Paul and Jesus

What is much more likely is that the author of 1 Timothy, based on his reading of 1 Corinthians 11, is repeating and expanding Paul’s advice. He specifically mentions that women should not braid their hair or wear provocative attire, and that their learning in silence also prohibits them from teaching or having any kind of authority over men! The writer, however, in reinforcing Paul’s point about the woman being created after the man, expands this view of subordination with a new argument, also taken from Genesis: “For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet the woman will be saved through the birth of the child” (1 Timothy 2:14–15).

This passage, like Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians that “in the Lord” the man comes from a woman, might be taken as a general affirmation of “childbirth,” but in both passages the definite article is used with a rare noun that refers to the birth of a child.⁷ I am convinced this makes it more likely that the reference is to the birth of Jesus as the second Adam. The author of 1 Timothy is not discussing a woman’s general well-being, but how she can be saved, having become a transgressor, and having led all of humankind in that fallen direction.⁸ Christians came to believe that the reference in Genesis 3:15 to the “seed” of the woman crushing the head of the Serpent, or Satan, was a reference not to offspring in general but to Jesus Christ (Romans 16:20).

How, then, does Paul’s view that there is no longer “male nor female” for those baptized into Christ fit with his insistence that the old order of the physical creation, with its male and female roles, be respected and maintained? To answer that question we need to look at his earlier discussion, also in 1 Corinthians, about marriage and celibacy. If there is no longer male or female in Christ, then how are people to live with one another when sexual differences and desires, not to mention married and unmarried states of life, are an ever-present reality that has not passed away—outside of Christ?

Paul’s advice to the Corinthians on sex and marriage is about as complex and as convoluted as anything he ever wrote, but packed into the single chapter of 1 Corinthians 7, it is the key to understanding the dilemma he and his followers faced. The topic comes up because the Corinthians have written him a letter, apparently quoting back to him a teaching he had given them: “It is good for a man not to touch a woman” (verse 1).

Paul sticks by that general principle while at the same time allowing variation. He clearly would prefer that his followers live a nonsexual life, and cites his own choice of celibacy as an example—“as one who, by the Lord’s mercy, is faithful” (verses 7–8, 25). He advises those who are single or widowed, unless they are “aflame with passion,” to remain single and celibate (verses 8–9). Marriage is not the ideal, or even the best choice, but is preferable over sexual immorality for those who lack the “gift” to live the nonsexual life (verse 9).

If a couple is engaged, it is better not to marry if they have their sexual desires under control (verses 36–37). If a man and woman are already married, they are not to divorce, except in the case where an “unbeliever” refuses to stay with a Christian partner (verses 12–16). If both are Christians the marriage cannot be broken, though a temporary separation is allowed, either when there are problems or in the case of one or the other wanting to withdraw temporarily to experience the nonsexual life for spiritual reasons (verses 5, 10–12). Several times Paul emphasizes that he is not commanding or requiring celibacy, and just as many times he goes on to say it is nonetheless the better choice.

To support his contention that the nonsexual life is preferable, Paul stresses that people are living in an acute apocalyptic situation. He refers to the impending distress (verse 26) and tells the Corinthians that the appointed time has grown very short (verse 29). Paul and his followers expected to live to see Christ return in the clouds of heaven. He believed there was little time left to pursue a normal life: marrying, having children, or going into business. Paul expected society to begin to come unraveled, with social and economic uncertainties, persecutions, and natural disasters:

From now on let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form [schema] of this world is passing away (29–31).