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To: Jeremiah Jr
Actually, Paul could not be a Pharisee unless he was married. It was a requirement for consideration, and Paul was a Pharisee among Pharisees, who studied under Gamaliel the foremost teacher of the day.

So the popular consensus among biblical scholars is that Paul was either a widower or dare I say he divorced her sometime before he met Christ on the road to Damascus.

As for hating women. Most religious leaders at the time of Christ all hated women. Men could divorce their wife if they felt she made them sin. If she burnt the toast and he got mad he could divorce her because he sinned.

If the neighbor had a wife who was prettier than his wife, he could divorce her because she made him sin when he lusted for the neighbors wife.

So no, Paul's thorn wa not homosexuality.

If anything it was probably an eye disease. Something like a bad case of glaucoma that could have been a result of being blinded on the road by Christ, or other type of problem. Many conjecture that it was something wrong with his eyes, but probably a bad injury he suffered from one of the many times he was stoned, whipped or some other problem. We usually center on his eyes because of the following passage in Galatians.

You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. Galatians 4:13-15

I have always pictured an older man hunched over but not too much, with a walking stick he uses from walking from city to city as he spread the Gospel, who's eyes look like their half open with old scars around them from the many times he was abused for his testimony of Christ. Maybe even scares around the edges from having sharp stones or rod cutting open the skin when he was stoned or beat with rods or whipped with something similar to a cat of nine tails and left for dead.

in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness-- besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. 2Corinthians 11:23-28

No my FRiend, Paul was not a homosexual, he was a typical Pharisee who turned against his old ways, and met Christ to become the most persecuted follower of Christ outside of John the most beloved apostle.
58 posted on 03/05/2014 7:20:00 PM PST by OneVike (I'm just a Christian waiting to go home)
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To: OneVike
No my FRiend, Paul was not a homosexual, he was a typical Pharisee who turned against his old ways, and met Christ to become the most persecuted follower of Christ outside of John the most beloved apostle.

I agree. Plus, Paul wasn't a hater of women, either. It was he who said after all (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit):

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:27,28)

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church — for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. (Ephesians 5:21-33)

I don't know about the rest of you ladies out there, but if my husband loves me enough to give his life for me, if he loves me like he loves himself, if he loves me like Christ loves His church (His body), then I can't think of a better way to live in a marriage. Being cared for and loved that much makes it easy to respect and be in submission to him as the head of the family and to him as unto the Lord. It is God's design for a happy marriage and I know first hand that it works very well.

64 posted on 03/05/2014 9:44:29 PM PST by boatbums (Simul justis et peccator.)
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