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If Paul knows that women pray and prophesy, and he is capable of giving instructions for how they should do so, why does he say to Timothy, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man”? What distinction does Paul himself think he is making?
I’m interested specifically in how scholars understand the distinction Paul is making between the women speaking/ministering in 1 Corinthians 11 and the prohibition in 1 Timothy 2—not simply in arguments for or against women pastors.

Or does the act of noticing your own voice create the only person who can no longer write it naturally?

In Genesis 3, the serpent tells Eve, “You will be like God…” They take the fruit.
In Philippians 2:6, Paul says of Christ:
”…who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped…”
I wonder whether Paul is intentionally inviting us to hear an echo of Eden.
Adam and Eve grasp at being like God.
Christ, who truly is equal with God, does not grasp.
If that’s an intentional contrast, it makes me wonder whether “grasping” is a much larger biblical theme than I had realized.
Do you think Paul intends us to read these passages together? If so, what do you think the significance is?

Genuinely funny moments abound throughout the Bible. In Numbers 22, Balaam argues with a talking donkey while completely failing to notice what the donkey already sees. Jonah, the most successful prophet in the OT, escapes a fish’s belly only to later sit beneath a dying vine saying, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” What exactly was going on with Jonah and this plant? Ezekiel convinces God that baking bread over human dung is a little too intense, and God changes His mind: “Very well, cow dung instead” (Ezekiel 4:15). The next time you doubt that prayer matters, remember that Ezekiel successfully negotiated the dung arrangement.

These stories make me feel like I am drinking living water.

The Bible constantly reveals our contradictions, ego, avoidance, and absurdity through humor that exposes us gently and opens our hearts.

What biblical moment feels funniest or strangest to you, and why do you think it is there?

Junto al aljibe de la estancia
bebe un rocín color de polvo;
nadie recuerda ya su nombre
salvo la luna y los rastrojos.

Fue bestia humilde de labranza,
costilla y barro bajo el sol;
pero un hidalgo de los libros
le dio otro cuerpo con su voz.

Cruje La Mancha entre los cardos,
gira despacio el aire frío;
un ciego toca viejas páginas
como quien busca un evangelio.

Otro, en un siglo ya imposible,
vuelve a escribir la misma historia;
la frase es igual, pero la sangre
ha atravesado la memoria.

Quizá el misterio no sea el hombre
ni la ilusión que el hombre nombra,
sino encarnarse tan profundo
que el Verbo vuelva por la sombra.

Y Rocinante alza la frente
bajo la rueda de los astros:
antes rocín de los caminos,
ahora llevando heridas y milagros.

Between the vineyard wall and pasture gate
Two shepherd fires divide the darkening plain:
One guards the tender shoots from tooth and hate,
One calls the scattered wanderers home again.

The watchdogs stir beneath the olive shade;
The lambs lie still where fig and thorn entwine.
Some fear the fox that slips through unafraid,
Some fear the branch cut off from root and vine.

The threshing floor lies silvered under moon;
The wheat bends low beside the stony track.
One binds the bruised and weather-beaten reed,
One drives the hungry wolves and jackals back.

And Christ still walks where both these labors start:
The narrow way that widens through the heart.