The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation
of Women Became Gospel Truth
by Beth Allison Barr
Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2021

“The Sad story of Christian Patriarchy and a Glimmer of Hope”

A review by George H. Martin

I have a friend who is a theologian. His wise advice when talking about any abstract idea or issue is “to put a face on it.” That is exactly what Professor Barr does in this amazing but troubling book. One of my friends who knows of my book Paul Found in His Letters pointed me to her book because like me she does not believe that all of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 14:34-36 were his words (i.e “women be silent” and “only ask questions of your husband when at home).

To be sure they are there in every bible, and it has been used to great effect to prevent women from teaching, preaching, or leading in many different churches to this very day.  I grew up in an Episcopal church where women were not allowed to sit on a vestry, attend General Convention as a deputy, and certainly never entertain the idea of being ordained. As that all started to change we were debating the legacy of Paul and struggling against our own fundamentalists quoting him to keep men in power in the church. The struggle goes on in many corners of Christendom, and I dare say it lingers in some of our own Episcopal backyards.

 With Beth Allison Barr we have a scholar of Christianity who earned her PhD in Medieval History and now teaches as Baylor University. She grew up in the evangelical world which prevented women from teaching men or preaching. Women were to be married, raise kids, and stay at home. It was a life she lived while becoming a professor at a large university, while attending a church where she could not teach. Then her husband was fired from his 15-year youth ministry position. As Barr explains “he challenged church leadership over the issue of women in ministry.” This is where she puts a “face” on this issue as it became all too real in her life and that of her family.

 Particularly relevant to my research on Paul is what she came to understand about that troubling passage in 1 Corinthians 14:34-26, where it seems Paul said women should be silent in church, and if they had questions they were to ask their husbands at home. That passage and various ones from the Pastoral epistles, as well as Colossians and Ephesians reinforce the hierarchical rules that still to this day support the existing patriarchal systems subjugating women. But what if we have been mis-reading this passage? What if it is really opposite what Paul believed and practiced? We can ask that question because in earlier parts of 1 Corinthians Paul affirmed the equality of men and women in marriage (I Cor 7:2-7) and recognized women participating in prayer and prophecy in worship (1 Cor 11:5)

 To be sure there are a number of scholars who maintain that this troubling set of verses (1 Cor 14:34-36) is what is called an interpolation.  The idea is that some scribe copying the letter to the Corinthians years later knew what was in 1 Tim 2:11-12: women should learn in silence and “no woman [is to] teach or have authority over a man. Did that scribe believe that this teaching, seemingly coming from a Pauline letter, should be inserted into 1 Corinthians at the end of chapter 14? Some scholars make that argument, but the better way to approach the matter is to consider that this passage was there when Paul sent off this letter.

 What we must also ask is “Were these words brought to Paul, maybe with Chloe’s people (1 Cor 1:11)? Was it a statement from the men looking for Paul to be in agreement with them?”

 All through 1 Corinthians Paul was responding to problems and issues that touched on dissention, disorder with the eucharistic meals and worship, veils for women, and assertations of privilege. We know from Paul’s own words that questions came from Corinth which provided the basis for this letter. We need to consider the possibility that the men authored the troubling statements silencing women in verses 34-35 and then Paul responded in verse 36. A single Greek letter begins that verse. It is the Greek letter h pronounced as eta.

 Consider first this translation

1 Cor 14:36 “Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only ones it has reached?” [New Revised Standard Version, NRSV]

 Remember how we use the phrase “either or”?. It could one thing or the other. But that’s not the way Paul replied!

 Here is what Barr discovered from a number of scholars as the other way to translate this verse. This is Paul shouting out:

 1 Cor 14:36: “ What! Did the word of God originate with you, or are you the only ones it has reached?”
[Revised Standard Version, RSV; and it is also in the King James Bible, KJV)

 That single letter eta is a disjunctive, a grammatical term which means there is a choice to be made in the midst of an argument. The Corinthian men have spoken and asserted their privilege and subjugation of women—they are to be “subordinate” (1 Cor 14:34). Paul is totally dismayed with their arrogance and responds with two sharp rhetorical questions for which the men know they cannot answer truthfully.

 Barr’s book is much more than this single verse, but coming out a world which used passages like this to keep women from being equal to men, she goes on to note that “patriarchy” is a disease that has infected Christianity. Being a historian, however, she explains the times, and places, and women who found their voice as pastors, teachers, and yes even priests, abbots, and teachers. The battle for equality still has far to go, but there is hope as can be found in this book.

Postscript: If you like this review you are going to like chapter 9 of Paul Found in His Letters. “Paul an Unmanly Man”
Please note: I did not know about Barr’s book when it was published.