Rightly Dividing the Word - A review of arguments used in ‘All One’

[Resource Manager]

In 1 Timothy 2:15, what does teknogōnia mean?

 

The claim made

 

In their paraphrase of this verse, Ian and Averil make the following suggestion.

 

‘Yet, though Eve was deceived, a wife will be saved, and there will be no deception and no sin, if she lives a proper married life, bearing children and continuing in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.’

²³⁷

 

They therefore understand teknogōnia to mean ‘bearing children’, though they also see it as representing part of ‘a proper married life’.²³⁸ The understanding of this word in verse 15 as given by brother Brian Luke in ‘The Sister’s role – The Bible‟s large picture’,²³⁹ was challenged by Ian and Averil in ‘Reply 2’.²⁴⁰

 

Examination

 

The word itself means ‘child bearing’, but its use in the context of verse 15 suggests more than this.

The Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament identifies its use in verse 15 as ‘childbearing/motherhood’.²⁴¹ The Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament likewise has ‘motherhood’²⁴² for its use in verse 15.

 

The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament identifies the meaning as ‘by implication including all the duties of the maternal relation (1 Tim. 2:15), through the faithful performance of her duties as a mother in bringing up her household for God’.²⁴³

 

Ian and Averil have been too hasty here. There is no evidence that brother Luke has attempted to redefine the word teknogōnia; on the contrary, he has used a meaning found in two professional lexicons and a standard Bible dictionary, as the sense of the word in this verse.

 

Given this fact, and that Ian and Averil themselves see teknogōnia as meaning ‘bearing children’ but representing in this verse part of ‘a proper married life’²⁴⁴ (a phrase they insert in their paraphrase of verse 15), there are no good grounds for their objection.

 

Standard scholarly commentaries understand teknogōnia as having a non-literal sense in verse 15, representing the God given role of the woman by a figure of speech.²⁴⁵

 

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²³⁷ ‘All One’, p. 113 (2010), which is the edition available on the ‘sistersspeak’ website at the time of writing (http://www.sisterssp...s/pdf/AOICJ.pdf); this document is dated 2010 on the cover page, but this web version was created from a Word document in February 2011, according to the document’s metadata.

 

²³⁸ Ibid., p. 113.

 

²³⁹ ‘“Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing (i.e. all that is motherhood, Gk TEKNOGONIA), if THEY continue in faith and love and holiness with sobriety” 1Timothy 2:15.’, ‘The Sister’s role – The Bible’s large picture’, p. 8 (January 2009).

 

²⁴⁰ ‘On what grounds does Brother Luke redefine “teknogonia” as “all that is motherhood”. The word means “childbearing” not “childrearing”. Compare 1 Timothy 5 where the two Greek words are distinguished: I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children (“teknogoneo”), guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. (1 Timothy 5:14, KJV) and 1 Timothy 5:10 Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man. Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children (“teknotropheo”), if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work. (1 Timothy 5:9-10)’, ‘Reply 2’, pp. 8-9 (April 2009).

 

²⁴¹ ‘ According to 1 Tim 2:15 in its interpretation of Gen 3:16, bearing children / motherhood is the special task of women, including according to v. 15b a life in faith (possibly a reference to the rearing of children in faith; cf. b. Ber. 17a): σωθήσετaι δὲ διὰ τῆς τεκνογονίaς.’, Balz & Schneider, ‘Exegetical dictionary of the New Testament. Translation of: Exegetisches Worterbuch zum Neuen Testamen’, volume 3, p. 340 (1990-c1993).

 

²⁴² ‘bearing children, childbearing, motherhood (1T 2.15)’, Friberg, Friberg, & Miller ‘Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament’, volume 4, p. 376 (2000).

 

²⁴³ ‘5042. τεκνογονίa teknogonía; gen. teknogonías, fem. noun from teknogonéō (5041), to bear children. The bearing of children, and thus by implication including all the duties of the maternal relation (1 Tim. 2:15, through the faithful performance of her duties as a mother in bringing up her household for God [cf. 1 Tim. 5:10]).’, Zodhiates, ‘The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament’ (electronic ed., 2000).

 

²⁴⁴ Ibid., p. 93.

 

²⁴⁵ ‘In a somewhat awkward manner, Paul is saying that a woman’s salvation and the practical outworking of that salvation (cf. Phil 2:12) do not consist in altering her role in the church. Rather, she is to accept her God-given role, one of the specific functions being the bearing of children (synecdoche).’, Mounce (complementarian), ‘Pastoral Epistles’, Word Biblical Commentary, p. 146 (2002).

