cumming, alan_pauline christianity and greek philosophy. a study of the status of women_jhi, 34,...
TRANSCRIPT
-
8/9/2019 Cumming, Alan_Pauline Christianity and Greek Philosophy. a Study of the Status of Women_JHI, 34, 4_1973_517-528
1/13
Pauline Christianity and Greek Philosophy: A Study of the Status of WomenAuthor(s): Alan CummingSource: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1973), pp. 517-528Published by: University of Pennsylvania PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2708885 .
Accessed: 23/02/2015 12:18
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
University of Pennsylvania Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Journal of the History of Ideas.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 23 Feb 2015 12:18:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=upennhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2708885?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2708885?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=upenn
-
8/9/2019 Cumming, Alan_Pauline Christianity and Greek Philosophy. a Study of the Status of Women_JHI, 34, 4_1973_517-528
2/13
PAULINE
CHRISTIANITY
AND GREEK PHILOSOPHY:
A
STUDY
OF THE
STATUS
OF WOMEN
BY
ALAN
CUMMING
"I
wonder how
some
clever
writer
has
never
noticed
how
queer
women
are. It's
my
belief
you
could
write
a
whole book about
them."
James
Wylie
in J. M.
Barrie,
What
Every
WomanKnows.
Historycan root out prejudicesandsuspend udgments hat are too
hasty.
This
is a more difficult
ask than
merely
"reflecting
on
the
past,
and
darting
the keen
eye
of
contemplation
nto
futurity"
which
Mary
Woolstonecraft
alled "the
grand privilege
of man."'
History
depends
on exact
knowledge
and on
the
impartiality
of
discriminating
ob-
servation
and
analysis;
at
the same time
the
historian's
powers
of
insight,
interpretation,
and
sympathetic
magination
must breathe
life
into a
bald
narrative.
A
general
accountof
the
emancipation
f women
from their state of subjection s one in which men and women have
expressed
rrationalviews
and
inconsistencies;
nd the Westminster
e-
viewer
of 1831
discovered
hat there
were
few
practical
questions
that
have
given
rise to more
acrimony
and
stormy
discussions
han the sub-
ject
of female education.2
There is little doubt
that
any
historian
of
women,
their
status,
and their
education
will
provoke
some
resentment
however
careful
he
is to avoid
passion
and
prejudice.
The educational
historian
s
more than a chronicler
and
because
he
is so
consciousof
the
changefulness of social conditions he resists the temptation to
prophesy.
Nevertheless,
he does work
in the belief that
the
past
will
reflecta
light
on both the
present
and the
future.3
In
the Introduction
to his Historical
Survey of
Pre-Christian
Education
(1895),
S. S. Laurie
says,
"The
history
of
education s
in-
volved
in the
general
history
of
the world.
. . . The
history
of
the
educationof
a
people
is
not
the
history
of
its
schools,
but
the
history
of
its civilization."4
ince civilization s based
on
religious
and
civil
laws,
on manners,customs,andthe socialorder,the truth of Laurie'swords
is most evident
n
the adult
world.
Any
study
of the
rights,
duties,
and
Vindication
of
the
Rights of
Woman
(London,
1892),
214.
2
Westminster
Review,
15
(1831),
70.
3This was
the
spirit
in
which
a
reviewer
in 1855
sought
"evidence
of woman's
early
condition
as
may
prove
a
guide
to
us when
we
come
to
inquire
what is
her actual and
at-
tainable lot
amongst
the
most
highly
civilized
races." Westminster
Review
(1855),
379.
4S. S.
Laurie,
Historical
survey
of
Pre-ChristianEducation
(London,
1895).
517
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 23 Feb 2015 12:18:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
-
8/9/2019 Cumming, Alan_Pauline Christianity and Greek Philosophy. a Study of the Status of Women_JHI, 34, 4_1973_517-528
3/13
518
ALAN
CUMMING
capacities
or
incapacities
which have
determined
women's status
or
standing
in
society,
the
parts
or
roles
which
she has
undertaken
or
assumed
in
that
society,
and her
education,
must
recognize
the fact
that
her
status, role,
and
education
depend
on
the
civilization,
which
transcends
national
boundaries,
and
culture,
which reflects national
genius,
the
ideas
and
faith
by
which men
and women live.5
Religion
is
not
only
a
profession
of faith in
a
relationship
between
the human self
and
an absolute
God;
it is also a
way
of
living.6
The
lives of
Moslems,
Hindus,
Buddhists,
and
Jews are
regulated
by
the
religious
tenets
they
hold;
and
unlettered
tribes abide
by
spirit
worship,
totem
cults,
and
magic.
Their
religions
are reflected not
only
in their
social intercourse
but
also
in
their
legislation,
so that
"unbelievers" and "believers" con-
form to the same code
of
behavior.
Similarly,
in
Christian countries
men
and women
of
varying
shades of belief
and
agnosticism
have
ac-
cepted
Christian
ethics;
and
the
relations
of the
sexes,
from
time imme-
morial have
comprehended
a
great part
of
men's
earthly
existence,
and
religions
have
influenced them for
better or for
worse. It is not
difficult
to
discover the attitudes
to women demanded
by
different
religions.
For
instance, there is consideration, even if there is little guarantee of pro-
tection,
in
the
third of the
Buddhists'
five
rules of
morality,
the Pancha
Sila,
which
calls for sexual
control.
