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by Josefa Theresia Münch, M.Th.
(Diplomtheologin)
Der Christliche Sonntag, 15th Aug 1965.
A
passage in the first Letter to the Corinthians by the apostle Paul runs:
“Women should be silent in the church because it is not permitted for them
to speak, but to be subject as also the law saith. But if they would learn
anything, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is a shame for a woman to
speak in the church.” (1 Cor 14, 34.35)
Nevertheless, today, many Churches of the Reformation allow their women
theologians to mount the pulpits and give them the full ministry of the parish.
A number of Lutheran pastors consider this as an offence against God’s
will and revelation. In the Roman Catholic Church the idea of women preachers
and women priests is almost taboo. By referring to this passage of St. Paul
earlier it was thought to mean that women may not sing in church choirs. They
should not teach religion and if they do so, only by way of substitute, in
cases of emergency. In the “directions” which the German Catholic
bishops gave out “for the celebration of the Holy Mass in public”, as
late as 1961, it was said that “women, girls and children should not
ordinarily exercise the ministry of reader in the divine service of the parish.
In masses where only women, girls and children were present, or at least were
in the majority, they would be allowed to read the epistle and gospel if no
suitable man were present. In so doing, women, girls and children are
instructed not to face the public.” Here women are put on the same level
with children and are tolerated only as a stopgap, - once again, these
“directions” are considered to be based on the words of St. Paul - or
on what else? In the Greek Orthodox Church they go so far as to say that in
community prayers women are neither permitted to pray nor to sing loudly
together with the public. Why? A Greek theologian explained: “St. Paul has
prescribed in his Epistle to the Corinthians that women should be silent in the
church.”
There
are well-known commentators who say that this anti-feminist passage in the
Epistle to the Corinthians was not written by St. Paul, but that it has been
interpolated by a later transcriber or editor. St. Paul could not have written
that women should ask their husbands at home, because the first female
Christians were often married to pagan or Jewish husbands whom they could not
have consulted on Christian doctrine. On the contrary, the women often won over
their husbands for Christ. The critics of these biblical commentators argue
that no matter whether this passage in the Corinthians is genuine or not, the
quotation occurs in other epistles of St. Paul’s, too (1 Tim 2, 12);
whether these other passages are genuinely Pauline is also a problem of
biblical commentary. However, they argue, this forbidding of speech is present
in Holy Scripture.
Putting aside this question let us assume - in order to have a basis for our
further discussion - that this passage is authentically from the Apostle of the
Gentiles: and so let us ask, why St. Paul could come to this opinion?
Did St. Paul Get this as an Order from God? Or did he Defend it as a
well-accepted Jewish Custom within the Social Order?
At
the time of the apostle, the Jewish woman did not possess legal capacity, and
was nearly without rights. She was not accepted as having the right of self
determination, nor as being fully adult. She was under the guardianship of her
father, her husband or one of her male relations. The veil about her face was
as a fence enclosing property. Over this property the man had the right of
disposal, but not she herself. Due to this sovereignty of the male over his
wife, it was considered right for him to dismiss his wife for any reason (Dt.
24,11). The woman had no right to divorce. She could not dismiss her husband,
even if he were the worst of monsters. Christ preached against this injustice
of divorce. The apostles felt this to be so great an encroachment on the
privileges of the male that they said, “If the case of a man with his wife
be so, it is not expedient to marry.” (Mt 19,10). In public the husband
did not speak even with his own wife. That would have been against his dignity.
It was not surprising that the disciples wondered when Jesus spoke to the
Samaritan woman at the Well of Jacob.
Women
were so completely without rights and were considered so inferior that at the
time of Christ the Jews used to pray, “O God, I thank you for making me a
man and not a woman.” This prayer is still said by the Orthodox today.
The
disregard of women was also evident in the Jewish cult. Women were put on the
same level as slaves and children and treated as such. Women, slaves and
children were not allowed to say together with the community the important
prayer: “Hear Israel”, and also they were excluded from many other
parts of worship.
At
the time of her monthly period a woman was considered unclean and was not
allowed to partake in divine service. The Jewish religion was a religion for
men. Girls were not allowed to study the Torah, that is to say they were
excluded from religious instruction. The Synagogue regulations laid down that
“A woman shall not read aloud from the Torah because the dignity of the
community.” Note - for the sake of the dignity of the community, not for
the sake of the dignity of God. So because of the dignity of the community a
priestess would not have been tolerated, because the best woman ranked far
below the worst Jewish male.
