Both conservative Christians and many atheist activists point to 1Corinthians 14:34-35 and note how Paul forbids women to speak in church. The Christians do this to maintain that women should not preach and cannot be pastors or priests. The atheists usually do so to hold this up as evidence that Paul was a misogynist and Christianity is inherently sexist. But did Paul really write this? And was it Christianity which made the Greco-Roman world less egalitarian or was it actually … the other way around? In this interview, I speak with Dr Joseph A. P. Wilson of Fairfield University and explore these questions.

(Note to listeners: my apologies for the clicking in the background at various points in this conversation. It seems it was feedback from my headset’s mic.)

Further Reading:

Joseph A. P. Wilson, “Recasting Paul as a Chauvinist within the Western Text-Type Manuscript Tradition: Implications for the Authorship Debate on 1 Corinthians 14.34-35”, Religions, 2022, 13(5), p. 432

Ally Kateusz, “Women Leaders at the Table in Early Churches”, Pricilla Papers, Spring 2020, Vol. 34, No. 2. https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/women-leaders-table-early-churches/

Dr Ally Kateusz on Early Christian Women: https://allykateusz.org/