What Paul Really Said About Women: The Apostle's Liberating Views on Equality in Marriage, Leadership, and Love

This book was absolutely amazing!! I don't think I can say amazing enough in regards to reviewing this book. Let me first start by saying that I am indeed a feminist but I was raised in the church. I was raised that men are the head of the household and women are supposed to submit in some form to their husbands. I was also raised that women had the spirit of Jezebel, we shouldn't be comfortable with our bodies and cover up and we should in essence act as white as possible because our African roots were witchcraft and uncivilized. Therefore, I always had an issue with the church and in turn Christianity. Since my adult life I have always been a social justice person, academically, politically and socially. I always wanted things to be equal for human beings and for a God that loves us how we are and if we all sin why are some sins more damning than others and why as a woman am I less than?!? I came across the book Jesus Feminist and it was a good start but didn't give enough information that I craved for. (I am a nerd and a graduate student and I need hardcore facts and evidence that can be backed up empirically to make a point.) This book was a gift from God and an affirmation of his love for me being black and a female. Bristow not only added verses to back up his argument for equality but gave background information and history to solidify that point. He gave in depth definitions for the words that we have gotten so confused about in the church and reminded the reader that Paul was for social justice and equality, even among women. When it came to dressing and telling women to be silent he gave valid reason for what was taking place in the churches at the time when Paul wrote his letters and what he was trying to address. What I love most about this is that many pastors today read the description with their own views of culture and society and do not think about what he was dealing with back then! This book cleared up so many answers for me on this topic and restored my faith in love and marriage. While I still have other questions in regard to Christianity I feel as though this book has put me back on the right direction and renewed my faith. All I can do is thank John Bristow for researching, writing and blessing me with this book.

Good book. Lots of thought and research. Confirms what I've always known, that women can also teach and lead church

Paul actually SUPPORTED the active, equal roles of women in the church! This answered so many questions I had about apparent discrepancies in the Pauline letters. Many translations, historical, political and cultural changes have impacted the orginal meanings of texts. This book refers to the original languages, cultural and historic contexts to give clarity to scriptures.

This book shows evidence on what Paul actually wrote verses what translators said he wrote. It gives quite a few references so the reader can research it her/himself.

This book is a fine treatise on what the greatest writer of Biblical doctrine had to say about the role of women. It can, and should, be used to quickly and thoroughly refute anyone who questions that women have a visible, active, beautiful, and important role in the family and church. The author knows his Greek and Hebrew languages well, and he is very familiar with how the Classical cultures shaped the mindset of early Christians. He easily and thoroughly explains this in plain English for the average literate person to understand. That said, a couple of his interpretations fall short. In chapter 2, most notably, he correctly asserts that wives are not to be "ruled" by their husbands like servants by a dictator. He states that the husband is more like the physical head of a body or the leader of an army, he who charges into battle first. However, Bristow then asserts that this form of headship or military leadership conveys no kind of actual leadership by the husband over his wife at all. This is pure logical fallacy - one cannot liken a husband to a military leader whom his troops follow into battle and then say that this is not leadership. Further, to do this robs Christ of His active leadership of the Church. It's plain as day for Christians - wives are to support their husbands' leadership of the family in a marriage as we are all to support Christ's leadership of the Church in church. This glaring fallacy notwithstanding, this is still an excellent book. I recommend it for anyone serious about understanding God's view of how Humankind in His image is supposed to function.

Great historical value truth be told

Nice book must read

Fresh and relevant, I was surprised that this book was first published in 1988. On discovering this I wondered why this book wasn't on any recommended book list I've seen. Bristow's arguments answers the questions that I had which had been raised by my theological study and my desire to take the particular subject areas of The New Perspective on Paul and Feminist Theology further. The question that I had was concerning the apparent difference in Paul's teaching in his letters to Churches and the teaching in his pastoral letters concerning the role of women in the Church. Even if one one holds the view that Paul didn't write all of the letters attributed to him something has to account for the change. Bristow accounts for this change not just by focusing on the texts in question but how the texts were interpreted and twisted to conform to the prevailing philosophy of Greek culture and civilization. Bristow demonstrates what Paul says in each of the verses that pertain to women by explaining the actual Greek word used in the verse and suggests alternative words that he could have used if he had actually wanted to say what many have presumed he meant. For example the word head in the verse, "the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church" implies two meanings that are intertwined in English which most will assume to mean that the man is the boss. Not so in the Greek word used by Paul. Bristow argues that Paul went out of his way not to use the Greek word that would signify that the husband is to be the boss over his wife but used the word that signifies that the husband is foremost as in terms of a cornerstone in a foundation. This in my view reflects the second part of the verse - as Christ is the head of the Church who so loved people gave his life for them. Bristow has given to us a fresh and radical picture of what the community of the Church should be - neither male or female for we are all one in Christ Jesus. He also depicts how this vision was lost by having the philosophy of the prevailing culture install itself as the culture of the Church. Something that was not put right at the time of the reformation as it retained much of its dependence on Greek philosophy. This book is an important contribution to the development of a biblical and radical vision of what Church should be about in the relationship between men and women and points the way to getting back to Paul's vision of a community that is truly equal as Jesus intended. A must for the book shelf .

as described

Hard-core THEOLOGY ENDORSING WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP - this is by far one of the best books I have ever read, and I have read a few! A must-read for any women called into leadership but told by the church she can't. Well, Christ (and Paul, as this book explains) is FOR women preaching and in leadership as long as they do so by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is an amazing book and I can not recommend it enough.

Good