Such a rendering of these texts as is frequently given, and the homilies derived therefrom, are an outrage upon common sense.  They are at variance with the direct teachings of St. Paul, and contrary to what the Scriptures prove to have been his practice.  Surely, none will dare to accuse the apostle of inconsistency; and yet we have his own testimony that Phoebe was a “servant of the Church at Cenchrea;” that is, she was a deaconess, having a charge at Cenchrea.  Priscilla, quite as much as Aquila, was Paul’s helper in “Christ Jesus,” acknowledged by him as such.  Priscilla was associated with Aquila in “expounding the way of God more perfectly to Apollos.” (Acts xvii, 62.) Strange that the great Apollos should receive religious instruction from a woman; stranger still, if it were contrary to the will of God, that she was permitted to give it!  Why was she not severely rebuked for her presumption, and put in her place, and taught to keep silence, as becometh a woman?  On the contrary, creditable mention is made of the fact that she did instruct him, and that through that instruction he was made useful to the world; and all this upon the authority of inspiration, without one word of censure as to her unwomanliness.  Over and over again, Paul names her in his salutations.

In Philippians iv, 3, he entreats help for certain women, counting them as fellow-laborers.  “Help,” says he, “those women which labored with me in the Gospel.”  Honorable mention, too, is made by name of Tryphena, Tryphosa, and of the beloved Persis, who “labored much in the Lord.”  Philip had four daughters which “did prophesy” (Acts xxi, 19); and we nowhere hear of their being forbidden to do so.  If Paul, influenced as he was by the Holy Spirit, had designed to prevent women from attending religious meetings, or taking a public part therein, when there would he have allowed all this laboring and prophesying and instructing to go on?  Instead of stopping it, however, he at different times commends Phoebe and her sister-laborers to the kind regards of other Churches.  Let the utterances of Paul be properly and fairly interpreted, and it will be manifest that men and women are one in Christ Jesus.  Decidedly, it is wrong for a woman to usurp authority over the man; and just as decidedly wrong is it for a man to usurp authority over the woman.  According to history, the office of deaconess continued until between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when, the midnight of the Dark-Ages having come, it was abolished in both the Greek and Latin Churches.  Which sex usurped authority in that case?

The next point coming under consideration is Paul’s direction to the Ephesian Church:  “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church:  and he is the Savior of the body.  Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.” (Eph. v, 22-24.)