Interview – Joseph A.P. Wilson on Was Paul Sexist?
Both conservative Christians and many atheist activists point to 1Corinthians 14:34-35 and note how Paul forbids women to speak in church. The Christians do this to maintain that women should not preach and cannot be pastors or priests. The atheists usually do so to 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? In this interview, I speak with Dr Joseph A. P. Wilson of Fairfield University and explore 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.)
For those who prefer the audio version, the Podcast edition is now up on Buzzsprout or available on most podcast platforms. Or you can listen to it on the History for Atheists podcast page.
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. https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/women-leaders-table-early-churches/
Dr Ally Kateusz on Early Christian Women: https://allykateusz.org/
7 thoughts on “Interview – Joseph A.P. Wilson on Was Paul Sexist?”
Is a transcript available for those of us who are hard of hearing?
Yes. At the bottom right side of the YouTube screen click on the gear wheel icon called “Settings” (fourth icon from the right). Then select “Subtitles/CC(1)” and tick “English (autogenerated)”. These are autogenerated subtitles and so not perfect regarding many names and technical terms, but should be good enough to follow along.
Excellent interview.
Some earlier examples of this word (ἤ) being used as a term of disapproval rather than as a conjunction can be found here: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=h%29%2F&la=greek#Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=h)/2-contents
Interesting topic! These days I was reflecting on the Marian antiphon “Salve Regina”, so I decided to research how bible scholars understood the meaning of “poor banished children of Eve” and I came across the text “Poor Banished Children of Eve: Woman as Evil in the Hebrew Bible” by Gale A. Yee, but I didn’t start reading that text because, as I don’t always find a “fair” analysis of “woman and Christianity”, I end up getting discouraged in these analyzes. The last time I saw one of these analyses, I saw that the author made little effort to understand Tertullian in “De cultu feminarum”. Would Tim or Joseph know how to explain what “poor banished children of Eve” would be? Is this excerpt an example of Christianity associating women with the devil or is this too shallow a reading to do?
The reference is to story of Adam and Eve being banished from the Garden of Eden. The Salve Regina contrasts one woman (Eve) whose choice caused this banishment and another (Mary) whose choice reversed the effects of that banishment.
On Wilson’s argument, a PDF can be had here: https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1197&context=rel_fac
Wilson argues that 1 Cor 14:34-5 is Paul quoting the Corinthians (who are wrong as usual) and that v. 36 is Paul blurting out “Whaaaat?”. The order-of-verses got scrambled in the Western text-type, possibly under the influence of 1 Timothy. Tertullian, not yet a Montanist (who had female prophetesses), ran with the Western text.
Wilson also thinks 1 Timothy was bogus. He’ll entertain Titus, 2 Timothy and even Ephesians as possibly Pauline but these aren’t germaine to his point.
That is quite a fair summary. I am personally rather in favor of regarding the seven “undisputed” epistles as being more secure than the rest, but the bulk of the Deutero-Pauline works are in a gray zone, with 1 Tim being the most difficult to defend across the board in my opinion.