[Resource Manager]

This view (which is the same given by brother Luke), is described as the majority view in one standard commentary.

 

‘The final interpretation may be termed “

the majority view

.” 44 This view would hold that

Christian women are not saved through teaching and asserting authority, but by attention to their traditional role

. “Childbearing” serves as a

figure of speech

to illustrate Paul’s argument that women

need not behave as men but rather fulfill their divinely appointed role

to find salvation.

 

The figure may be termed

either a metonymy

45 [original footnote reproduced in footnote

²⁴⁶

below]

or a synecdoche

. [original footnote reproduced in footnote

²⁴⁷

below]’

²⁴⁸

 

In fact one commentary notes that the word is being used to describe the salvation demonstrated by women becoming ‘model wives’, ²⁴⁹ a phrase similar to Ian and Averil’s own ‘a proper married life’. ²⁵⁰

 

Leaving aside the marginal difference between brother Luke’s ‘all that is motherhood’²⁵¹ and Ian and Averil’s ‘a proper married life’, ²⁵² it is clear that brother Luke’s understanding is recognized in professional lexical sources and standard commentaries, and that Ian and Averil’s understanding is not far from such support either.

 

The New English Translation footnote on 1 Timothy 2:15 discusses various proposed interpretations of the meaning of the Greek word teknogōnia in verse 15, of which the following is given as one of the most plausible.

 

‘(5) “It is not through active teaching and ruling activities that Christian women will be saved, but through faithfulness to their proper role, exemplified in motherhood” (Moo, 71).

In this view τεκνογονίa is seen as a synecdoche in which child-rearing and other activities of motherhood are involved

.’

²⁵³

 

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²⁴⁶ ‘A figure in which the name of one thing is used for another because the two are closely associated. For example we may say “the White House reported today that …” which really means the president and his staff have reported.’.

 

²⁴⁷ ‘A synecdoche is a figure in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part or a species is used for the genus. Cf. Lea and Griffin, p. 102.’.

 

²⁴⁸ Moss (complementarian), ‘1, 2 Timothy & Titus’, The College Press NIV Commentary (1994).

 

²⁴⁹ ‘Paul is not suggesting that women must have children to be saved. Childbearing represents Paul’s teaching “that women prove the reality of their salvation when they become model wives and mothers whose good deeds include marriage and raising children (1 Tim 5:11, 14).”’, Moss (complementarian), ‘1, 2 Timothy & Titus’, The College Press NIV Commentary (1994).

 

²⁵⁰ ‘All One’, p. 93 (March 2009).

 

²⁵¹ ‘The Sister’s role – The Bible’s large picture’, p. 8 (January 2009).

 

²⁵² Ibid., p. 93.

 

