(March 16, 2014 at 4:17 pm)xpastor Wrote:(March 16, 2014 at 1:10 pm)Deidre32 Wrote: I've read this, as well. The ''Apostle Paul,'' talks about how he had a chronic thorn in his side, yet he was 'grateful to God' for it, as in his weakness, he would boast of God's strength. I happen to think as well that the ''thorn'' was his realization that he was a homosexual, and didn't feel comfortable coming out with it. I also believe he was a misogynist...he seemed to have a disdain for women, which is why he taught people (men) to treat them like second class citizens.To be fair to Paul one has to realize that only 7 of the 13 epistles attributed to him are actually his writing; the other 6 are forgeries. Besides that, the text of his authentic epistles has been corrupted in some places.
Christians either don't wish to see this as it is, or just have made excuses as to not cringe when they read these passages. Or they themselves have the same issues, and feel that the Bible gives them a place of 'acceptance.'
The point of being aware of the forgeries is that though the real Paul certainly doesn't recognize women as the equals of men, for his era he is pretty good. More than once he speaks of women he knows with affection. In one letter he says "in Christ there is neither male nor female." In another (1 Cor 11) he talks about women "prophesying in church" [i.e., preaching]. Many critical scholars think a passage 3 chapters later must be an addition by some scribe because it says a woman should be silent in church, a direct contradiction of his earlier words. The bit about women being silent in church is repeated in 1 Timothy, and modern critical scholars almost unanimously consider that whole epistle to be a forgery.
The entire epistle of Timothy has been considered by scholars to be a forgery? Huh. Interesting.
