6.5 The Means of Accomplishing part 5

The means of accomplishing Enlightenment ideals requires shaping society through rational efforts, ensuring equal rights for all, and ensuring everyone’s opportunity to improve their condition in life through reason and effort. Sparta and Imperial Rome did  not grant women the right to vote, but believed nature endowed women with approximately equal rights. In an empire absorbing different cultures and races, juris gentium extended uniform legal rights to all citizens.¹ Then, in 476 CE, the Roman Empire split, the Western Empire fell, and the divine right of the Holy Roman Emperor replaced individual autonomy.

Historical events can overlap without causing each other. Together the rise of Christianity and fall of Rome shaped the values and policies emerging from the collapse without causing it. The peak of the Roman Empire was 117 CE. Its fall was 476 CE. Between those dates Christianity was legal for the last one hundred sixty-six years and Rome a Christian Empire for the last ninety-six years before its fall in 476 CE.

Why Roman Empire Christianity is a Complex Story

Christianity didn’t arise fully formed after Christ’s resurrection. The name, Christianity, emerged in Antioch as a slur. The earliest followers were called “Nazarenes”, “believers”, “disciples”, and “brethren”. The First Council of Nicaea (325 CE) set Jesus’ divine nature. The Council of Rome (382 CE) set the Bible texts. Sectarian arguments over these doctrines became centuries of wars, persecutions, and inquisitions.

The challenges of translation distort our understanding of the transition from pagan Rome to third century Christianity. The difficulty in understanding begins with converting ancient Hebrew and Aramaic dialects into single language. The Septuagint is the foundation translation used in the King James and  modern Bibles. Step one was  translating the different languages of the Old Testament into Koine Greek. It was done in two steps by two set of scholars: the first five books in the third century BCE, the rest in the second century BCE.²

Despite its importance, the Septuagint compounds the problems of translation. The books in the Bible were written by different, often unknown authors They were written at different times, in different languages, and to address the different problems of their day. This is equally true for the New Testament.

One problem the mixed origin creates is that having one or two groups translate the different sources into a single story creates a flatness that hides the differences in context, subtle connotations, and implications. For example, family rights and authority to early Hebrews did not mean what it did to the Greeks, Athenian or Spartan. Translations always rely on the conventions of the interpreter’s day.

A second translation problem is the struggle between literal translations³ and meaning translations.⁴ There are ideas, awareness of things captured in one culture’s language, that have no comparable meaning in another culture. For example, “honor” in a culture shaped by fear of guilt means not doing something wrong. In a culture shaped by fear of loss of reputation honor means not getting caught.⁵

Given the problems of context and meaning that shaped Christian doctrine governing women’s religious authority, it is simpler to focus on one person: Paul, or Saul of Tarsus. Working with limited historical documentation, Saul lived circa 5 – 65 CE. He likely became a Roman citizen after being freed from slavery. Saul spoke Aramaic possibly Koine Greek, the New Testament language. He was an apocalyptic Pharisee who attacked Christian to enforce Jewish law. That would include forcing Jewish women to cover their heads. Historians suggest Saul was a Greek Stoic, and Stoics believed women had the same capacity for reason and virtue as men and should be comparably educated.

Paul’s apocalyptic belief seems least understood. The apocalyptic belief was that at the resurrection the bodies of the dead would be raised. God would return to earth people’s bodies restored and they would live forever on Earth.

“This resurrection of the dead, in which our weak, mortal, suffering bodies are transformed and recreated so as no longer to be subject to the ravages of pain and death will mark the end of history as we know it.” (I Corinthians 15:51-53).

It was touching Jesus’ wound, his physical body, that transformed Saul to Paul.⁶

Seeing Jesus’ physical resurrection convinced Paul that the resurrection had begun and would fulfill the promise during his lifetime or the lifetime of those he taught. Salvation depended on preparing immediately. Give away your possessions. If you’re married stay married. If not, don’t. Paul was not formalizing doctrine, organizing a Bible, organizing a Church, or granting men authority over either women or the Church. He recognized women as religious leaders⁷ with a single, Jewish requirement, “But every woman that prayed or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven (I Corinthians 11:6).⁸

The comparison of I Corinthians 11 to I Corinthians 14 demonstrates the problem of translation flattening differences between original texts.

“Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in church.” I Corinthians 14:34-35.

The flattening caused by translation hides the critical differences in language and context.⁹ Knowing Paul’s biography helps readers separate his view of women in the Church from later writers’ agenda. Hidden in the unifying translation is that I Corinthians 14 is fake. Technically it and six other books attributed to Paul¹⁰ are pseudepigrapha: written by someone pretending to be Paul.

How Do We Know Some Books Are Fakes?

The pseudepigrapha authors have Paul writing to churches and discussing organization structures that did not exist during his life. They contradict Paul’s authentic texts. The second century crisis for the emerging Church was that Jesus’ end of days return didn’t happen. The authors wanted to speak with Paul’s authority to consolidate doctrine and build a governing structure for the fragmented Church. Central to creating that structure was the Greek philosophy influenced drive to remove women from authority. Just as the Athenians dismissed Spartan women’s freedoms, the emerging doctrines tried to destroy the Jewish and Roman Empire recognition of women. The Koine Greek language foundation created a patriarchal hierarchy.

Next: the Greco-Roman doctrine

Appendix A: timeline of Roman Empire history.

Imperial Rome founded 27 BCE

Apostle Paul (Saul of Tarsus) circa 5-65 CE

Julius Caesar is emperor 44-49 CE

The empire is at its largest 117 CE

Constantine becomes emperor 306-377

Constantine’s Edict of Milan making Christianity legal 313 CE

First Council of Nicaea set Jesus’ divine nature ( rejected the Arian Heresy) 325 CE

Constantine’s Edict of Thessalonica making Christianity the state religion 380 CE

Council of Rome selected the 73 books that set the old and new Testaments 382 CE

Pressed by the Huns, Germanic people flood into Rome 370s-400s CE

Fall of Rome 476 CE

End Notes

 1 Rights existed for “people”, slaves were property, but it’s a weal defense.

 2 By then few people could read ancient Hebrew.

3 The closest matching word compared contrasted against the best match to the value or thought the word represents. Does “thou shalt not kill” mean end the life (murder) or does it mean not end a life without the justification of law (execute).

 4 This is the issue of the connotations words carry: zealot compared to fan.

5 These are overly broad interpretations of Hebrew and Islamic faces of religion.

6 These are overly broad interpretations of Hebrew and Islamic faces of religion.

7 This deserves to be a separate post, but I am not a critical Biblical scholar. Junia was an apostle, Phoebe deacon at Cenchreae,Priscilla instructed Apollos, Chloe Corinthian church leader, Lydia a patron, Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis. John watched the crucifixion from afar while the others hid while Mary (mother of /Christ) Mary Magdlene, Mary wife of Clopas, Mary mother of James the younger and Jose, and Salome stayed with Jesus. At the burial the male apostles were missing in action. Women discover the empty tomb (attendance varies by writer) and reveal the resurrection.

8 This deserves to be a separate post, but I am not a critical Biblical scholar. Junia was an apostle, Phoebe deacon at Cenchreae, Priscilla instructed Apollos, Chloe Corinthian church leader, Lydia a patron, Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis. John watched the crucifixion from afar while the others hid while Mary (mother of /Christ) Mary Magdlene, Mary wife of Clopas, Mary mother of James the younger and Jose, and Salome stayed with Jesus. At the burial the male apostles were missing in action. Women discover the empty tomb (attendance varies by writer) and reveal the resurrection.

9 The strong critical scholar consensus is that only seven of the books attributed to Paul were authored by him. Of those seven I Corinthians had added after his death that contradicted the material believed authentic. The added material on women and the church contradicts what Paul wrote. One of the reasons scholars know the material was added is that it addresses issue of church structure (2nd century CE) that did not exist when Paul was alive and which he would not have addressed believing Christ would during the life of those he taught.

 10 The majority consensus among Biblical scholars is that Ephesians, Colossians, II Thessalonians, I Timothy, II Timothy, Titus and additions to I Corinthians are pseudepigrapha.

11 The Council of Nicaea set doctrine including the divinity of Christ, but did not set the Bible.