²⁵³ ‘24 tn Or “But she will be preserved through childbearing,” or “But she will be saved in spite of childbearing.” This verse is notoriously difficult to interpret, though there is general agreement about one point: Verse 15 is intended to lessen the impact of vv. 13–14. There are several interpretive possibilities here, though the first three can be readily dismissed (cf. D. Moo, ”1 Timothy 2:11–15: Meaning and Significance,” TJ 1 [1980]: 70-73). (1) Christian women will be saved, but only if they bear children. This view is entirely unlikely for it lays a condition on Christian women that goes beyond grace, is unsupported elsewhere in scripture, and is explicitly against Paul’s and Jesus’ teaching on both marriage and salvation (cf. Matt 19:12; 1 Cor 7:8–9, 26–27, 34–35; 1 Tim 5:3–10). (2) Despite the curse, Christian women will be kept safe when bearing children. This view also is unlikely, both because it has little to do with the context and because it is not true to life (especially life in the ancient world with its high infant mortality rate). (3) Despite the sin of Eve and the results to her progeny, she would be saved through the childbirth - that is, through the birth of the Messiah, as promised in the protevangelium (Gen 3:15). This view sees the singular “she” as referring first to Eve and then to all women (note the change from singular to plural in this verse). Further, it works well in the context. However, there are several problems with it: [a] The future tense (σωθήσητaι, sōthēsētai) is unnatural if referring to the protevangelium or even to the historical fact of the Messiah’s birth; [b.] that only women are singled out as recipients of salvation seems odd since the birth of the Messiah was necessary for the salvation of both women and men; [c] as ingenious as this view is, its very ingenuity is its downfall, for it is overly subtle; and [d] the term τεκνογονίa (teknogonia) refers to the process of childbirth rather than the product. And since it is the person of the Messiah (the product of the birth) that saves us, the term is unlikely to be used in the sense given it by those who hold this view. There are three other views that have greater plausibility: (4) This may be a somewhat veiled reference to the curse of Gen 3:16 in order to clarify that though the woman led the man into transgression (v. 14b), she will be saved spiritually despite this physical reminder of her sin. The phrase is literally “through childbearing,” but this does not necessarily denote means or instrument here. Instead it may show attendant circumstance (probably with a concessive force): “with, though accompanied by” (cf. BDAG 224 s.v. δίa A.3.c; Rom 2:27; 2 Cor 2:4; 1 Tim 4:14). (5) “It is not through active teaching and ruling activities that Christian women will be saved, but through faithfulness to their proper role, exemplified in motherhood” (Moo, 71). In this view τεκνογονίa is seen as a synecdoche in which child-rearing and other activities of motherhood are involved. Thus, one evidence (though clearly not an essential evidence) of a woman’s salvation may be seen in her decision to function in this role. (6) The verse may point to some sort of proverbial expression now lost, in which “saved” means “delivered” and in which this deliverance was from some of the devastating effects of the role reversal that took place in Eden. The idea of childbearing, then, is a metonymy of part for the whole that encompasses the woman’s submission again to the leadership of the man, though it has no specific soteriological import (but it certainly would have to do with the outworking of redemption).’, The NET Bible First Edition, footnote on 1 Timothy 2:15 (Biblical Studies Press, 2006).

[Resource Manager]

Did Christianity make a new form of religious participation available to women?

The claim made

 

‘But exemption from time-required laws easily turned to exclusion, so that women became

excluded from active personal participation in study of the Law or active involvement in religious activities in the synagogue

even when time-relatedness was irrelevant.’

²⁵⁴

 

‘It appears that

women at the time of Jesus were restricted

by the legal framework and

were discouraged from religious involvement outside the home

.’

²⁵⁵

 

‘Jesus is totally and refreshingly free from this kind of approach to women. ...Discipleship on a wider scale

was now open to women

. They could study and learn Christian teaching; they could promote and teach the Good News, though the

conventions of society would still restrict them

.’

²⁵⁶

 

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²⁵⁴ ‘All One’, p. 14 (2010), which is the edition available on the ‘sistersspeak’ website at the time of writing (http://www.sisterssp...s/pdf/AOICJ.pdf); this document is dated 2010 on the cover page, but this web version was created from a Word document in February 2011, according to the document’s metadata.

 

²⁵⁵ Ibid., p. 16.

 

²⁵⁶ Ibid., pp. 26, 27.

[Resource Manager]

Examination

 

Ian and Averil attempt to substantiate their clams largely by using quotes from the Mishnah and Talmud.²⁵⁷ Although recognising that the Talmud was compiled well after the 1^st century,²⁵⁸ they still quote from it repeatedly²⁵⁹ as if its contents were directly relevant to the position of 1^st century Jewish women, despite the fact that such a practice has long been criticized by Jewish scholars.²⁶⁰

 

Such quotes are widely recognized as unrepresentative of general 1^st century Jewish attitudes.²⁶¹ Ian and Averil do tell readers that the rabbinical literature is not consistently negative towards women,²⁶² but the two positive quotes they provide are far outweighed by the long list of negative quotes they have selected.²⁶³

 

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²⁵⁷ Note that the quote they provide from the scholarly work, ‘Chattel or Person? The Status of Women in the Mishnah’ (Judith Wegner), also describes only the status of women as depicted in the post-1^st century Mishnah, rather than the 1^st century Jewish environment.

 

²⁵⁸ ‘The Talmud (“Study”) comprises the Mishnah with various commentaries upon it by later rabbis.’, p. 10, ‘All One’ (2010).

 

²⁵⁹ More than twenty times in ‘All One’ (2010), five times on page 15 alone.

 

²⁶⁰ ‘Similarly, references to rabbinic customs or sayings as contemporary with Jesus also reflect a misunderstanding of the development of Judaism. The Rabbinate emerged as an institution only after the fall of the Temple in 70 C.E., and it took considerable time before rabbinic authority was consolidated and came to represent more than a minority opinion within the Jewish community.’, Jaskow, ‘Blaming Jews for inventing patriarchy’, Lillith (11.7), 1980.

