Women & Justice Handout on "Scary Texts"

What Does the Bible Say, and What Does It Mean?

Often when reading “scary texts” of the Bible, historical background can give us insight to what these words meant to the first people to read them, and that can help us understand what they can mean to us today. Reading the literary context – what’s going on before & after the passage – can help us understand as well.

1 Corinthians 11:6 – “For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or to be shaved, she should wear a veil.”

Rules for appropriate dress vary from culture to culture. For example, in India it is perfectly appropriate for women, even into their 40s, to show their midriff.

Ephesians 5:22-23 – “Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior.”

Looking to the beginning of the chapter, we find Paul is talking about all Christians being subject to one another. This was an appropriate example to use for the time.

1 Corinthians 14:34-35 – “[W]omen should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.”

These two verses are widely believed to have been a scribal margin addition, that were added to the text by a copyist. They directly contradict 1 Corinthians 11:5 and are not present, or are present in different places, in the earliest manuscripts.

Exodus 22:16 – “When a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be married, and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife.”

With historical background, we learn this was an attempt to give the seduced (or raped) woman a chance for a safe & respectable life, which she would not have had otherwise.

1 Corinthians 7:1-2 – “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is well for a man not to touch a woman.” But because of cases of sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.”

Paul encouraged Christians to wait patiently for Jesus’ soon return – including avoiding marriage if they could do so without the sin of lust.

Deuteronomy 25:5 – “When brothers reside together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, taking her in marriage, and performing the duty of a husband’s brother….”

Historically, this was a way to provide for widows, and to ensure the proper inheritance for a brother’s property.

1 Timothy 2:15 – “Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.”

The verses just before this contradict Paul in both 1 Corinthians 11:5 and Romans 5:12-14. For these & other reasons, this letter is not believed to have been written by Paul, and while it is useful to us, it has less authority than the passages written by Paul.