The New Testament authors lived in a patriarchal culture and times of persecution, they attempted to make the Christian message acceptable to the Jews as well as the Gentiles of their time. Since the New Testament authors selected materials and sources surviving the destruction of Israel and the Empires censorship, we must assume that many words and stories about Jesus and his first followers have been lost.

e can see from the study of the Christian apologists or Fathers of the second century that because of their apologetic and missionary interests they played down the role of women in the Christian community. Finally the early Christian writers wrote against other Christian groups and directions, e.g., the Gnostics or Montanists, who accorded women a greater role in the life and preaching of the Christian community. If we take into consideration all these circumstances influencing the New Testament authors, we can easily see that they transmit only a fraction of the possibly rich tradition on the role of women in the ministry of Jesus and in the earliest Christian communities. Most of the genuine Christian "her story" is, therefore probably lost. We cannot reasonably expect to find extensive documentation for the role of women in early Christianity. The few, but remarkable, surviving traces have to be recaptured not only from the bias of contemporary interpreters but also sifted out from the patriarchal records of the New Testament authors themselves. If we study the New Testament texts from such a perspective, we are astonished how much they tell us about the role of women in the early Church. Students or participants of Bible groups often have never heard of Mary Magdalene or Prisca and their role in the early Christian movement. If it is the first time that they hear of the role of women in the New Testament, they are genuinely surprised about the richness of the New Testament traditions about women.

The earliest evidence, from *Paul's letters, suggests that women functioned as dynamic leaders of the movement (Phil. 4.2-3; Rom. 16), *deacons (Rom 16.1-2), *apostles (Rom. 16.7), and missionaries (1 Cor. 16.10; Rom. 16-3-4). The Gospels relates that Jesus had women followers as well as men (Mark 15-40-41; Matt. 27-55; Luke 8.1-3) and treated women as equals ( John 4.9, 27; Luk 10-38-42);

Thus, in pre-Pauline and Pauline Christian communities, women functioned almost identically to men. In fact, it is possible that more women than men were house-church leaders, hosting vital prayer meetings that became the kernel of the movement. At least one woman deacon, Phoebe, is recorded in the New Testament (Rom. 16.1-2), and she functioned as an official teacher and missionary in the church of Cenchreae. Euodia and Syntyche from Philippi (Phil- 4.2-3) were prominent leaders of that community. The most prominent woman in the New Testament Epistles is Prisca/ Priscilla, who worked alongside her husband and was probably the more renowned of the pair (1 Cor. 16.19; Rom. 16-3-4; Acts 18). The missionary couple, Priscilla and Aquila (chap. 18); were house-church leaders (12.12); and prominent converts (17-4, 12). The women Mary, Tryphaena, Tryphosa, and Persis in Romans 16 are described as having labored (hopian) for the Lord, the same term Paul used to describe his own evangelizing and teaching activities.

In Judaism, archaeological and other evidence demonstrates that some women in the first few centuries CE held positions such as head of a synagogue (archisynagogis), leader (archigissa), elder (presbytis), 'mother of the synagogue" (mater synagogae), and priest (hiereia). The exact functions of these women are difficult to ascertain, but they were probably equivalent to the functions of men bearing parallel titles. The evidence further demonstrates that women were integrated into regular services, not segregated in "women's galleries" or separate rooms, and that some were major financial contributors to local synagogues.

The missionary work of women was not initiated by Paul-, but he attests that it was equal to his own. Paul commends Mary, Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis because they have "labored" hard in the Lord (Rom. 16:6, 12). Paul uses the same Greek verb that he usually employs to characterize his own missionary work, the evangelizing and teaching of others and of himself. In Philippians 4:2)., Paul explicitly states that Euodia and Syntyche have "contended" side by side with him. As in an athletic competition, women have contended with Paul, Clemens, and the rest of Paul's comissionaries in the cause of the Gospel. Much of women's "her-story" in early Christianity is lost. The few references which survived in the New Testament records are like the tip of an iceberg indicating what we have lost. Yet at the same time they show how great the influence of women was in the early Christian movement. Indeed women's leadership in the primitive Church was exceptional not only by the standards of Judaism and the GrecoRoman world, but also by those of the later Christian Church.

