The problem begins with the assertion that “the Bible teaches”. This assumes that the Bible is one book and speaks with a “flat” level of inspiration throughout. Readers of the Bible should not be intimidated by the aggression of those who hold this view. It is not required to be an evangelical Christian.
In fact, the Bible is composed of many books, each from variant manuscript traditions, edited over wide ranges of time. Humans made decisions about which books would be included in the collection of books we call the Bible and which were to be excluded. Humans continue to decide which manuscripts provide the best available text.
The most important division of the Bible for Christians is that into the Old and New Testaments. The New Testament is primarily inspired by the resurrection of Jesus as an eschatological event signaling the turn of the ages – the dawn of the Age to Come. The earliest author in the New Testament is Paul of Tarsus who, in 1 Corinthians 15, unambiguously interpreted the resurrection of Christ as the beginning of an eschatological event culminating in the general resurrection of the dead. Matthew’s Gospel shares this eschatological view, with the resurrection of “many” occurring in the interval between the time of Jesus’ death and the realization of his resurrection. (Matthew 27:51-53).
It is clear from these writings that an understanding of the Christian life, in the light of these eschatological events, is a matter of tension between “the already and the not yet”. Paul expresses this life as being a baptism into Christ – we die and rise with him. (Romans 6). In Galatians he alludes to the consequences of this understanding:
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29 NIV)
In his various writings, Paul addresses each of these pairs. With respect to the division between Jew and Gentile, Paul looks at his own Jewishness – his circumcision, his descent from the people of Israel through the tribe of Benjamin, his assiduousness in observing the Law of Moses, etc – as a load of crap for the sake of gaining Christ and being found in Christ. (Philippians 3, esp. verse 8, where the word is translated “garbage” for the sake of the public reading of Scripture. I apologize for the use of the word “crap” in this sentence, but according to the BDAG Greek Lexicon, this is the most accurate translation here.)
In regard to the division between “slave and free”, Paul was not generally in a position to prevent slavery in the Roman Empire (neither was Spartacus!). However, in regard to a Christian slave owner by the name of Philemon, Paul was in a position to insist that Philemon was to receive back his runaway slave, Onesimus, no longer as a slave, but as a “brother in Christ”. (Philemon 1:16). Paul also tells Christians who are slaves, they should get their freedom if they can. This brings them into a Christian realm.
In regard to “male and female”, Paul imagines Christian worship as being an occasion when women, as well as men, led the congregation in prophesy and prayer. His only request was that the women covered their hair when doing so, as in that culture and that time, a woman letting down her long hair was regarded as being sexually provocative. (See Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 11. It is not clear in this chapter when Paul is quoting his opponents or putting forward his counter argument. I think Paul begins his views with the word translated “nevertheless”. It is also known that the Greek word for “head”, had its first metaphorical meaning as “source”, not “boss”. We’ve known this since the 1950s, so I am not sure why it is not commonly referenced.)
The other reference where Paul addresses being “male and female” is in regard to having sex. The sexual drive remains because we still have one foot in the Old Age. In other words, we are not yet like the angels in heaven. Paul addresses this in 1 Corinthians 7. It is interesting to note in his conversation here that he says the wife has authority over her husband’s body. Surely such advice for the moments which are the essence of our gender differences, must flow into all areas of our sexuality.
Outside of the Fundamentalist camp, Biblical scholars generally regard the Pastoral letters as having been written by others in Paul’s name, which we are told was a common practice. Today we would be more direct and say they were fraudulent. Enough said. These letters seem to be an attempt to rein back the radical Christian message and make it conform to cultural pressures.