"Is she old?
Regard
her
as
your
mother.
Is
she
honourable?
Regard
her
as
your
sister. Is she
of small
account?
Regard
her as
your younger
sister.
Is she a child?
Treat her
reverently
and
with
politeness."7
And the
Koran has more
to
say
on
the
position
of women than
on
any
other
social
question.8
As
far
as Chris-
tianity
is
concerned,
one
would
like
to
say
that
the
principles
and
practices derived from the Gospels have led to an enlightened relation-
ship
between men
and
women. "Read
Demosthenes or
Cicero,"
Calvin
wrote,
read
Plato,
Aristotle,
and
others
of
that
tribe.
They
will,
I
admit,
allure
you,
de-
light
you,
move
you,
enrapture
you
in
wonderful
measure.
But betake
yourself
from
them
to the Sacred
Scriptures.
Then,
in
spite
of
yourself,
so
deeply
will
it
affect
you,
so
penetrate
your
heart,
so
fix
itself in
your
very
marrow, hat,
com-
pared
with
ts
deep mpression,
uch
vigour
as
the oratorsand
philosophers
ave
willnearlyvanish.9
5The author has used
the word "civilization" to mean
a
stage
in
social
development
based
on
religious
and civil
laws,
on
manner, customs,
and
the
social
order.
The
word
"culture" is used
to
depict
intellectual
development
based on
faith,
knowledge, ability,
labor and
social
intercourse,
artistic and
creative activities of
all
kinds.
6The
name
Shinto
is
in
origin
Chinese,
Shin-tao,
the Tao or
Way
of
the
Gods.
Confu-
cius called his
message
"The
Way."
Buddhism s
"the noble
eight-fold
Path."
And
in the
Acts
of
the
Apostles early
Christianity
s
called "the
way"
(e.g.
16:17).
7C.
Humphreys,
Buddhism
(Harmondsworth, 1954),
112.
8ParticularlyChapter IV ("Women")of the Koran.
9Institutes
of
the
Christian
Religion
(London,
1961),
I,
VIII,
1.
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 23 Feb 2015 12:18:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
-
8/9/2019 Cumming, Alan_Pauline Christianity and Greek Philosophy. a Study of the Status of Women_JHI, 34, 4_1973_517-528
4/13
WOMEN
IN GREEK
AND
PAULINE
THOUGHT
519
Nevertheless,
in
his Institutes
of
the Christian
Religion
Calvin
com-
mented
on
the
tyrannous
laws
which referred
to
only
human traditions
and not to
divine
sanction.
For
example,
he
approved
of
people kneeling
when
solemn
prayers
were
being
said;
but
he left the choice of
posture
to
the best interest of the
church and the
judgment
of
charity.
BecauseChrist
did
not
will
in
outward
discipline
nd ceremonies o
prescribe
n
detail
what
we
ought
to do
(because
He
foresawthat this
dependedupon
the
state of the
times,
and
He did
not
deem
one form
suitable or
all
ages),
here
we
must take
refuge
n
those
general
rules
which
He
has
given,
that whatever
he
necessity
of the church
will
require
or
order
and
decorum should
be
tested
against
these.10
Calvin was not
a
servile
follower of
the
primitive
church. He did not
think that
religion
consisted
in
a woman's shawl
so that it was
unlawful
for
her
to
go
out without
a
bare
head.11
He
saw,
more
clearly
than most
of his
followers,
that
the established custom
of a
region,
or
humanity
it-
self,
and
the
rules of
modesty
should
dictate what was to be
done or
avoided
in
so
many
matters.12
Instead,
Christians
submitted to those
rules
of
conduct
which St.
Paul,
an
earnest,
if
not
fanatical,
apostle
of
Christ prescribed. The Christian religion and certain "religious"
practices
have become
unconsciously
so
much a
part
of our
daily
lives
that
it
would
be worse than
pedantic
to
interrupt
the
continuity
of this
study
in
order to
draw attention to
each
occasion
that
appeared
to have
a Pauline
ancestry.
The
Christian
religion
has
a
deep-rooted
influence
on the role
and
status
of women.
At the same
time it
must
be
kept
in
mind that "there have been
few
longer,
or,
perhaps,
more fruitful
dia-
logues
in the
history
of
human
thought
than that between
Christianity
and Greek philosophy."13
The
old Hebraic view
of the
relations between men
and
women
derived
something
of its nature from the civil
laws
relating
to
property
and
marriage
codified
by
Hammurabi,
the
greatest
sovereign
of the
first
Babylonian
dynasty.14
The
women
of
Babylon enjoyed
a
legalized
status of
dignity'5
since
marriage
was a contract made
between hus-
band and
wife,
and the
dowry given
by
the
groom
to the
bride's father
passed
to her and
it remained
with
her
until she
passed
it on to her
children. No later cod'e either in the ancient or in the mediaeval world
was so
considerate of the female
citizen.16 But
the
interpretation
of the
statutes and
judgments
which
Moses
spoke
to Israel after
God
had
10Ibid.,
Bk.
IV,
Ch.
X,
Sect. 30.
"Ibid.,
Bk.
IV,
Ch.
X,
Sect.
31.
12Ibid.
13A. H.
Armstrong
and
R. A.
Markus,
Christian
Faith and
Greek
Philosophy
(London,
1960),
vii.
4c. 1700
B.C. See C.