aul takes many ways to give Phoebe dignity. For he has both mentioned her before all others and called her sister. And it is no mean thing to be called sister by Saint Paul. Moreover he has added her rank by mentioning her as being a deaconess." And a little later in the same homily he says: "And of the women, one (Phoebe) he addresses by her title, for he does not call her servant of the church in an undefined way, because if this were so he would have given Tryphaena and Persis this name too-but one has the office of deaconess, another as helper and assistant." Following the passage regarding Phoebe, Saint Paul sends his greetings to Prisca and Aquila, fellow workers in Jesus Christ who had risked their lives for him." We have here a married couple both in the service of the Church. It is to be noted that Paul put the name of the wife, Prisca (Priscilla in some manuscripts, the diminutive of Prisca) first, and the husband's name second. Paul does this on several other occasions when speaking of Prisca, so that probably she was the more active apostle of the two. Paul also greets all the churches of the Gentiles and their own church house. There are many other references to Priscilla and Aquila in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles of Saint Paul, so that there is a considerable amount of information about them. They had a church-house in Rome on the Aventine Hill. They are believed to have been baptized there by Saint Peter. They left Rome due to the edict of Claudius by which all Jews were expelled from Rome . They then settled in Corinth, where as in Rome they had their own church house. That is where Paul met them for the first time, stayed with them, and worked with them as tentmakers. Paul preached among the Corinthians for eighteen months and moved to Ephesus when the Jews stirred up trouble, Priscilla and Aquila went with him. They stayed at Ephesus, while Saint Paul went on.

t was while Priscilla and Aquila were at Ephesus that Apollos,an intellectual of the Alexandrian Jewish community, arrived in the city and spoke in the synagooue. Priscilla and Aquila invited Apollos to their house and gave him instruction in the Christian way of life. He became an important apostle. In these accounts the name of Priscilla is constantly put first, and she is looked upon by Saint John Chrysostom and others as having been the principle influence in the conversion of Apollos. She must therefore have been herself a highly educated person. There are scholars who hold that she is the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews; the only unsigned epistle attributed to Saint Paul. When the Jewish persecution in Italy ceased, Priscilla and Aquila returned to Rome and continued to hold their house as an ecclesiastical center. There is a mention of their church-house in a Vatican codex . It would be ludicrous to imagine that Paul would ever have suggested that Priscilla should consult her husband at home on questions of religion as in the well-known passage in the First Epistle to the Corinthians regarding women being silent in churches (I Corinthians I4:34-35)- In a number of Greek and Old Latin manuscripts these verses appear only at the end of the chapter as verses 39 and 40-1

he fact that these verses get moved about makes them a likely interpolation. Among the codices in which this transposition takes place is the Claramontanus Codex of the sixth century, both in the Greek and Latin texts, and in the Latin Armagh Codex of the ninth centurv.
This means that the altered text cannot truly be considered 'inspired' text!

he Old Latin versions were prior to the Latin of the Vulgate. It was especially in the earliest period of the text that interpolations could be introduced.

At that time the books of the New Testament had not come to be regarded as on the level of the Old Testament.

In the Old Latin versions, verse 36 of I Corinthians 14 of the Vulgate came after verse 33, so that the verse An a vohis Sermo Dei processit (Does the Word of God proceed from you, does it reach you alone?) applied then to the prophets in general. And would be in reference to orderly conduct.

In the Vulgate it applies to women-prophets or those defending their right to speak, only.

hen one remembers the deference in which Paul spoke of his fellow workers, both male and female, one wonders if this awkward phrase could really be that of Saint Paul at all.

Carefully considered; It indeed sounds more like a marginal note!

The injunction in verse 35 of the Vulgate and 40 of the Old Latin versions telling wives to consult their husbands at home, might have been possible by the end of the second century when there would have been a sufficient number of Christian married couples, but at the time of Saint Paul there would have been very few.

Paul could not have told Lois the fervent Christian grandmother of Timothy nor his Christian mother Eurice to consult their husbands, since those men were pagans.

