Re: 1 Cor 14:34 -- LALEIN

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Sep 14 1999 - 06:58:55 EDT


At 9:53 AM +0200 9/14/99, Blahoslav Číčel wrote:
>Dne So, 11 z‡ż’ 1999 jste napsal(a):
>> Colleagues:
>
>> BIG SNIP
>>
>> Ande if Paul did write it, he really WAS a misogynist! (Women chatter;
>> they interrupt services; their husbands are smarter than they are, and must
>> explain things at home; unmarried women will have to remain uncorrected.)
>
>Was Paul misogynist or it was the society in Paul's time?
>
>I suppose that most of the women were illiterate or of poor education. It was
>not because of lack of intelligence but because of the circumstances. If this
>was true, then Paul might be reacting to the facts without any miso-what bias.

Frankly, I don't think this is any MORE true in general of women than of
men in the congregation at the time; it would depend on where in the
Mediterranean world one lived, probably also on a family's wealth and
status, but women were admitted to the gymnasia in many areas. I don't
think we can generalize too much about either status or education in
Christian congregations to which Paul wrote, although Gerd Theissen, Wayne
Meeks, and others too have helped to sketch some pictures of what elements
of population may have been involved in them. What Paul says in 1 Cor
1:26-31 is loaded with rhetoric, but I don't think Paul could or would have
waxed eloquent on the absence of eloquence or learning among his converts
had this not been essentially true. So I don't think education is a
distinct differentiating factor between men and women in these
congregations.

(I should add that I'm satisfied that LALEIN does NOT mean "chatter" in 1
Cor 14:34)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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