H. W.
Johns,
The
Oldest Code
in the World
(Edinburgh,
1903).
15W.
G. de
Burgh,
The
Legacy of
the Ancient World
(Harmondsworth, 1953),
I,
26.
16C.T.
Seltman,
Women in
Antiquity
(London,
1956),
25.
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 23 Feb 2015 12:18:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
-
8/9/2019 Cumming, Alan_Pauline Christianity and Greek Philosophy. a Study of the Status of Women_JHI, 34, 4_1973_517-528
5/13
520 ALAN
CUMMING
given
him
the Ten Commandments
ed
to
a
woman
being
classified
along
with her
husband's
ox or
ass17;
women were
in
fact
movable
possessions.
Adultery
was committed
and
the seventh commandment
broken
only
when there was sexual intercoursebetween a
legal
wife
who
had been
acquired
by
purchase18
and
a man who was not
her
spouse;
and
because
of the
prime
mportance
placed
on
continuing
he
husband's
family19
punishment
was severe.20While
not
denying
the
moral
element
n
the relationsof
men and
women,
the
emphasis
was
on
the
property
value and
usefulness
of the
women.
Although
a woman
had
few
legal rights2l
she was not without
influence,
neither was she
unappreciated
n the
home nor
unloved
as
a wife.
She bore
her
hus-
band's
children,
made the
family's
clothes,
baked their
bread,
fetched
water from the
well,
and made the home the center of a
girl's
education,
and
because
of all
these
activities
every
man
was exhorted o
revere
his mother.22
The
virtuous woman whose
price
was far above
rubies,
whose husband
praised
her,
and
whose
children
rose
up
and
called
her
blessed was not a beautiful ictional
character;
she was real
andthe
properties
whichshe
possessed
were
those admired
by
men.23
Severe laws
relating
o the conductand status of
married
women
n
particular
persistedup
to
and
beyond
the
time
of Christ.
Written
aws,
however,
do not
always
give
an accurate
representation
of
the actual
social,
intellectual,
and moral conditionsof the
times,
and
in
Jewish
ethics
generally
there was
always
present
a
recognition
f
the ideal of
brotherly
ove.24
In
that
spirit
Christ "felt a
peculiarly
real and
deep
sympathy
with
women,
and
understood
heir weaknesses
and difficul-
ties
with unusual
sensitiveness."25
ut
he
was
at the same time a
Jew
livingamongJewsand He honored hose lawswhichhadfortheirobject
the
preservation
of sexual
purity.
Indeed,
in
the matter of
divorce
Christ's
teaching
was aimed at
strengthening
the
marriage
bond
and
improving
he
position
of marriedwomen.
The
bill of
divorcement
which
a
husband
had been
required
to
give
his
wife was
falling
into
disuse
when
Christ told
the
Pharisees,
"What therefore
God
hath
joined
together,
let not man
put
asunder."26
A
man's
thoughts
and ac-
tions
cannot be divorcedfrom
the world around
him
and to
consider
themout of that context is to misunderstand im. Christ ived and was
crucified
during
the
reign
of
Herod
Antipas
in
Galilee
and
during
the
7?Exodus
0;
Deuteronomy
5. 18Exodus 21:
7, 8;
Genesis 31:
15,
43;
34:
11,
12;
Judges
14:
2;
Ruth
4:
9,
10.
19Genesis
1:
28.
20Numbers
5:
12-31;
Deuteronomy
22:
21-26;
Leviticus 12:
20, 21,22;
Leviticus
20.
21That
she received
protection
see
Deuteronomy,
21
and 22.
22Leviticus 19:
3.
23Proverbs
31: 11-27.
24Compare
Matthew 22: 39 with
Leviticus 19: 18.
25C.J. Cadoux, The Life ofJesus (West Drayton, 1948), 109.
26Matthew
19:
6;
Mark
10:
9.
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 23 Feb 2015 12:18:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
-
8/9/2019 Cumming, Alan_Pauline Christianity and Greek Philosophy. a Study of the Status of Women_JHI, 34, 4_1973_517-528
6/13
WOMEN IN
GREEK AND
PAULINE
THOUGHT
521
governorship
of Judea
under the Roman
procurator,
Pontius
Pilate;
when
Christ
was born
Augustus
had been
Emperor
for about
twenty
years.
Besides
the taxes which
they
paid
to the
Temple
the Palestinian
Jews had also to
pay
tribute to the Roman
agents
or publicans, and
they
had looked forward to
the
restoration
of
the
kingdom
of
David
by
the
intervention of
God;
they
had
welcomed
the
preaching
of John
the
Baptist
as
much as Herod had feared
it. The
Romans
had taken their
civilization
to the
provinces
and it could have been no
secret
to
the
Jews
who
had
regard
for their
law and the moral
purification
of
society
that
the Roman
Empire
was
in a
state
of
degeneration.
"The
nobility," says
Stobart,
upon
whichmuchthat
was
great
and
glorious
n
Roman
history
depended,
was
morally
corrupt,
intellectually
inert,
spiritually
void,
and even
physically
sterile....
The
women,
ong
since
freed
from
iron
control
whichhad
kept
them
in
orderunderthe old
system
of the Roman
family,
dominated
ociety
with
an
influence hat was often
evil.
The Roman
boudoir
with
ts
throngs
of slavesand
parasites
was
not
only
profligate;
t had
already
begun
to
produce
he
type
of
murderous
ntriguers
hat
we meet more
prominently
n
the Messalinas
and
Agrippinas
f
imperial
history.
