2. 2'he Gifts of Wome7i and the Exercise of them. — There were no women among the Twehe Apostles, to whom special gifts of healing were given by our Lord. There is no jnoof that women disciples were not included among the Seventy ( Lk lO'"**), but there is no evidence that there were any, and the nature of the mission renders it improli:ilile. No miracle is ever attributed to a woman. Still, as there were women in the churches among whom gifts of heal- ing were said to be distributed, and no exception in their case is named, it cannot be denied that they may have shared in these as in other gifts. No book of tlie NT claims to be written by a woman ; but Harnack assigns the authorship of Hebrews to Priscilla. Women were present at the day of Pentecost when the gift of the Spirit was bestowed (cf. Ac 1" and 2'"'), and must have shared in it, since St. Luke, referring to the w hole company, says of the appearance of the tongues, that ' it sat upon each one of them ' (2"). Its result was propliecj' (v.'"), ami prophecy is the specilic gift, the exercise of which at Corinth by women St. Paul refers to (1 Co 11°), a gift which he prefers in honour to all others (H''). The apostle assumes that women proiihosy and pray in the church, only directing that they do so veiled. A little later he orders women to ' keep silence in the churclies ' (14"). This seems to imply that on further re- flexion he thought it not suthcient to jMotecB their modesty that women should wear veils whil*
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preaching or praying, and therefore forbade their exercise of the gift of prophesying in public at all. But observe, (a) this was at Corintli, a most dissolute city, where 1000 women were devoted to immorality at the shrine of Aphroditi on the Acrocoriiithus, and therefore where it was most important to preserve the modesty of the Chris- tian women from any suspicion or temptation ; and (6) in the context of the second passage St. Paul does not again mention prophesj'ing or pray- ing, but saj's, ' It is not permitted unto them to speak' (XaXcii/, which might be rendered 'talk'). 1 his looks as though the apostle were now thinking of mere chattering, or, at best, questioning, especi- ally as he adds, 'And if they would learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home ' (v.^^). The ground of the prohibition is more than the requirements of modesty ; it is the idea of the sub- jection of married women to their husbands (' but let them be in subjection,' ib.). Possibly there was a temporary and local reason for this apostolic precept in the condition of the Corinthian Church at the time. The apostle's words suggest the idea that in some cases the new, laro;e family brother- hood and sisterhood of the Churcli was threatening to submerge the original relationships of the home. That must be prevented. But that the apostle holds to a certain subjection of woman in general must be inferred from his appeal to Genesis (S""). This, however, is to be considered rather as a matter of order than a question afl'ecting the spiritual status of women. When referring to the latter, St. Paul lays down the principle that in Christ ' there can be no male or female ' (Gal 3^). It has been said that the apostle was inconsistent with the principle here enunciated when giving his specific directions to the Corinthians (McGitt'ert, Apost. Age, p. 305). But he had also said 'there can be neither bond nor free ' (Gal 3-*), and yet he sent the slave Onesiraus back to his master (Philem "). In both cases he supported established customs for the time being while enunciating great principles which would ultimately abolish them. Thus the NT leads to the emancipation of woman as to the abolition of slavery, not by sudden re- volution from without, but by gradual evolution from within. St. Paul's lofty conception of mar- riage (Eph 5--'^), while including the subjection of women, involves the dignity of womanhood. Even under the restrictions required at the time, it is manifest that women enjoyed more liberty and were more on an equality with men in the church than in the synagogue. There could have been no such separation as Pliilo(?) describes. 1 Cor. plainly indicates that women took part with men at the Aga2>i. Tliey must have been in view if it was requisite for them to be veiled. Their prophesy- ing before the Church involves their being in the presence of tlie whole community. Doubtless, tlie sexes were so far divided as lliat the men and women sat in separate groups, since this was the ciistom in the churches of early patristic times. That the kiss of Christian brotherhood and sister- hood was not restricted between the sexes is plain from the fact that in later times it was subject to abuse, which led to the restriction being imposed upon it. Athenagoras (A.D. 177) quotes some apocryphal writing under the designation of ' the Logos ' in rebuke of the abuse, which says, ' If any one kiss a second time because it gives him pleasure,' etc., and again, ' Therefore the kiss, or rather the salutation, should be given with the greatest care, since, if there be mixed with it tlie least delilement of thought, it excludes us from eternal life ' (Legal. pro Christian. 32). Clement of Alex, condemns ' the shameless use of the kiss, which ought to be mystic ' (Pcedagog. iii. 11). Tertullian remarks on I he reasonable complaint of a pagan