later! Bart Ehrman and Megan Lewis did an interesting podcast on the topic a couple of months ago. Really interesting how women had an apparently active and respected role in the church at the time of Jesus and Paul, only for male-supremacist ideologies to prevail by the time of Pseudo-Paul’s writing of 1st Timothy.

[reginaldodonoghue]

Get a guest on to discuss bad atheist takes on the history of ‘Islam’, maybe Dr Joshua Little.

[swissrolex]

Hey Tim, could you do a video on the authenticity of 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16?

This passage is included in Marcion's canon as per Tertullian, so it weakens a lot the hypothesis of interpolation, on the other hand it's hard to make sense of "the wrath of God coming upon the Jews at last", maybe Paul is mentioning an event that affected the Jews prior to the destruction of the temple? Hard to come to a satisfactory conclusion.

[jasonpush]

Why do modern translations have it say "or" rather than "what"?

[buermann]

I appreciate how much the pagan-Easter-Yuletide stuff annoys you (have you done an episode on Zagmuk? That was always my favorite incarnation but the sources available to me have been hazy at best) while delighting in rightwing Christians inheriting their depthless misogyny from pagan sources. It's a terrific joke.

[aiwendilciunio]

While I thouroughly enjoyed your other videos, this guest seems off, especially in the later part of the video, where he covers areas I have a little more expertise with. 'Bishop Theodora' in the Zeno's Chapel in Rome identifies her specifically as the mother of Pope Paschal I in a different place in the same chapel, which she, by the way, funded for herself. The fact that someone changed the name later is a completely different matter. There is no evidence that in the 9th century, nor before that, there were any ordained women priests, let alone bishops. The title Episcopa is to be understood as an honorary title, not a literal one.

Secondly, the mosaic of the Theotokos in the Lateran Baptistery is not 'hidden' or 'covered' by a later renaissance painting. Had they wanted to hide it they would have just done so, and the mosaic is easily accesible for anyone to see. Furthermore, the Theotokos is standing in the Oranta pose, which is the oldest depiction of Virgin Mary we know of, and has been used especially in the apse. It is NOT used to signify a priestly role of a woman at all, it is a gesture of prayer. The iconographic type displayed on the mosaic is also one the most established in the iconography. The pallium is an unusual accessory for the Theotokos to wear, but it may as well mean that She is the head of the Church.

All in all, an interesting episode, but in the latter part it uses very dubious and frankly, a little conspiratory ideas. I thought you were supposed to ground your material in history..

[owlnyc]

The narrator says NO! When did it become sexist? Who was the driver?

[Kuudere-Kun]

What is Wilson's opinion on Romans 1:18-32 being a quotation the rest of the Epistle is refuting?

I like the theory that Junia is the same person as Joanna from Luke.

[owlnyc]

Paul, The First Jew For Jesus! Paul a Jewish Christian bring the good news to pagan gentiles? Noahide?