.. Aboveall the Roman
family
upon
which he
piersof Romansocietyhadrestedwas nowin ruins.To be the husband f one
wife
from
marriage
o death
seems
o
havebeen
a rare
exception.27
The moral climate of
the
Empire
did
not
improve suddenly
when St.
Paul was converted
about
34
A.D.,
and
when he travelled
he saw the
world
of Petronius's
Satyricon,
a
world
depicted
"as
consisting
essentially
of
rogues
and swindlers
on the one
side,
and fools or
less
shrewd
rogues
who can be taken down
on the
other."28
The
deaths
of
Peter, Paul, and Nero and the fall of Jerusalem to the legions of Titus
all within two
years
brought
an end to an era.
Christ
and his
disciples
labored
at a
time when the
language,
literature,
and attitude
to the
life
of
the
"lively
and
loquacious
Greeks"29
was
growing
in
Palestine.
It
was
an eclectic
age
and
pro-
tagonists
of
a "new
way"
had to combat
many
distractions;
some
men
were
content to
possess
an
imperfect knowledge
of rhetoric
and
philosophy
rather than to
study
the old
religion;
others
were
tempo-
rarily attracted to the infant spirit of gnosticism; and although the
influence of Greek
thought
on
Christianity
was not
vigorous
until
the
second
century,
St. Paul was
a Hellenist30
in
as
much as
he
spoke
and
wrote
Greek,
albeit a
form
which lacked
elegance.
The
early
Christians
may
have
seen
in
Plato's
Laws
their ideal of
a
theocratic
state,
but
27J.
C.
Stobart,
The
Grandeurthat
was
Rome
(London, 1912),
194.
28Jack
Lindsay,
in
his Introduction
to his translation of
The
Satyricon
(London,
1960).
29
E.
Gibbon,
Decline
and
Fall
of
the
Roman
Empire
(New
York,
n.d.),
Ch. 54.
30Acts
6:
1.
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 23 Feb 2015 12:18:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
-
8/9/2019 Cumming, Alan_Pauline Christianity and Greek Philosophy. a Study of the Status of Women_JHI, 34, 4_1973_517-528
7/13
522
ALAN
CUMMING
neither
the
theories of
the
philosophers
nor the
practices
within the
city
states
presented
them with
a
uniform notion
as to the
proper
status and
place
of
women in
society.
On the
whole
the
Greek
city
was
a
man's
club;31
in it
the
family
lost
its social
significance
and the
position
of
women
deteriorated.
In
Chios
girls
wrestled
in
the
gymnasia;
in
Argos
they
ran
races;
the
high-spirited
Spartan girls,
devoted to
the
State,
entered
upon
those
physical
activities
which were
designed
to
strengthen
their
bodies
if
not
their
judgment
and their
appreciation
of
art,
literature,
and
philosophy-they
were
not
denied
equality
with
boys
and
they
had the
same
opportunity
of
becoming
as
brutal and as uncul-
tured.32
In
Euripides'
Andromache,
Peleus,
the father of
Achilles,
gave
his
opinion
of
Spartan
women
to
Menelaus,
the
king
of
Sparta
and
brother
of
Agamemnon:
Virtuous ould
daughter
f
Sparta
neverbe.
Theygad
abroadwith
young
men fromtheir
homes,
and
withbare
thighs
and
oose
disgirdled
esture
Race,
wrestle
with them....
In Athens the courtesans-in
Lecky's
words-subsisted
by
their
fu-
gitive
attachments33 and
enjoyed
"power
without
responsibility,
the
prerogative
of the harlot
throughout
the
ages."34
The virtuous and
colorless wives
of ancient Athens
lived their lives in seclusion.
There
were
protests against
women's exclusion
from
public
life.
Plato,
for
example,
was
uneasy
at
the waste of
ability
and
he admitted women
to
his
Academy
provided
they
had
the
prerequisite
mathematical
qualifications,
and
in
Book
Five
of The
Republic
he
said that
if
women
were
to become
fit
to
be
guardians
there should not
be one education
for
men
and another
for women.
And K.
J.
Freeman,
writing
in
Schools
of
Hellas,
believes that Lastheneia
of Manineia
and Axiothea of
Phlious,
who dressed
in male
clothing,
were
the
first
"champions
of
women's
rights
to a
University
education
who
appear
in
history."
Contrary
to the usual
practice
of
fifth-century
B.C.
writers,
Aeschylus
gave
his women characters the
power
of
thought
and
in
his
plays
he
raised such controversial
questions
as the
right
to a
woman
to resist the
law
which
compelled
her
to
marry
and to forfeit to the
husband whom
she
disliked all her
property,35
or
if
a
woman
were
justified
in
killing
a
brutal
husband.36
Euripides
who died
only
three
years
before the
end of
31H.
I.
Marrou,
A
History
of
Education
in
Antiquity
(London, 1956),
33.
320n
Spartan
women
see,
for
example,
Plato,
Laws,
780
and
Protagoras,
342;
Aris-
totle,
Politics,
Bk.
II,
Ch.
IX;
F.
Henriques,
The
Pretence
of
Love
(London, 1966),
Ch. 2.
33Henriques,
op.
cit.
34These
are
the words with
which
Stanley
Baldwin
condemned the
press
barons
in
March
1931.