Those
who know about the status of woman in Judaism of that time would realize that
our passage of St. Paul has its source in the Jewish Synagogue Regulations and
social life.
If
this passage in the Epistle to the Corinthians comes from St. Paul
himself, then he needed no special illumination and no divine
revelation. He could have learnt it from the Rabbi Gamaliel, by whom he was
taught according to the strict law of the Fathers (Acts 22,3).
It is
suspicious that this commandment of silence has become a familiar
saying and that it was spread by oral instruction and by writing and it was
brought forward on every occasion where women in the Church were considered
undesirable competitors. All the more, because profeminine words in the
Pauline Epistles and in Holy Scripture are almost unknown, have been minimized,
or have been wilfully concealed. But they do exist!
Pro-feminine Words in the Holy Scripture
Only
those who know how the Chosen People despised the Gentiles, slaves and women,
can estimate how great a divine illumination was necessary for the Jew Paul
to write the following sentence in the Epistle to the Galatians: ‘For
as many of you that have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ. There is
neither Jew or Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male
nor female. For you are all one in Christ.’(Gal 3,27.28),
The
women obviously rendered such great a service to the Early Church that Paul
could not refuse them his acknowlegement. Those who think that the commandment
of silence comes from the Apostle of the Gentiles himself, are only able to
explain these conflicting passages by holding that the pupil of Gamaliel was
torn between the old Jewish opinion and the new Christian ideal, which conceded
human dignity and the freedom of the children of God to women, too.
In
the epistle to the Romans (Rom16,1ff) St.Paul publicly praises and greets the
couple Prisca and Aquila, “who have for” his “life laid down
their own necks.” He honours Mary “who has laboured much for the
Roman Church.” He withdraws the veil of women’s concealment from
Tryphaena and Tryphosa, “who laboured in the Lord.” In the same
letter which was read to the assembled Christians he salutes the “dearly
beloved Persis who has much laboured in the Lord.” Also he salutes Julia
and the sister of Nereus. He draws public attention to the woman Phoebe, who,
at a later period, when the Church promulgated one decree after the other in
abolition of deaconesses, would probably have been considered as a dangerous
competitor. Whilst here Saint Paul commends her with very warm words. Without
the woman merchant Lydia (Acts 16,14) the Apostle of Gentiles surely would not
have had such great success. Evodia and Syntyche are admonished to be “of
one mind in the Lord.” He entreats his companion to help those women and
praises them “for they have laboured with me in the Gospel” (Phil
4,2.3). It is not to be supposed that the activity of these “women
co-operators” was reduced to the service of nurses, or of women parish
secretaries, who copied, duplicated and distributed the sermons of their
presbyter.
If we
leave aside the Pauline Epistles and turn to the Four Gospels we may state with
joy that there is not the slightest word forbidding women to preach or to
evangelize. The fact that Christ called only men to be apostles is mainly due
to the Jewish Law by which women were not considered to possess legal capacity.
They were unable to function as witnesses officially, they could not be
ambassadors nor commissioners.
The
Hebrew word for apostle is Shaljach - ambassador, attorney. If the
witness of a woman was recognized, it was only in an unofficial way: in the
same way as today a minor may be recognized. To this, for Jews, unofficial kind
of witness, however, God has given strength and has built it into his plan of
redemption. He empowered the prophetess Anna to make known the Child Jesus to
all who looked for the redemption of Israel. (Luke 2,36-38) and made her his
reporter. Christ accepted the propaganda of the Samaritan woman at the Well of
Jacob, who won the whole town for Him (John 4, 29.30.39.42). Although at that
time most of the women could only carry the news about Christ from mouth to
mouth, because they were forbidden to speak before a crowded audience just as
they were forbidden to read in the synagogue, some women, however, were bold
enough to do it. - Probably they felt themselves urged by the commandment of
Christ: “Go therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Mt 28,19.20).
Men and Women Disciples
Why
should not the word “disciple” be applied to women as well as to men?
Jesus did have women disciples. Let us think of Mary of Magdala and her group.
When “disciples” are mentioned in the Gospels we may take it that the
term often also meant women disciples. We must surely suppose that not only the
Ten Commandments but also the Beatitudes and the order to evangelize the world
were addressed to women as well as to men. And women surely believed themselves
to be called when Jesus said: “You have to be my witnesses from Jerusalem
to the frontiers of the world.” Despite the adverse attitude of their
contemporaries, they felt themselves obliged to announce the good tidings. They
could not be silent.