It should be noted here that in addition to being a consistent champion of Gentile Christians, Paul was also a staunch advocate of women's active participation - including in leadership roles - in the churches of his day. After Paul's freedom-championing voice for women had been silenced by martydom, it appears that there was a later Jewish and/or other cultural reversal of the acceptance of women's active leadership roles in the churches that Paul and others had established and nurtured. For instance, in 1Ti 2:11,12 we read words attributed to Paul, saying, "Women should listen and learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly." (NAB) Since it is now widely concluded that the Pastoral Epistles were written around 115 AD, these words were written most likely about fifty years after Paul's martyrdom. Remember this letter was written in response to the many questions the church was asking in another letter. 1 Corinthians 7:1 says, "Now for the matters you wrote about…" The Corinthian church wrote a letter asking Paul questions. I believe the passage you quoted was actually Paul quoting one of the false teachings going on in the Corinthian church. Notice the entire language of the statement about women being silent. Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under 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 the church. What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only. (1 Cor 14:34-36, KJV) After this chauvinistic statement Paul exclaims "What?" Paul is almost beside himself when he reads back this statement from the letter written to him. Paul is not the one making the statement. Paul is quoting from the letter. The fact Paul exclaims, "What? came the word of God out from you?" shows that the statement came from the Corinthian church, and they were claiming to exclude the women from speaking based on the Law, which they claimed was the word of God. Of course when you recognize that Paul did not teach the Law but Grace, you realize Paul would never use the Law to prove anything. The author of this statement about women remaining silent used the Law as the basis of this practice. "But they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law." Paul would never use the Law to enforce any behavior. Paul taught that the Law was nailed to the cross (see Ephesians 2:15 and Colossians 2:14), so why would he appeal to the Law to ban women? Paul did not agree with the statement but questioned it. In response to this ban on women, Paul says, "Let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord's command" (14:37). Paul taught and wrote that the women in Corinth could prophesy with their heads covered (ch 11). He also wrote, "For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged " (14:31). All can prophesy. That includes women! Paul taught the equality of women and men. He recognized cultural behaviors such as the ones in Corinth, (example: head covered), but he also says, "In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman" (11:11). He differentiates between cultural norms and equality in the Lord. His famous statement in Galatians should remove all doubt as to whether or not Paul was a "woman hater" as some have claimed. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:28) Concerning the roles of women in the Lord, there is no ban from the ministry. A woman can do everything a man can do as far as the ministry is concerned. There should be equality in the ministry. I believe a woman can pastor. Some will argue that Jesus never ordained women to be His apostles, thus, setting aside women from being in the ministry. If you argue against women being pastors by appealing to the fact that the apostles were men, then you must ban slaves and Greeks from the ministry, because Jesus only chose free men who were Jews to be His apostles. I haven’t heard any Gentiles willing to step down from the ministry, because the Apostles were Jews. Here is the way I interpret passages, which appear to discriminate. I will not use the Bible to discriminate against anyone. I always look to use the scriptures to liberate people, not place them in bondage. I think it is time to quit holding to interpretations that put people in bondage. We must be willing to admit that we don’t know everything, and be willing to side in with grace. Let our conscience guide us when we are confused about certain passages. Considering the similarity between 1Co 14:35 and 1Ti 2:11,12, conclusions that I and others continue to draw are (1) that Paul wrote the bulk of what was in 1 Corinthians but that he did not write 1 Timothy, and (2) that around 115 AD, the writer of 1 Timothy or a group associated with him added the 1Co 14:33b-36 pericope to the body of letters that later became 1 Corinthians. In this scenario this would have been done in part to lend further authority to a later (or more culturally acceptable) teaching that marginalized. On 1Co 14:34-35 even Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, O.P., in the outstanding New Jerome Biblical Commentary, comments (New Jerome Biblical Commentary, edited by Raymond E. Brown, S.S., Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J, and Roland E. Murphy, O.Carm., Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990, pages 811-812): These verses are not a Corinthian slogan, as some have argued..., but a post-Pauline interpolation... Not only is the appeal to the law (possibly Gen 3:16) un-Pauline, but the verses contradict 11:5. The injunctions reflect the misogynism of 1 Tim 2:11-14 and probably stem from the same circle. Some mss. place these verses after 40. Regarding 1Ti 2:11,12, Robert A. Wild, S.J., comments (Ibid., page 897): 1 Cor 14:33b-35, a probable early addition to the original text of 1 Cor, is close in language and sentiment to this text. The author of the Pastorals speaks explicitly only of women's behavior at Christian worship but may intend a more general application...

It may also have been a rule instituted in order to keep rivalries and jealousies on the mens part from disrupting worship services.

As far as the scripture used for women to keep silent, you must notice that the law he was referring to was a law of the day since there is no law of Moses that prohibits a women to keep silent! On the contrary, we see that Miriam, Deborah, Esther and many other women of the Bible had prominent postitions of leadership, OVER men, just as men have had positions over women. If you claim that none of this is cultural then you must believe in slavery since Paul also addressed slaves to obey. If you persist that a woman is a husbands property, which is what is alluded to when one states that she is to obey her husband, then you believe that a wife is like a child or slave, except with sexual priviledges.