35
The
Suppliant
Women.
36
Agamemnon.
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 23 Feb 2015 12:18:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
-
8/9/2019 Cumming, Alan_Pauline Christianity and Greek Philosophy. a Study of the Status of Women_JHI, 34, 4_1973_517-528
8/13
WOMEN
IN
GREEK AND
PAULINE
THOUGHT
523
the
Peloponnesian
War
in 404
was not
typical
of his
century
and in
his
plays37
attacked
the
accepted
notion
that
women were inferior
to
men.
His chorus of Corinthian
ladies
looked
forward to the time
when
....
the roll
of
the
ages
shall
find
for
the
poet-sages
Proudwoman
hemes
for their
pages,
heroines
worthy
heir
singing.38
But
to
Medea,
"Woman
is
but woman-born
for
tears."39
Xenophon
recorded Socrates'
views on women
in
his
Memorabilia,
OEconomicus,
and
Symposium.
While
discussing
the
science
of
husbandry,
Xenophon
relates how Socrates met Ischomachus, a man esteemed by both the
sexes,
citizens
and
strangers.
It was
Ischomachus who
instructed
his
wife,
married
at
the
age
of
fifteen,
to
manage
the
house
and
together
they
were a sober husband
and
a virtuous
wife
preserving
their
fortune;
she
was
comparable
with the
busy
bee
that
remained
in
the
hive.
"I
think,"
said
Ischomachus,
"that the mistress
bee is
an
excellent
example
for
the wife."
In his Ecclesiazusae
(Women
in
Assembly),
Aristophanes
used
situations
similar to
those advocated
by
Plato at
the
same time in the
Republic
Children were the sons and daughters of
elders because
marriage
was
abolished
and women
were held
in com-
mon.40
Sabine has made
a sound observation
on the radical
utopias
envisaged
by
Aristophanes
and Plato. "It
is,"
he
says,
an
obvious inference that
early
in the
fourth
century
at
least,
an Athenian
audience ound
nothing
ncomprehensible
n a
thoroughly
ubversive
riticism
of
their
political
and social
system.
Plato
was not
an
innovator;
e was
merely
trying
o take the social
position
of women
seriously,
a serious
question
hen
as
now.41
And
with this
in
view he said that the
wicked
man,
after
he
had
lived
his
appointed
time,
would be transformed
in
his
second
birth into
a
woman.42
Aristotle's views
on the moral
and
social
disabilities
of
women
and
their
place
in
society
are contained
particularly
in the twin treatises,
the
Nicomachean
Ethics
and
his
Politics.
In
Book
VIII of
the
Ethics,
he
presents a dissertation on "Friendship," the bond of social commu-
nities.
The
friendship
of husband
and
wife
is
comparable
with
that
existing
between father
and son or between
ruler and
ruled;
the
hus-
37Alcestis,
Medea, Ion,
and
Andromache.
38Medea,
ines
428-29.
39Ibid.,
ine
928;
also
lines
230-66.
40Herodotus
had
already
recorded
instances
of women
held in common.
See his ac-
count of the
Agathyrsi
and
the
Gindanes
in
Book
Four of
The Histories.
4'G.
H. Sabine,
A
History of Political Theory(London, 1948),
35.
42
Timaeus,
42.
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 23 Feb 2015 12:18:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
-
8/9/2019 Cumming, Alan_Pauline Christianity and Greek Philosophy. a Study of the Status of Women_JHI, 34, 4_1973_517-528
9/13
524
ALAN
CUMMING
band,
like the
just
king,
looks
to
the welfare of
his
subject.
In his
Politics
Aristotle
divides
his discussion of domestic
economy
into three
branches43-the
relations of
a
slavemaster to his
slaves,
the relations of
a father to his
children,
and those of a husband to his wife. He distin-
guishes
the
paternal
from the marital form of
rule;
"for
although
the
head of
the
family
rules
both
his wife and children and
rules them
in
both cases as
free
persons,
yet
the kind
of rule is
different,
being
consti-
tutional
in
the wife's
case,
while in the
children's
it is
regal."
He
justifies
this
by
saying
that "males are
by
nature
better
qualified
to
command
than females wherever the union
is not
unnaturally
consti-
tuted,"
and
he
sees a
similarity
in
the relation which the male bears to
the female with the
relation which rulers
in
a constitutional
country
bear
to their
subjects.
It
is this difference
which determines
their
different kinds of
education,
"for
as
every
household is
a
part
of
a
State,
and man
and
wife,
father and
children,
are
parts
of
a
household,
and the
excellence of
any
part
must
have reference
to that of the
whole,
it is
essential to educate our women and children with
constant
reference to
the
policy."
Of this Aristotle
had
no doubt since women formed half the
free
population.
At
the
time when
Philip
and Alexander had
overthrown the Greek
ideal
of
a
city
state,
when
traditional Greek
pagan
beliefs
that had been
subject
to
increasing
criticism
since
the
Sophistic
movement of the
fifth
century
B.C.
had
failed to
support
the
people,
and
when
Aristotle
had
left
Athens to
die
at Chalcis
in
Euboea,
Zeno came
to
Athens and es-
tablished his
school
in
the Stoa.
Zeno was born
in
Citium,
a
town
of
Cy-
prus,
of Phoenician
extraction
and most
of his
pupils
and
followers
came
from
parts beyond Greece,
from
countries with a
developing
Hellenistic
culture.
