How (Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-women, Anti-science, Pro-violence, Pro-slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture

by Dan Kimball

A common custom during that time period was that when you had not been educated on a topic, it was disrespectful to interrupt the teacher and ask questions. Question asking or commenting during a teaching wasn’t accepted etiquette and the norm. Isocrates, a popular Greek orator and teacher, required his students to remain silent when he taught. Rabbi Akiba, a contemporary of Paul, and Philo, who was a first-century Jewish leader, also commended silence during teaching.2 The “silence” mentioned here doesn’t mean an absolute tape-over-your-mouth not speaking. Instead, it likely means to adopt a “quiet demeanor” appropriate for students of that time period who wished to learn.3 Also, when you see the words saying a woman “must be in submission,” in this context it is talking about a posture of learning, not being in a lower or lesser position. There may have been a problem in Ephesus if women who were worshipers of Artemis, a deity with an extremely different approach to worship and learning, were not seeking to follow Christ. Paul may be giving some instruction to preserve order for learning. In that time and culture, men generally were more educated, so this helps us understand why Paul speaks to those with husbands. These women may have had questions, but instead of disrupting the teaching time in the worship gathering, Paul felt it was best for them to first ask their husband later.