david@cvl.UUCP (David Harwood) (04/21/85)
Comment on an article:
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>From: lisa@phs.UUCP (Jeffrey William Gillette)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: In Defense of St. Paul
Message-ID: <1013@phs.UUCP>
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St. Paul wrote eight or ten letters to specific churches, answering
specific questions with specific advice. Yet to focus on the specific
details of Paul's instructions would be to miss completely the apostle's
true genius. In fact, Paul is at his weakest when he attempts to give
specific instructions. Consider 1 Corinthians: in chapter 11 Paul
explains how a woman is to act when praying or prophesying in the church,
yet in chapter 14 he commands that women must be silent in the church!
In the same letter, Paul informs us that the very laws of nature dictate
which hair styles are appropriate. Needless to say, Christian thinkers
have not turned to these passages in moments of supreme spiritual
enlightenment.
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There are some interesting parallels, found in rabbinical writings,
to some obscure passages in the NT. (I'm sorry but I will have to recall
from memory.)
First, in I Corinthians 11, we read that women who speak in assembly
should have a sign of authority (?) upon their heads, because of the angels.
(We may consider "the angels" to represent the "ministers" in the assembly
who rise to speak, as they are inspired -- Quakerlike, I suppose). The Jewish
parallel that I recall says that those who speak in assembly (of course all
males) should have a veil upon their heads, because of the Indwelling.
(I understand this to be an allusion to the veil of Moses, which becomes
symbolic of prophetic authority; "Indwelling", referring the Presence of
God among those gathered for assembly -- so the idea is "out of respect
for the ministry".)
This suggests to me that Paul is saying that women can speak but
they should make sure that they have a true ministry. We must remember that
in those times, it might very well have been scandalous to the faith for
women to speak, since the surrounding cultures slighted women.
Second, it is said that when Paul was healed after his encounter
on the road to Damascus, "the scales fell from his eyes." The Jewish parallel
is clearly figurative: sometimes it is said that when spiritual understanding
has come, "the speckles (or dust) fell from the eyes."
Finally, and most conjecturally, I believe that it is possible that
another somewhat obscure recommendation by Paul has been misunderstood, in
light of my reading of Jewish writings (none of them about Christianity of
course). Paul addresses the question of "eating of food sacrificed to alien
gods." (Then he abruptly talks about the breadth of his knowledge of non-
Christian matters.) Jewish parallels refer, again figuratively, to worldly
knowledge as being like food offered to so-called gods, which may cause
the Jew to become contaminated. Partly, the idea is that ideology is
dangerous and corrupting, also that the authors of books are making a
"sacrifice" (of their talents) to create books which dignify certain ideas.
Again, I am simply recalling some parallels (there are many more)
between certain obscure NT passages and Jewish figures of speech, which Paul
certainly would have been familiar with, having been a student of Gamaliel,
a rabbi of the time.