During
the
period
of
the old Stoa-to about 208
B.C.-Zeno,
followed
by
Cleanthes of
Assos
in Asia
Minor,
and
particularly by Chrysippus
of
Soli
in
Cilicia,
constructed
the
"greatest
system
of
organized thought
which
the mind
of man had built
up
for it-
self
in
the Graeco-Roman
world before
the
coming
of
Christianity."44
Edwyn
Bevan
has
drawn attention
to
the
resemblance between
Aeno,
the Hellenized
Phoenician of
Citium,
and
Paul,
the
Hellenized
Hebrew
of Tarsus three and a half centuries later. "The author of the Acts," he
says,
has
assuredly
put
into the mouth
of
his
Paul,
with deliberate
purpose,phrases
characteristic f the
teaching
which
went
back
to Zeno.
Nor
is
the
connection
made
by
the writeran
arbitrary
ne;
it is
the
indexof a
great
fact-the actual
connection
s
history
betweenStoicism
and
Christianity.
Looking
back,
we
can
see more
fully
than
was
possible
at the momentwhenthe
Acts
was
written,
to
43Bk.
1,
Ch. III.
44G.
Murray,
The
Stoic
Philosophy
(London, 1915),
14.
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 23 Feb 2015 12:18:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
-
8/9/2019 Cumming, Alan_Pauline Christianity and Greek Philosophy. a Study of the Status of Women_JHI, 34, 4_1973_517-528
10/13
WOMEN
IN
GREEK
AND
PAULINE
THOUGHT
525
what
extent
the
Stoic
teaching
had
prepared
he
ground
n
the
Mediterranean
lands
for
the
Christian,
what
arge
elementsof
the
Stoic
tradition
were destined
to be taken
up
into
Christianity.45
Whatever Paul
thought
of the
logical,
physical,
and
ethical
aspects
of
Stoicism,
he met
with
an
opinion
which conflicted
with
his
general
views
on
women.
The
Stoics
said that women
from
fourteen
years
old
were
flattered
with the title
of "mistresses"
by
men.
Therefore,
perceiving
hat
they
are
regardedonly
as
qualified
o
give
men
pleasure,
hey
begin
to
adorn
hemselves,
and n that to
place
all their
hopes.
It
is
worthwhile,
herefore,
o
fix
our
attention
on
making
hem sensible
hat
they
are esteemed fornothingelse butthe appearance f a decent andmodest and
discreet
behaviour.46
At about
the same time that
Zeno
arrived
in
Athens,
Epicurus,
the son
of an
Athenian
who
had
emigrated
to
Samos,
paid
his first visit
there;
he
returned about 307
B.C. and
while one school
met
at
the
Stoa
Poecile,
the
Epicurians
gathered
at
their
founder's
Garden.
Repre-
sentatives
of
both
schools
met
Paul
in
Athens47
and
he could
not
have
been
unaware
of the
Epicurean
attitudes
to women.
In
the
fourth
cen-
tury
A.D. Christians were still amazed that
Epicurus
had included
women
in his
appeal,
believing
that
all who
bore the
human
form
could
become wise.
But,
said
Lactantius,
how
were
women
to learn
grammar,
rhetoric,
geometry,
music,
and
astronomy
when
their
girlhood
was
spent
acquiring
domestic
arts.4
Commenting
on the
problem,
so
sharply
raised
by
Lactantius,
how
women
were to
get
enlightenment,
Farrington
says
that
it
"hardly'got
squarely
faced
on
paper
until
More
wrote
his
Utopia."49
Yet there seems
to be
a
more
obvious
parallel
be-
tween
Epicurus's
Garden
and Rabelais'
Abbey
of Theleme which Gar-
gantua
built
for
monks
and
nuns whose
lives would be
regulated
ac-
cording
to
their
free
will
and
pleasure.50
Themista,
the wife
of
Leonteus,
was
a friend
and
correspondent
of
Epicurus;
Idomeneus,
another
member,
had
married
the sister
of
Epicurus's
close friend
Met-
rodorus;
and
the consort
of
Metrodorus had
been an
Athenian
courtesan.
By
the time
of Christ
and Paul
the
teachings
of
Epicurus,
like those of
Cleanthes,
were
too
strongly
entrenched
to
be
rejected
45E.
Bevan,
Stoics and
Sceptics
(Oxford,
1913),
14.
46The
Enchiridion
of
Epictetus,
para.
XL. The discourses
and handbook
of
Epictetus
were
compiled
by
his
disciple
Arrian,
a Greek
by
birth but
a
senator and
consul
of
Rome.
Compare
the
extract
from
the Enchiridion
with
the First
Epistle
of
Paul
to
Timothy,
2: 9.
47Acts,
17:
18.
48Devinae
Institutiones,
III,
xxv,
quoted
in
B.
Farrington,
The
Faith
of
Epicurus
(London,
1967),
107.
49Ibid.,
107.
50See
the final
chapters
of the
first book of
The Histories
of
Gargantua
and
Pantag-
ruel
(Harmondsworth,
1965).
