(no subject)
Happy Pi Day, y'all! Mmmmm, pi.
Thing I hadn't noticed was in the Bible before:
"but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven." --I Corinthians 11:5
Now, ignore the part about the headcovering. That's not what I'm getting at. Look at this part: every wife who prays or prophesies. Now, I ascribe to a doctrine which says that women should not be ordained, and base it on other verses in Paul. Yet this same Paul, maligned by so many as being anti-women, is pretty much assuming here that women are going to be praying and prophesying in church. Publicly.
("Prophesying" originally didn't mean "telling the future". It meant "telling the truth," or interpreting events, attitudes, and situations in such a way that they tell people what they need to hear, and may have been ignoring. Every Biblical prophecy had/has a relevant-for-that-time meaning.)
And a lot of you people reading this are probably going, "What do I care? You're just a whackjob Fundie with whackjob Fundie dogmas." Well, okay, but it helps me understand a little better what Paul was trying to get across. He assumed women would be actively, intellectually involved in doctrine, theology, and teaching. In fact, if we assume (safely) that the bit about head-coverings was because going bareheaded in ancient Corinth was how you told people you were single and available, and these women were married, it appears that he was telling them to stop undermining their own message.
(Another thing to keep in mind when reading Paul: he is snarky. The Letter to Philemon, which is half a page long, is probably the finest example. So when he goes on later in Corinthians and says that "nature itself" teaches us that men shouldn't have long hair, I have a feeling that he was in full sarcasm mode by that point.)
It is human nature to ignore context in favor of controversy. The little quiet assumption Paul had in there gets lost because of other arguments. And it turns out that half of what we thought he meant was never said at all.
Thing I hadn't noticed was in the Bible before:
"but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven." --I Corinthians 11:5
Now, ignore the part about the headcovering. That's not what I'm getting at. Look at this part: every wife who prays or prophesies. Now, I ascribe to a doctrine which says that women should not be ordained, and base it on other verses in Paul. Yet this same Paul, maligned by so many as being anti-women, is pretty much assuming here that women are going to be praying and prophesying in church. Publicly.
("Prophesying" originally didn't mean "telling the future". It meant "telling the truth," or interpreting events, attitudes, and situations in such a way that they tell people what they need to hear, and may have been ignoring. Every Biblical prophecy had/has a relevant-for-that-time meaning.)
And a lot of you people reading this are probably going, "What do I care? You're just a whackjob Fundie with whackjob Fundie dogmas." Well, okay, but it helps me understand a little better what Paul was trying to get across. He assumed women would be actively, intellectually involved in doctrine, theology, and teaching. In fact, if we assume (safely) that the bit about head-coverings was because going bareheaded in ancient Corinth was how you told people you were single and available, and these women were married, it appears that he was telling them to stop undermining their own message.
(Another thing to keep in mind when reading Paul: he is snarky. The Letter to Philemon, which is half a page long, is probably the finest example. So when he goes on later in Corinthians and says that "nature itself" teaches us that men shouldn't have long hair, I have a feeling that he was in full sarcasm mode by that point.)
It is human nature to ignore context in favor of controversy. The little quiet assumption Paul had in there gets lost because of other arguments. And it turns out that half of what we thought he meant was never said at all.