 

²⁶¹ 'Ross Shepard Kraemer suggests that ’rabbinic sources may at best refract the social realities of a handful of Jewish communities, and at worst may reflect upon the utopian visions of a relative handful of Jewish men’, Jackson, ‘Jesus as First-Century Feminist: Christian Anti-Judaism?’, Feminist Theology (7.91), 1998.

 

²⁶² ‘On occasions, favourable attitudes are expressed. Rabbi Hisda is reported to have said, “Daughters are dearer to me than sons” (Baba Bathra 141a). The anonymous Palestinian Jew described as Pseudo-Philo (first century CE) presents a positive view of women; this is thought so unusual that the suggestion has been made that this anonymous writer is in fact a woman.’, pp. 15-16, ‘All One’ (2010).

 

²⁶³ ‘In summary, though far from being comprehensive and admittedly insufficient to make my case decisively, the purpose of this note is simply to question the commonly accepted paradigm that women were second-class, unjustly oppressed people in the Rabbinic writings (and some argue, by implication, the OT) and that now, in the new era of the NT, women are finally accorded justice, that is, the same roles as men. Such a position can be argued, citing various chauvinistic Rabbinic sources, but it does not appear that all the Rabbinic data fit this paradigm, and it is even more questionable if the OT, as a whole, can be portrayed as anti-women. More work needs to be done on this.’, Hove, ‘Equality in Christ? Galatians 3:28 and the Gender Dispute’, p. 105 (1999).

[Resource Manager]

Their overall treatment of historic Jewish attitudes to women is thus little different to that first opposed by Jewish scholars 30 years ago.²⁶⁴

 

Ian and Averil fail to tell readers of evidence for the active religious participation of 1^st century Jewish women.²⁶⁵ More seriously, readers are not told of the evidence for 1^st century Jewish women in leadership positions,²⁶⁶ contradicting the claim made, that such positions were only made available to women in the Christian era. ²⁶⁷

 

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²⁶⁴ ‘Judith Plaskow (’Blaming Jews for Inventing Patriarchy’, Lilith 7 [1980], p. 11) was one of the first to challenge Swidler and other Christian feminists to deepen their understanding of Judaism before evaluating ’the uniqueness or nonuniqueness of Jesus’ attitudes towards women’.', Jackson, ‘Jesus as First-Century Feminist: Christian Anti-Judaism?’, Feminist Theology (7.86), 1998.

 

²⁶⁵ ‘She argues for epigraphical, archaeological and nonrabbinic writings to be placed in the total picture regarding Jewish women in the first century: there is evidence ’that at least some Jewish women played active religious, social, economic, and even political roles in the public lives of Jewish communities.’’, Hove, ‘Equality in Christ? Galatians 3:28 and the Gender Dispute’, p. 91 (1999).

 

²⁶⁶ ‘The most compelling evidence comes from Jewish inscriptions from the Hellenistic and Roman diaspora communities. These inscriptions, collected by Brooten and Kraemer,23 appear both in Greek and Latin and date from the first century b.c.e. to the sixth century c.e. Their provenances reach from Italy to Asia Minor, Palestine and Egypt.24 These inscriptions give the titles “Mother of the Synagogue” (μήτηρσυνaγωγηˆς, mater synagogae) and “elder” (πρεσbύτερa) to women.’, Crawford, ‘Mothers, Sisters, and Elders: Titles for Women in Second Temple Jewish and Early Christian Communities’, The Dead Sea Scrolls as Background to Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity: Papers from an International Conference at St. Andrews in 2001, p.184 (2003).

 

²⁶⁷ 'Bernadette J. Brooten argues that ’the inscriptional evidence for Jewish women leaders means that one cannot declare it to be a departure from Judaism that early Christian women held leadership positions.’, Hove, ‘Equality in Christ? Galatians 3:28 and the Gender Dispute’, p. 92 (1999).

