As I may have mentioned in other blog entries, our congregation is reading through the Bible this year; well, at least some of us have accepted the challenge made some 11 months ago. This week I finished reading the Letter to the Romans. I was struck anew by all the references to women in the last chapter.
As many readers might well know, the apostle Paul has often gotten, as some would say nowadays, “a bad rap” when it comes to some of the things she has said about women. However, as is often the case, it is often more prudent to look at what a person does then what person says. If we take note of the references to women in the acts, which recounts Paul's so-called "missionary journeys,” we will see favourable references to women. You will actually see similar statements and some of his other letters, besides the Letter to the Romans.
But since we are now reading Romans in our congregation, let us take a look at the last chapter. Has seems to have been more of a custom in those days and then now, bearing in mind of course that Paul was writing to her group and not always an individual, at the ends of the letters, there are often a lot of things which should include references to how this person has figured in the writer's, in this case Paul’s, life.
It is obvious from the way the book is written, even before the later insertion of chapter divisions, that they content of the letter was finished at the end of chapter 15. Then, the first thing we read in chapter 16, which is the section on readings etc., is a reference to "our sister Phoebe,” a woman. She must have been a prominent enough woman for Paul to begin this whole greeting section with her. Indeed, the above phrase goes on to identify her as “a deaconess of the church at Cenchreae.” Cenchreae was actually a Greek city, a seaport, near Corinth. “Here according to Acts 18:18, Paul had his hair shorn before sailing for Syria, since he had a vow. A local church must have been established there by Paul since Phoebe, the deaconess of Cenchreae, was entrusted with the Epistle to the Romans, and was commended to them in the highest terms by the apostle, who charged them to ‘assist her in whatsoever matter she may have need.’ " [http://biblehub.com/topical/c/cenchreae.htm].
We obviously have to balance this with other references where Paul speaks of women not being permitted to speak in the church (First Corinthians 14:33B-35). I don't think we can imagine that Phoebe was not allowed to speak if she was a deaconess. At the same time though, the role of a deaconess, or elder as we might be more familiar with, was probably to serve in the community, which did not necessarily call for her to be given the right to speak in the assembled congregation. As mentioned above as well though, Paul must have thought a lot of her to entrust her with the letter to the Romans, which he was probably sending from Corinth. One can deduce that from the letters to the Corinthians (second Corinthians 8:1-9:5) because there he speaks of going to Jerusalem with an offering from the church in Greece, in particular Macedonia, for the church in Jerusalem was suffering from a famine, which he also speaks about in Romans 14:25-29. Here he speaks of wanting to go to Jerusalem with this gift, after which he hopes to finally be able to come to Rome. Indeed, interestingly, this is the only letter we have in the New Testament written by Paul to a church which he had not previously visited, if not in fact started.
The next reference is To the couple, Prisca/Priscilla and Aquila, who we will recall had given Paul, a fellow tent-maker, hospitality when he arrived in Corinth and were instrumental in founding the church there (Acts 18:23C). I don't want to put too much weight on the fact that Priscilla's name is first, but we know that even nowadays, unless one purposely names the woman first when listing, for example, a couple, I think the tradition in our still too-patriarchal society is to name the man first. So, again, this might tell us that Paul's memory and appreciation for this couple was more for what Priscilla did then what her husband Aquila did.
Indeed, as we go through the names from verses 1-15, of which there are 30, a full one-third of them, it would seem to me, are clearly women. There are probably just as many whose gender I could not be certain of, so there might even be more women named.
Interestingly, the fourth naming is Mary, whom Paul refers to as having worked hard among you, meaning the Romans. As we know, church lore has it that the Apostle Peter founded the church in Rome. There are also other stories to the effect that Jesus’ mother Mary worked with Peter and perhaps even Luke, who was with Paul when he eventually went to Rome, as we can see from the way he writes Acts in the first person when it talks about their journey to and stay in Rome. This is augmented by the fact that Paul referred to Luke as being a fellow worker with him in Rome, for example when he wrote the letter to Philemon (verse 23) and particularly second Timothy 4:11, where he describes being deserted by a number of people, Luke alone being left with references such as that in Philemon above, also ended up in Rome with Paul.
Other references that indicate Paul’s close affection for women are such as those in verse 13 where he says,”Greet Rufus, eminent in the Lord, also his mother and mine.” In verse 15 he greets Nereus and his sister. One might even speculate that Paul, living what appears to have been a celibate life as a missionary, in contradistinction to his evidently having been married once in the past, as this was a condition of being a Pharisee, which he was, appreciated especially the roles of women that ministered to him in his travels
Whatever one might want to make of all of this, one needs to recognize that, over against the place of women in Jewish society, let alone Gentile, they were already being given significantly more recognition and acceptance in the early church and in all of the New Testament writings then would have been warranted if the writers followed the mores of society at large in those days.
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