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What are Paul’s teachings regarding woman and marriage?
“It is good for a man not to touch a woman” (1 Corinthians vii, 1).
“I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn” (8, 9).
“Art thou loose from a wife? seek not a wife” (27).
“He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord; but he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and spirit; but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband” (32–34).
“So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well; but he that giveth not in marriage doeth better” (38).
“This coarse and insulting way of regarding women, as though they existed merely to be the safety-valves of men’s passions, and that the best men were above the temptation of loving them, has been the source of unnumbered evils.”—Annie Besant.
“Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands” (Colossians iii, 18).
“As the church is subject unto Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything” (Ephesians v, 24).
“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 anything, let them ask their husbands at home; for it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church” (1 Corinthians xiv, 34, 35).
“Let women learn in silence with all subjection” (1 Timothy ii, 11).
“That she [woman] does not crouch today where St. Paul tried to bind her, she owes to the men who are grand and brave enough to ignore St. Paul, and rise superior to his God.”—Helen Gardener.