[Resource Manager]

Inscriptions ascribing synagogue leadership titles to women²⁶⁸ (once disputed,²⁶⁹ now accepted²⁷⁰), prove 1^st century Jewish women were active religious participants in private and public,²⁷¹ contradicting Ian and Averil’s claim that public religious roles for Christian women were restricted local attitudes.²⁷² Some 1^st century Jewish women were even religious leaders,²⁷³ proving this was not a role unavailable to 1^st century Christian women.²⁷⁴

 

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²⁶⁸ 'Other women more clearly singled out for their roles as leaders in the synagogues, include Sara Oura, called presbutis, or elder; Beturia Paulla, called mother of the synagogues of Camus and Voluminius, Marcella, mother of the synagogue of the Augustesians; and Simplicia, mother of an unidentified synagogue, whose husband was also called father of the synagogue. Gaudentia is called hierisa, the feminine equivalent of the Greek word for priest.', Kraemer, 'Jewish Women in Rome and Egypt', in Juschka, ‘Feminism in the study of religion: a reader’, p. 227 (2001).

 

²⁶⁹ 'Until very recently, scholars routinely assumed that women could not have held functional leadership roles in Roman synagogues, and viewed these inscriptions as purely honorific, or, in the case of Gaudentia, evidence for priestly family ties.’, ibid, p. 227.

 

²⁷⁰ ‘Recently, however, Bernadette J. Brooten has convincingly demonstrated that these titles and inscriptions almost certainly testify to women leaders in ancient Roman synagogues. Even stronger evidence exists for women leaders in synagogues in other Jewish communities in the Greco-Roman world.’, ibid., p. 227.

 

²⁷¹ ‘From these inscriptions, and the adjectives praising their piety and devotion to the law, we see that Jewish women in Rome were active participants in the religious life of their communities, both at home and in the public religious life of the synagogue.', ibid., p. 227.

 

²⁷² ‘the conventions of society would still restrict them’, ‘All One’, p. 25 (March 2009).

 

²⁷³ ‘As Brooten has argued, there is no reason to assume that these titles do not reflect a leadership role for the women so designated.25 Brooten lists seven Greek inscriptions that contain the epithet πρεσbύτερa, and Kraemer adds one more.26 The women called πρεσbύτερa appear to have been members of a synagogue council of elders.27’, Crawford, ‘Mothers, Sisters, and Elders: Titles for Women in Second Temple Jewish and Early Christian Communities’, The Dead Sea Scrolls as Background to Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity: Papers from an International Conference at St. Andrews in 2001, p.184 (2003).

 

²⁷⁴ However, there is no evidence that 1^st century Christian women actually held such positions, despite their availability; Crawford says 'early Christian communities produce evidence for the use of the epithets πρεσbύτερa, ’aδεφή [sic] and possibly μήτηρ as titles for women in positions of leadership and authority in the early Christian community', ibid., p. 187 (emphasis added), but provides no definite evidence for adelphē (‘These wives may have participated in various leadership roles in the communities they visited, but Paul does not say this’, p.187, emphasis added), describes the case for mētēr as merely ‘possible’ (p.189), and the earliest evidence she provides for presbutera is from the mid-2^nd century (p.190).

[Resource Manager]

Similarly, 1^st century Greco-Roman society contained a wide range of attitudes towards women, from the misogynist to the egalitarian.²⁷⁵ Paul would thus have been aware of how his commandments sounded to some women.²⁷⁶

 

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²⁷⁵ ‘But studies of Roman society have found a variety of indicators about the status of women, and what was true about women in the eastern part of the empire was not necessarily true about women in the western empire. On the one hand, there was the household headed by the husband/father/master, a hierarchical order-obedience structure that included those who were economically dependent. On the other hand, there were emancipatory ideas about women that allowed them greater freedom and economic independence (some were even the heads of households).’, Tanzer (egalitarian), 'Eph 5:22-33 Wives (and Husbands) Exhorted', in Meyers, Craven, & Kraemer, 'Women in scripture: a dictionary of named and unnamed women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament', p. 481 (2001).

 

²⁷⁶ ‘In other contexts, among some gentiles, Paul’s moral conservatism and reaffirmation of traditional roles for women would have appeared too confining (this appears to have been the case in Corinth).’, Witherington (egalitarian), ‘Women (New Testament)’, in Freedman (ed.), ‘Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary’, volume 6, p. 959 (1996).

[Resource Manager]

Was Jesus more egalitarian than his contemporaries?

The claim made

 

‘In his attitudes and relationships with women,

Jesus was distinctly different from his contemporaries

, and he accorded them the respect and value which God intended “at the beginning”.’

²⁷⁷

 

‘That women were actively involved, and to a considerable extent, is shown repeatedly in the New Testament. To us in the twenty-first century this does not seem surprising, but within the context of the ancient world

it was a new and important development

which followed on from the example of Jesus himself.’