From
the Acts we know that the daughters of the deacon Philip were gifted with
prophecy (Acts 21,9ff ). This was a gift and also a duty. Jesus had warned
against the hiding of talents. In the Sermon on the Mount He exhorted his
hearers not to hide the light under a bushel but to put it on a candlestick
that all might see. This injunction is addressed to all, men and women,
and means that they must make the fullest use of their talents.
Certainly today, when women possess legal capacity,have the right to vote and
are eligible for public service, it should be obvious that they must be allowed
to exercise all their talents in ways that transcend the traditional
women’s domain of household duties and rearing of children.
The
divine services of the first Christians did not take place in churches as
today, but in private houses. We may be sure that an assembled community of
Christians, an “ecclesia”, listened, when these prophetically gifted
daughters of the deacon Philip spoke. In the same Epistle to the Corinthians,
which has already been quoted regarding silence, the same apostle Paul does not
forbid that women speak in the assembly, he only requests that they wear a veil
on their head when they are prophesying.
Therefore we see that women did preach in the church long before Protestant
women pastors existed. Anyone whose back is put up at the sight of a woman
mounting the pulpit may remember that we in the Catholic Church have not
developed the old tradition regarding women in the same way as the male
episcopate and the ministry of St. Peter have been developed. This high degree
of development of the male ministry is manifested by the “ex-cathedra
decisions” and St. Peter’s great Basilica. Whereas the role of woman
in the Catholic Church, except in the case of the veneration of Our Lady, has
been diminished, and ministries which once existed have been abolished. We have
enough passages in the Bible which give us in the Church today not only the
right but also the duty to renew women’s functions and ministries of the
Early Church and to develop them further.
This
is specially evident in the accounts of Christ’s Resurrection. In spite of
the contemporary prejudices against women as witnesses, the Risen Christ
Himself encouraged women to be His first witnesses. “Fear not. Go and give
word to my brethren...” (Mt 28,10). In the Gospel of St. Mark the young
man in the white robe orders the women “No need to be dismayed. You have
come to look for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified; he has risen again, he
is not here. Here is the place where they laid him. Go and tell Peter and
the rest of his disciples that he is going before you to Galilee. There you
shall have sight of him as he promised you”(Mark 16,6.7).
Having read the pro-feminine passages in the Epistles of St. Paul and in the
other books of the New Testament, we have no longer any reason to stare
anxiously at the quotation in the Letter to the Corinthians: “Women should
be silent in the church.” Indeed, the Church has no solid biblical
foundation for repressing public reading by women in the church, nor to accept
women only in cases of emergency as teachers of religion and then only to the
lower classes and at schools of inferior rank.
On
the contrary, it is in conformity with the order of Christ (Mt.28,19) when
women read publicly in the church, not only from the pew but also from the
sanctuary and the lectern. “When the Vatican Council speaks of the
revaluation of laymen, women are also included”, said Auxiliary Bishop
Frotz. That applies also to reading from the sanctuary.
“You must go in haste, and tell his disciples that he has risen from the
dead” (Mt.28,7). This order should not be refused to women by the Church
government today. They should be allowed to carry out this order of Christ by
teaching religion at every level at schools and colleges and becoming eligible
for university Chairs in Theology. We need not be terrified by a woman in the
pulpit. And the men among us need not consider it against their dignity to
receive the “good tidings” from a woman. The Saviour, two thousand
years ago, expected the disciples to accept the evangelistic functions of
women, those men whom we in the Catholic Church today regard as the first
bishops and the first pope (Mt 28,10). The Man-God did not find it defamatory
for the Church, for the brethren, for the disciples and for St. Peter to be
told the news of the Resurrection by women.
To
God there was no impediment to calling women to be eye and ear witnesses of the
Resurrection of Christ, and to giving them the order to speak and not to be
silent. God, also today, calls women as his witnesses - for a little or for a
large audience.
It is
the task of humanity and of the Church no longer to resist this but to accept
joyfully their witness.
- Go to “My Letters to the
Pope” by Josefa Theresia Münch.
- Go to Letter to Pope John Paul II.
- Go to “Catholic Women
Priests?”, in the German Catholic weekly Der christliche
Sonntag, 10th Oct. 1965
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