The Bible: Rewritten

I'm happy to admit that I like to watch TV on occasion. I'm very aware that it is de rigeur at the moment to publicly declare oneself a TV-a-phobe, but I don't. I love watching 'American Idol' and I'll definitely be tuning in to see what happens at this year's Oscars.

I also love a good, engaging documentary. So naturally, my curiosity was aroused when I happened upon a show titled "The Bible: A History". The episode I watched centred around the writings of St. Paul and the impact he had and does have on our society today.

It started out well. The presenter, a historian whose name escapes me right now, was engaging and interesting. He provided a lot of interesting tidbits about St. Paul and much of the film was shot in locations that Paul lived and worked in.

So far so good.

The programme was also keen to address the content of Paul's letters and to place his teachings in our modern setting and see how they could best be applied.

Now, anyone who has read the letters of Paul in full will be all too aware of his admonishments concerning the role of women, particularly in the church and in the home. In light of the past 40 years, reading them makes for an uncomfortable experience for a lot of people. And I simply couldn't wait to hear what our learned narrator had to say on the subject!

I was, perhaps predictably, disappointed. As the presenter focused on the first letter of St. Paul to Timothy (or 'The First Epistle of St. Paul The Apostle'...try saying that three times quickly after a glass of wine!), he highlighted this particular passage:

"But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence" - 1 Timothy 2:12.

Even to me, a person of little in depth knowledge of the Bible, the teaching here is clear and unambiguous. Women are not permitted to be priests, or pastors or in any position of spiritual authority. Nor are men to be subject to women in the home. Men are leaders in spiritual and family matters. Simple enough concept.

Naturally, the documentary makers had other ideas. We were introduced to another historian who very kindly explained that "scholars" (she wouldn't name names) today believe that not all of the letters that appear in the NT under Paul's name were actually written by Paul. There are, she enlightened us, 7 definite Pauline letters (again...she wouldn't name them) but the authorship of the rest is in dispute. The particular passage in question, in the letter to Timothy she explained, probably had not been written by St. Paul, but by some later Christians who felt uncomfortable with Paul's 'radical' theology and in particular, his views concerning the "oneness" of all people in Christ:

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28

And so, our programme concluded, we can dismiss these uncomfortable, archaic teachings and embrace a new radical theology, the true theology of Paul and all live as one, equal and indifferent in Christ. Jew and Gentile, man and woman, straight and gay. Bam! End of programme. Roll credits.

Sigh...

Whilst I in no way dispute what Paul wrote to the Galatians, I also do not dispute the teachings that appear in Timothy, Ephesians, Corinthians and more.

It is true, there are numerous passages in the Old Testament and New and particularly in the writings of Paul that, in the wrong light, can be seen to diminish the role of women and perhaps even oppress and degrade women. We are to keep silent in the churches, we must submit to our husbands, in everything. We are expected to be keepers at home, to raise our children ourselves and to live a way of life that is in direct contradiction to most of what we are taught in schools, higher education and by the media and government.

On the face of it, these admonishments can appear to marginalise us. But viewed in the correct context, these teachings simply outline for women our God ordained spheres of authority and control. We are to be our children's primary carers. What an enormous responsibility! Their day to day education and moral training is our job. We need not concern ourselves with leading the family unit, or making decisions that could potentially impact ourselves and our families for years, maybe decades to come. We are freed from the burden of sole financial responsibility and instead, we our made the boss of our own workplace - the home.

We could consider that by submitting to our husbands we are taking second place or we could consider that by choosing to submit to our husbands we are enabling them to fulfil their God ordained role as leader and head. Without our co-operation, their role is made almost impossible.

Women in a position of submission hold far more power than they even know! And it is this key 'contradiction' that they makers of this documentary failed to recognise. Paul wasn't a chauvinist or a misogynist. Women are not instructed to be submissive and "in silence" because we are lesser beings. Our historian friend is so right when he says that in Christ, we are all equal, men and women are of the same value. But crucially our roles, our specialisms are different. And we can best serve our families, our churches and ultimately God by respecting these natural differences and throwing ourselves 100% into the work given to us.

It occurs to me that if we can trust in our faith that a man named Jesus who lived 2000 years ago came to earth from heaven, was crucified and died for our sins and three days later was resurrected from the dead then surely it's not that much of a stretch to believe that the writings of his faithful servant and ardent follower St. Paul just might have something worthwhile to teach to today's world, even if some learned "scholars" dispute their authenticity.

Perhaps our documentary film-makers should have more accurately titled their programme, "The Bible: Rewritten".

After all, that's what they tried to do.