Bible -- Commentaries; Bible -- Feminist criticism; Women in the Bible
Could Paul have looked down to the nineteenth century with clairvoyant
vision and beheld the good works of a Lucretia Mott, a Florence
Nightingale, a Dorothea Dix and Clara Barton, not to mention a host of
faithful mothers, he might, perhaps, have been less anxious about the
apparel and the manners of his converts. Could he have foreseen a
Margaret Fuller, a Maria Mitchell, or an Emma Willard, possibly he
might have suspected that sex does not determine the capacity of the
individual. Or, could he have had a vision of the public school system
of this Republic, and witnessed the fact that a large proportion of the
teachers are women, it is possible that he might have hesitated to
utter so tyrannical an edict: "But I permit not a woman to teach."
Had the Apostle enjoined upon women to do good works without envy or
jealousy, it would have had the weight and the wisdom of a Divine
command. But that, from the earliest record of human events, woman
should have been condemned and punished for trying to get knowledge,
and forbidden to impart what she has learned, is the most unaccountable
peculiarity of masculine wisdom. After cherishing and nursing helpless.
infancy, the most necessary qualification of motherhood is that of
teaching. If it is contrary to the perfect operation of human
development that woman should teach, the infinite and all wise
directing power of the universe has blundered. It cannot be admitted
that Paul was inspired by infinite wisdom in this utterance. This was
evidently the unilluminated utterance of Paul, the man, biassed by
prejudice. But, it may be claimed that this edict referred especially
to teaching in religious assemblies. It is strikingly inconsistent that
Paul, who had proclaimed the broadest definition of human souls, "There
is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male or female, but ye are one
in Christ Jesus," as the Christian idea, should have commanded the
subjection of woman, and silence as essential to her proper sphere in
the Church.
It is not a decade since a manifesto was issued by a religious
convention bewailing the fact that woman is not only seeking to control
her property, but claiming the right of the wife to control her person!
This seems to be as great an offence to ecclesiasticism in this hour
and this land of boasted freedom, as it was to Paul in Judea nineteen
centuries ago. But the "new man," as well as the "new woman," is here.
He is inspired by the Divine truth that woman is to contribute to the
redemption of the race by free and enlightened motherhood. He is
proving his fitness to be her companion by achieving the greatest of
all victories--victory over himself. The new humanity is to be born of
this higher manhood and emancipated womanhood. Then it will be possible
for motherhood to "continue in sanctification."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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