Educating Women

Whenever Paul established a Church he insisted that women were to be educated in the faith. "Let a woman learn" was at variance with Jewish and Greek customs. Jewish women were not included in formal education. A man could teach Scripture to boys and girls but a woman could not teach even the youngest children. Women were educated in matters regarding homemaking skills. Compulsory education excluded girls.

Wanting women to be educated in Christianity was radical in thought and difficult in execution. Women were not used to listening to lectures or thinking about theological concepts or studying at all. Bound to their home and limited in social contact to their husband and children Paul wanted women to participate in classroom settings. He instructed women to learn "in silence with all subjection" meaning voluntarily and willingly being responsive to the needs of others to listen, of their own to hear, and of the teachers to communicate without noisy competition.

The difference between being quiet in order to hear someone speak and being quiet in order to listen with studious attention in illustrated in Acts 21:4 through Acts 22:2. At the temple in Jerusalem, Paul was facing a hostile mob that was in such an uproar that the Roman tribune came with soldiers and centurions to establish order. Paul was arrested. When Paul spoke to him in Greek asking for an opportunity to address the crowd, the official gave him permission. Paul motioned to the people with his hand and a great silence fell over the crowd.  When Paul addressed them in the Hebrew language the people became still; as he spoke, they became quietly attentive. Paul was telling the women they must learn and to do so they must be quiet and respectful.

We can only imagine the criticism Paul had to put up with from family members and community leaders outside the Church. Change creates resistance, and educating women risked the moral censure of non-Christians.

At first, teachers had to be men. Jewish custom forbade women from conversing with men other than their husbands. Men teaching women in the Church might be accused by the husbands of trying to break up marriages. Greeks would associate women and religion with the temple of goddess Diana in Ephesus which had hundreds of prostitutes. Men teaching Greek women in the Church might be accused of catering to sacred prostitutes or of attempting to entice women to be a prostitute within the new religion.

Because of the potential scandals that might arise, in response to Paul's attempt to educate women in the Church, Paul urged Christian women to dress modestly and adorn themselves with good deeds. He also prohibited women from teaching men and from exercising authority over men roles that would have infuriated men in that society.

Paul may have had in mind a specific group of women or group in Ephesus but was not willing to lessen his insistence that women were to learn in spite of the "high-handed" attitude of some. Instead, he instructed that women are to learn in quietness, without being rude or domineering.