²⁷⁸

Examination

 

Ian and Averil compare Jesus’ attitudes towards women with selected negative comments from Greek and Roman sources,^{279 280} as well as from late Jewish sources,^{281 282} but do not mention the most egalitarian views held by Jesus’ contemporaries.

 

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²⁷⁷ ‘All One’, p. 32 (2010), which is the edition available on the ‘sistersspeak’ website at the time of writing (http://www.sisterssp...s/pdf/AOICJ.pdf); this document is dated 2010 on the cover page, but this web version was created from a Word document in February 2011, according to the document’s metadata.

 

²⁷⁸ Ibid., p. 33.

 

²⁷⁹ Ibid., pp. 231-233.

 

²⁸⁰ Ian and Averil also very fairly note ‘Some very positive descriptions of marriage have been handed down from antiquity, and these usefully provide a counter to the negative comments’, ibid., p. 232.

 

²⁸¹ Ibid., pp. 9-17.

 

²⁸² Though they also note ‘On occasions, favourable attitudes are expressed. Rabbi Hisda is reported to have said, “Daughters are dearer to me than sons” (Baba Bathra 141a). The anonymous Palestinian Jew described as Pseudo-Philo (first century AD) presents a positive view of women; this is thought so unusual that the suggestion has been made that this anonymous writer is in fact a woman.’, p. 17.

[Resource Manager]

The March 2009 edition of ‘All One’ made no reference at all to such attitudes among the Stoics; a very brief reference was added to the February 2010 edition of ‘All One’.²⁸³ Stoic views were traditionally egalitarian,²⁸⁴ they condemned gender discrimination,²⁸⁵ and they have even been identified as having at least inclinations towards feminist views.²⁸⁶

 

Though not consistently egalitarian²⁸⁷ and definitely not feminist,²⁸⁸ and though misogyny can still be found in some of their writings,^{289 290} they still remain a useful point of comparison when assessing other literature as egalitarian, since they were the most egalitarian of the 1^st century Roman philosophical groups.^{291 292 293}

 

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²⁸³ ‘The Stoics took a more moral position.’, ‘All One’, p. 211 (February 2010); also found on page 233 of the current edition (2010).

 

²⁸⁴ ‘That Stoicism is fundamentally egalitarian and universalistic is well established.’, Hill, ‘The First Wave of Feminism: Were the Stoics Feminists?’, History of Political Thought, (22.1.15), 2001.

 

²⁸⁵ ‘The Stoics condemned discrimination against people based on class, gender, ethnicity or any other contingent facts about them.', ibid., p. 17.

 

²⁸⁶ ‘A cursory review of Stoic literature certainly points to a Stoic feminism’, ibid., p. 19.

 

²⁸⁷ ‘We have seen that the Stoics fall short in achieving a systematic feminism’, ibid., p. 34.

 

²⁸⁸ ‘feminism-at least as that word is generally understood-and Stoicism are fundamentally and essentially incompatible’, Engel, ‘Women's Role in the Home and the State: Stoic Theory Reconsidered’, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, (101.268), 2003.

 

²⁸⁹ ‘despite the feminist potential of so much Stoic writing, subordinating and misogynistic tendencies are clearly present.', Hill, ‘The First Wave of Feminism: Were the Stoics Feminists?’, History of Political Thought, (22.1.40), 2001.

 

²⁹⁰ ‘the late Stoics are not as wholly sympathetic to women as some scholars have asserted, and it will become clear that they never advocated the political empowerment of women. Indeed, when given the opportunity to do so, they explicitly rejected the suggestion.’, Engel, ‘Women's Role in the Home and the State: Stoic Theory Reconsidered’, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, (101.273), 2003.

 

²⁹¹ 'Perhaps they are better understood as failed proto-liberal feminists', Hill, ‘The First Wave of Feminism: Were the Stoics Feminists?’, History of Political Thought, (22.1.40), 2001.

 

²⁹² ‘when compared with the attitudes toward women that prevailed in the days in which these arguments were put forward, the arguments are, occasionally, downright astounding.’, Engel, ‘Women's Role in the Home and the State: Stoic Theory Reconsidered’, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, (101.273), 2003.

 

²⁹³ ‘Stoicism is the only ancient philosophy that provides a sufficiently egalitarian concept of human beings to suit a liberal ideology.’, Long, ‘Stoic Communitarianism And Normative Citizenship’, Social Philosophy & Policy Foundation, (24.2.242), 2007.