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 23 Feb 2015 12:18:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
-
8/9/2019 Cumming, Alan_Pauline Christianity and Greek Philosophy. a Study of the Status of Women_JHI, 34, 4_1973_517-528
11/13
526
ALAN CUMMING
suddenly
and
completely,
and
although
some
of Paul's
utterances
revealed more
than a
suspicion
of
Epicureanism51
he attacked a
pleasurable morality
which
in essence advocated
eating
and
drinking
"for tomorrow we die." And although he was always grateful for the
hospitality
extended
to
him
by
women52
and
although
he made much
of
the
family
from
the
religion53
he
did
not
expect
women
to take an active
part
in
the instruction of others.
He
told
Timothy
that
women
should
learn
in
silence.54 Paul
wanted women to
maintain
lives
of
faith, love,
holiness,
and
gravity;
he
did
not
deny
them
the
blessings
of
instruction,
but he wanted
them
to
learn
quietly
and
humbly.
It is
not
surprising
that
Paul,
in
his
writings,
revealed a wide
knowledge
of beliefs and events both within and
beyond
Palestine. Born
"a
Pharisee,
the son of
a
Pharisee,"
he received a strict
education,
be-
came
exceedingly
zealous of
the traditions of
his
fathers,55
and looked
on
the Law as "blameless."56
He was
"brought
up
at the feet
of Gama-
liel,"57
the
grandson
of
the
famous
rabbi
Hillel and
so renowned
for
his
learning
that
he was called "the
glory
of the
Law." It was
from
him
that
Paul received
encouragement
to
study
Greek
authors,
and from
him Paul
acquired
his
strong
enthusiasm
for the Jewish Law. He saw
in
practice
the Jewish attitude to
woman;
her
place
was that of
providing
for
her
family
within the
home;
when she had no official
place
in
religion
it was
pointless
to
teach her the Torah.
"The
Talmud,"
says
Gollancz,
considered
hat
in
the
domain
n which
feeling
predominates,
woman
may
best
be seen
to
perfection,
and
n her most
captivating
apacity.
When,
however,
he
mind s trainedat the
expense
of
feeling,
woman oses
her
simple
womanly
and
unsophisticatedway,
she assumes
the masculine
habit,
and
becomes
thereby
alienated
romher natural
mission.58
Paul
has become
"the
eternal
enemy
of
Woman"59
for
several
reasons.
He and Christ
endeavored to
raise women
out of
servility
and
humiliation
by
improving
the institution
of
marriage;
but
succeeding
generations
have
been
hypnotized
by
what are not
more
than
by-
products
or
side-issues
of the
main
tenets
of
Christianity.
Congrega-
tions of nominal
Christian
worshippers
have taken
literally
that
Paul's
utterances
were "not
after man"
but
had been
revealed to
him
by
Christ.60Aristotle had criticized the women of Athens as he had seen
them,
women
who
had done
nothing
to
raise
themselves
out of
sub-
51See
N. W.
DeWitt,
St.
Paul
and
Epicurus
(Minneapolis, 1954),
especially
at
his dis-
cussion
of the influence of
Epicurean
ethics on Paul's
hymn
to love in 1
Corinthians,
13.
521
Corinthians
1:11;
Acts 16:14.
531
Corinthians
1:16,
and
16:16;
Romans
16:5;
Philemon,
2.
541
Timothy
2:11-12.
55Galations
1: 14.
56Philippians
: 6.
57Acts 22:
3.
58H.
Gollancz,
Pedagogics of
the
Talmud and That
of
Modern
Times
(London,
1924),
111.
59G.B.
Shaw,
Preface to Androcles and the Lion.
6?Galatians1: 11-12.
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 23 Feb 2015 12:18:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
-
8/9/2019 Cumming, Alan_Pauline Christianity and Greek Philosophy. a Study of the Status of Women_JHI, 34, 4_1973_517-528
12/13
WOMEN
IN GREEK
AND
PAULINE THOUGHT 527
jection;
similarly,
women
for
centuries
have been
content,
in
a
masochistic sort of
way,
to
obey
Pauline commands
relating
to their
coiffure,clothes,
jewelry,
and
such like. After
all,
it was so
much
easier
to followsomeof Paul'sletters to
Timothy6l
thanto lead the Christian
life in
accordance
with the
Sermonon the Mount.62
The
Fathers of
the
Church,
who
systematized
Christian
doctrine,
did
not
always
bring
a
shining ight
to
bear on the
question
of
women's
place
in
a
Christian
society.
But
ministers,
whose
Biblical
scholarship
was
limited to
mere
exposition,
continuedto
accept
ceremonies and
practices
invented
by
St. Paul and the
Church
Fathers,
because
they
added
to these customs the
spirit
of
Calvin's theocratic Genevan
state-ignoring his injunctionagainstactionswhich ignored he age in
which
men and womenwere
living
because
they
regarded
as
sacrosanct
a
Directory for
the
Public
Worship of
God
and a Form
of Presbyterial
Church-Government
both
of
whichwere
composed
n the
middle
of
the
seventeenth
century
when
the
daily
lives
of
many
Christians
were
extremely
circumscribed).
Little
wonder
that
hope
for women
was
deferred
and
at times
the
female
heart was
sick.63Men and
women
particularly
he women who
have been
content to
live in
subjection-
have avoidedthe embarrassment f
attempting
o
distinguish
between
the
outwardforum
and
the
forum
of conscience.
In
their obsession to
achieve universalasceticism
the Fathers
of
the Church
"explored
all
the
by-ways
to
lust,
and
highlighted
all the
minutiae
of
sexual
behav-
iour,"64
and
succeeding generations
have
been
controlled
by
their
pronouncements
n the relations
between
the
sexes,
the
behaviorof
women,
and the
resulting
orm
of education
which
girls
should
receive.
