Paul’s real views on gender, desire, and women.
Which Paul Are You Reading?
Ask whether the Apostle Paul freed women or silenced them, and the honest answer is: it depends which Paul you’re reading. The same tradition gives us Phoebe the deacon and Junia the apostle… and the command that women keep silent in church.
That isn’t a contradiction to explain away. It’s the whole story. In his seven authentic letters, Paul writes into real arguments about marriage, desire, veils, and who may speak in the assembly. He is, by turns, more radical and more conservative than you have been told.
Then his name took on a life of its own. Later writers signed his authority to opposite causes: the Pastoral Epistles to shut women up, the Acts of Paul and Thecla to send a woman out preaching. The Paul we argue about today is many voices at once, filtered through centuries of reception, forgery, and interpretation. Every claim on his name was also a power move: a bid for authority over what a Christian should be.
This course untangles them.
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Format
On-demand video
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Lectures
4 · 50 min each
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Access
Lifetime, watch anytime
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Instructor
Travis Proctor
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Specialty
Early Christianity & Gender
The Lectures
From the man himself, through his most explosive letters, to the rival movements that each claimed his name on women.
The historical Paul before the arguments begin: a Jewish Pharisee, a persecutor of the Jesus movement, and the man undone by a vision on the Damascus road. We set the stage for everything that follows, including the scholarly problem of which letters Paul actually wrote, and which only borrowed his name.
Paul’s most radical line, “there is no longer male and female” (Galatians 3:28), and the women named in Romans 16: Phoebe the deacon, Prisca the coworker, and Junia, called foremost among the apostles. Paul’s own letters hold the strongest evidence we have for female leadership in the earliest church.
A deep dive into 1 Corinthians, where Paul gives pragmatic, situational advice on marriage, abstinence, desire, divorce, and why women should veil in worship. It ends with the infamous command for women to be silent in church, and the textual problem that may mean Paul never wrote it at all.
After Paul, two movements seized his authority and pulled it in opposite directions. The Pastoral Epistles forge a stricter, patriarchal Paul who silences women. The Acts of Paul and Thecla celebrates an ascetic woman who self-baptizes, preaches, and defies the city, with Paul’s blessing. The same apostle, weaponized against himself.
Travis Proctor · 2026 Scholar of Early Christianity · Ph.D., UNC-Chapel Hill
A first-generation college graduate and scholar of the bible and early Christianity, Travis Proctor received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from UNC-Chapel Hill, specializing in ancient Mediterranean religions. His teaching and research draw from interdisciplinary fields like religious studies, environmental history, animal studies, space and material culture, and ritual studies. His first book, Demonic Bodies and the Dark Ecologies of Early Christian Culture (Oxford University Press), explored how early Christian theorizations of demonic bodies influenced ancient understandings of cosmic “ecosystems,” and how such historical perspectives may inform contemporary environmental ethics.
His work has appeared in academic journals such as the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Journal of Early Christian Studies, Harvard Theological Review, and the Journal of Ecclesiastical History, as well as public venues including Bible Odyssey, Religion for Breakfast, Religion Dispatches, The Bart Ehrman Blog, and the “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” podcast. He lives in Ohio and enjoys hiking outdoors, a good round of disc golf, and watching Kansas City Chiefs football (even before Taylor Swift!)
What This Course Offers
Travis Proctor reads the letters with you line by line, separating the historical Paul from the Paul later writers invented, so the famous verses finally make sense in their own world.
Galatians, Romans, 1 Corinthians, the Pastorals, and the Acts of Paul and Thecla: the actual texts in which the early church argued over women, read closely and in context.
Travis Proctor’s scholarship is built on gender, desire, and the body in early Christianity. You get a specialist’s command of the period, not a survey skimmed from secondary sources.
Ancient norms of dress, desire, and gender that Paul wrote into.
All four lectures available on demand, the moment you enroll. Lifetime access means you can absorb, revisit, and rewatch as often as you like.
Phoebe, Prisca, Junia, and Thecla: the deacons, patrons, missionaries, and saints written out of the easy story.
No prior background in the Bible or ancient history required. Whether you’re a believer, a skeptic, or simply curious, the argument is built from the ground up.
Common Assumption
“Paul was either a proto-feminist or a chauvinist.”
In fact
Both camps quote him with total confidence. Read the letters closely and you find a man who fits neither caricature, and the reason why is stranger than either side will tell you.
Common Assumption
“On women, the Bible (or at least Paul) speaks with one voice.”
In fact
Lay the passages side by side and something doesn’t add up. The same apostle seems to say two opposite things, and once you see why, the famous verses never read the same way again.
Common Assumption
“These verses are timeless rules for all time.”
In fact
Put them back in the room where they were written, and they start to look like answers to a very specific fight. What Paul was actually responding to may surprise you.
Common Assumption
“Women’s history runs in a straight line, from oppression to freedom.”
In fact
The Pauline story refuses to move in a straight line. Where it really goes, and who turns up preaching at the end of it, is one of the most unexpected turns in early Christianity.
A quiz to test and reinforce what you learn, across the letters, the women, and the contested legacy of Paul.
Download Travis’s slides for all four lectures, plus a list of recommended readings, perfect for review or to take the material further.
MP3 downloads and full transcripts of every lecture. Listen on the go, search the text, or follow along if English is not your first language.
$1 from every registration is donated to charity: water, bringing clean water to people in need.
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Travis Proctor presents four fifty-minute lectures (on the historical Paul; Galatians and Romans; 1 Corinthians; and the contested Pauline legacy of the Pastorals and the Acts of Paul and Thecla), plus a quiz to test what you learn. The lectures are available on demand, so you can watch at your own pace.
No. This is a recorded, on-demand course. You get the full lectures to watch whenever you like, as many times as you like, plus a quiz to reinforce the material.
Not at all. This is a historical course, not a devotional one. Whether you’re a believer, a skeptic, or simply curious about how the Bible came to say what it says about women, you’ll find it genuinely rewarding.
Once you have purchased the course, you will receive instructions by email to log in to our online course platform, ThriveCart Learn. Once logged in, you will find all four lectures available to watch on demand. If you are a member of Biblical Studies Academy (BSA), your access will also be available inside the community.
Yes. All four lectures are yours with lifetime access. You can watch them on any device, on your own schedule, and return to them as often as you like.
No prior knowledge required. Travis introduces the letters, the figures, and the controversies as the course unfolds. Whether you’re coming in fresh or already have a background in biblical studies, you’ll find the course rewarding.
Yes. All lectures include closed captions, and full transcripts are included with the course, so you can follow along in text or search for specific passages.
We accept PayPal and all major credit cards.
Absolutely. If you don’t love the course, send us an email at support@bartehrman.com within 30 days of purchase and we will refund 100% of your investment.
