Who was Paul?
The Apostle Paul was a complicated man who made an undisputed mark on human history. Before his conversion to Christianity on the Road to Damascus, Saul, a highly educated Pharisee, hunted and persecuted Christians "unto death." After his supernatural conversion, he turned his same obsessive energy to the task of converting others, knowing full well he would be as hunted and persecuted as had been his own victims.
And persecuted he was. On the one hand, early church leaders did not trust him and did not believe his teachings to accurately reflect the teachings of their Lord. On the other hand, his fellow Pharisees believed him to have become a heretic and blasphemer, worthy of death, and ancient authorities considered him to be seditious and potentially insane, worthy at least of being removed from society for the general good, and eventually of death. Not only was he obsessive, he was also often isolated and very lonely, leading to frustration, anger and indignation, a recipe for resentment.
During the approximately six years he spent in prisons for his evangelistic activities, often misinterpreted by ancient authorities as being activities of Messianic uprising rather than activities on behalf of a risen Messiah (the two terms apparently being easily confused in ancient Mediterranean languages) Paul wrote prolific epistles - letters - of follow-up to the churches he and others had established. Of his letters, thirteen or fourteen survived and became bound into the New Testament. In his epistles, Paul gives advice on just about everything, including things in which he admits he has no experience and clearly does not understand.
Marriage
Paul was unmarried. He clearly saw one and only one purpose in marriage: containment of lust. He seems never to have considered companionship, like-mindedness, working together towards common goals, or becoming better people through working out relationship as goals or even benefits of marriage. In his mind, marriage brought "trouble," divided one's time and attention from God, and while there was no sin in it, it was better not to engage in it; but if a person requires sexual release, that person should do it in marriage. There may be reasons he was unmarried.
Abstinence is a highly unnatural adult state, and isolation is a highly unnatural life state. For all his "great learning," he knew nothing about (or was in denial about) skin starvation and failure to thrive which lead to serious emotional and physical health problems.
Paul's injunctions to women to submit to their husbands "in all things" and not to divorce their spouses have unfortunately created long-term tolerance of much domestic violence, spousal abuse, and in-family homicide throughout Christian history. This was undoubtedly not his goal, however, it has been a very real outcome.
Women in the Church
Paul did not understand women. He repeatedly exhorts women to remain silent and submissive. They are to submit to their husbands "as unto the Lord." If they have a thirst for knowledge, they must ask their husbands, who he assumes to be more highly educated in Christian matters than their wives, in the privacy of their own homes. They may offer short prayer or prophecy if their heads are covered. They may not teach a man anything.
In Paul's view, unmarried women are to spend their time in charitable work and prayer. His assumption is they have someone to support them. Married women are to spend their time submitting to their husbands with chaste and respectful behavior, being saved through childbirth via faith, love, holiness and modesty, and raising children until they are 60 (therefore, having children until menopause).
He exhorts women in general to have long hair, keep it covered, and not to have "braided" hair. (He does not suggest an alternate hairstyle.) Women are not to wear "gold or pearls" or "expensive" clothes. Instead, they are to engage in doing good deeds. In one short paragraph, he totally discounts the innate female need to be pretty. He never understood, although many of the Old Testament writers seem to have understood, that more than women need sex, women innately need to be seen as pretty.
In glaring omission of the recorded accomplishments of women, Paul gave credit for the Old Testament defeat of Sisera to Barak. The writers of Judges, however, explained in great detail that that defeat came about because of the Judge, Deborah, "a mother of Israel" (i.e., a Jewish mother), and belonged to Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. Although he addressed a few of his female followers in his letters, he neglected to mention the women disciples of Jesus or that Mary Magdalene, faithful to Christ even in His crucifixion and death while the men had fled and were in hiding, was commissioned by Jesus to take His words to the brethren, making her the "apostola apostolorum," apostle to the apostles.
Cursing Others
Paul tolerated little disagreement. He set precedence for church intolerance by cursing those who disagreed with him. Punishments he prescribed for those who sinned were harsh.
One wonders how much of the Galatians' decision to embrace circumcision was based on the incidence of phimosis in their population. One wonders where the Christ who protected from stoning the woman caught in adultery figured into Paul's treatment of those who committed adultery in the early church. One wonders whether the Church would have been more united had Paul followed Jesus's patience and educational format of, "...but you don't understand.." and proceeded to teach from scripture rather than cursing those with whom he disagreed.
Epistles, not Law or Prophesy
Paul was fiery and dedicated to the cause to which he was called. He was ready to debate anyone, anywhere, and his debating skills were formidable. He even coined new words in Greek that have theologians today still scratching their heads in bewilderment over what, exactly, he meant. Under his leadership the early church grew exponentially. He was not, however, infallible. His words were not always the words of Christ or of the Holy Spirit, and he admitted to that.
Paul's writings are important historical church documents, and the church is certainly richer for having them. They are a mixture of massive directive, some prophecy, some personal lamentation, liberally sprinkled with castigation of those who sinned and of those with whom he disagreed. They are not always, however, the plenary word of God, and Paul admitted to that. The Church's eventual decision to include his writings in scripture, while rejecting some writings the earliest Church accepted as scripture, gave the errors in thought in them, especially those addressing women and relationships, greater weight than they should have had.
Celia Javadi - I have most people's good at heart. I believe that if a person can improve one other person's life, a person can improve the world.
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