Clement of
Alexandria,
who
lived
in
the latter
part
of the
second
cen-
tury
and the
early
part
of the
third,
is
acknowledged
o be the first to
bring
the culture of the Greeks
and
the
speculations
of
the
Christian
heretics
to
bear on his
explanation
f Christian ruth. It is
unlikely
hat
he
alone
among
the
early
Fathers looked on
Christianity
as another
school of
philosophy;
he
saw
in
Greek
philosophy
a
preparation
or
Christ and
to
him
Plato was Moses
speaking
n
the
idiom
of
Athens.65
The
manner n whichthe
early
Christian
apologists
composed
a
code
of
behavior which
they
attached
to
Christian
tenets is
made clear in
Clement's
Paedogogue;
n it he
describes
the manner
of
eating
and
drinking,
he
furnishings
f
a
house,
the
way
to dress and to
act
in
so-
ciety,
and the care
of
the
body
which
should
be
expected
of one who
regarded
Christ
as the
Logos
and
who
lived a
Christian
ife. More
61Somescholars
say
that Paul
did not
write the two
epistles
to
Timothy.
62Matthew
5,
6,
7.
63Proverbs,
13:
12.
64F.
Henriques,
TheImmoral Tradition
London,
1966),
13.
65He
was
a saint until
Pope
Benedick
XIV
(1740-58)
struck his name off the
calendar.
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 23 Feb 2015 12:18:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
-
8/9/2019 Cumming, Alan_Pauline Christianity and Greek Philosophy. a Study of the Status of Women_JHI, 34, 4_1973_517-528
13/13
528
ALAN
CUMMING
liberal
than
others,
he insisted
on
the
full
participation
f women
n
all
that became a
man;
he
rejected
the
notion
of masculineand feminine
virtues as heathenishand he
requiredmodesty
in men and
courage
in
women.
Nevertheless,
he said that
every
woman shouldblush at the
thought
that she was a
woman. St. Jerome's
injunction
to
regard
everything
as
poison
which
bore within t
the
seeds of sensual
pleasure
colored
the
instructions
which
he sent from Bethlehem
to
the
Roman
matronLaeta
concerning
he
educationof her
daughter
Paula.66
"Boys
with their wanton
thoughts,"
said
Jerome,
"must
be
kept
from
Paula....
You must
see that
the
child
is not led
away by
the
silly
coaxing
of
women to form a habit
of
shortening long
words
or
of
decking
herself with
gold
and
purple.
Of
these
habits one
will
spoil
her
conversationand
the
other
her
character."
After
Augustine
was
con-
secrated
"archbishop
f the
English
nation"
he
sent,
about 600
A.D.,
the
priest
Laurentiusand the
monk Peter to
Pope
Gregory
c.540-604)
with
several
strange
enquiries
on
matters which had been
attended
to
by
St.
Paul
in
his letters to the Christians
of Corinth.
Is
it
permissible
for
two
brothers o
marry
two
sisters,
providing
here
be
no blood ties
between
the
families?
s it lawfulfor a man to
marry
his
step-mother
or
relative?To
what
degree may
the faithful
marry
with their kindred?
May
an
expectant
mother
be
baptized?
How soon
after
childbirth
may
she enter the church?and how
soon
after childbirth
may
a husband
have
relationswithhis
wife
before
he has washed?Or receive
the sacred
mystery
of Communion?67
dd
as these
questions
were,
their
im-
mediate
object
was the erectionof a code
of
behavior or the "uncouth
English
people."
Universityof NorthQueensland,Australia.
66Extracts from St. Jerome's
letter
to
Laeta:
....
Paula's
nurse must not be
intemperate,
or
loose,
or
given
to
gossip.
Her
bearer must
be
respectable,
and her foster-
father of
grave
demeanour.... Let her
very
dress and
garb
remind
her to Whom she is
promised.
Do not
pierce
her ears
or
paint
her
face,
consecrated to
Christ,
with white
lead
or
rouge.
Do not
hang gold
or
pearls
about her neck or load her
head with
jewels,
or
by
reddening
her hair make it
suggest
the
fires
of Gehenna
....
You
will
answer,
"How shall
I,
a
woman
of the
world,
living
at
Rome,
surrounded
by
a
crowd,
be able
to observe
all
these injunctions?"In that case do not undertake a burden to which you are not equal.
When
you
have
weaned
Paula
as
Isaac was
weaned,
and when
you
have clothed
her as
Samuel
was
clothed,
send her to
her
grandmother
and
aunt;
give up
this most
precious
of
gems,
to
be
placed
in
Mary's
chamber and to rest in the
cradle where the infant Jesus
cried. Let her be
brought
up
in a
monastery,
let
her be one
amid
companies
of
virgins,
let
her learn to avoid
swearing,
let her
regard lying
as
sacrilege,
let
her
be
ignorant
of the
world,
let
her live
the
angelic
life,
while
in the flesh
let
her be without the
flesh,
and
let her
suppose
that all
human
beings
are
like
herself.
67Bede,
A
History
of
the
English
Church
and
People
(Harmondsworth, 1955),
Bk.
One,
Ch.
27;
esp.
Gregory's
answers to
Augustine's
eight
questions.