[Resource Manager]

Stoicism was widespread,²⁹⁴ and even had an egalitarian influence on Roman law.²⁹⁵ Seneca the Younger’s earlier reputation as a ‘feminist’ has not withstood academic scrutiny,296 but he is still recognized as having expressed significant egalitarian views.^{297 298} Musonius Rufus is still regarded highly for his egalitarian attitude.^{299 300}

 

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²⁹⁴ Not merely restricted to the elite classes.

 

²⁹⁵ ‘The overall development of Roman equity law was influenced by the Stoic natural law principle of the equality of the sexes’, Hill, ‘The First Wave of Feminism: Were the Stoics Feminists?’, History of Political Thought, (22.1.20), 2001.

 

²⁹⁶ ‘Seneca’s feminist tendencies, in particular, seem to me to be vastly overrated’, ibid., p.23.

 

²⁹⁷ ‘Seneca, well in advance of his time, is willing to grant women equal opportunity at the banquet table, equal place at the feast of human endeavor. She is, he would argue, everyone's equal in capacity, and, if she exercise virtue, everyone's superior.’, Motto, ‘Seneca on Women’s Liberation’, The Classical World (65.5.157), 1972.

 

²⁹⁸ ‘‘You know that a man does wrong in requiring chastity of his wife while he himself is intriguing with the wives of other men.’, Hill, ‘The First Wave of Feminism: Were the Stoics Feminists?’, History of Political Thought, (22.1.29), 2001; note that this statement is actually cited by Ian and Averil, ‘All One’, p. 171 (March 2009).

 

²⁹⁹ ‘Musonius is probably the most enlightened Stoic in his attitude to women, sex and marriage.', ibid., p. 27.

 

³⁰⁰ ‘Musonius tells us that husbands who commit adultery are just as culpable as wives, and it is extremely objectionable for them to have sexual relations with their slave-girls.', ibid., p. 28.

[Resource Manager]

Unlike Paul, Musonius Rufus did not make any call for women to be subject,³⁰¹ and opposed explicitly a range of misogynist prejudices,³⁰² challenging the view of any form of gendered division of tasks,³⁰³ with a statement which has no Biblical parallel.³⁰⁴

 

Ian and Averil added a very brief reference to Rufus’ views on marriage in the February 2010 edition of ‘All One’,³⁰⁵ but did not address the full significance of his egalitarian position, which extended well beyond their quotation.

 

Women in 1^st century Jewish society enjoyed active religious participation,^{306 307} and some even held leadership positions.^{308 309 310}

 

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³⁰¹ ‘There is no demand on his part for subordination of the woman', ibid., p. 28.

 

³⁰² ‘It was a common belief that an educated woman would become ‘unpalatable’, arrogant and neglectful of her household duties.126 But the Stoics were bound to question social convention and, recognizing this duty, C. Musonius Rufus challenged Roman prejudices about women head on.', ibid., p. 32.

 

³⁰³ ‘Musonius now questions the reasonableness of a gender-based division of labour in the first place, noting that, apart from the relatively insignificant differences in physical strength and personal bent, no other rationale stands up to close scrutiny as a relevant basis for discrimination’, ibid., p. 33.

 

³⁰⁴ ‘[A]ll human tasks’, he says, ‘are a common obligation and are common for men and women, and none is necessarily appointed for either one exclusively.’, ibid., p. 33.

 

³⁰⁵ ‘All One’, p. 211 (February 2010); also found on page 234 of the current edition (2010).

 

³⁰⁶ Hove, ‘Equality in Christ? Galatians 3:28 and the Gender Dispute’, p. 91 (1999).

 

³⁰⁷ ‘Jewish women in Rome were active participants in the religious life of their communities, both at home and in the public religious life of the synagogue.', Kraemer, 'Jewish Women in Rome and Egypt', in Juschka, ‘Feminism in the study of religion: a reader’, p. 227 (2001).

 

³⁰⁸ ‘Other women more clearly singled out for their roles as leaders in the synagogues, include Sara Oura, called presbutis, or elder... Gaudentia is called hierisa, the feminine equivalent of the Greek word for priest.', ibid., p. 227.

 

³⁰⁹ ‘As Brooten has argued, there is no reason to assume that these titles do not reflect a leadership role for the women so designated. ...The women called πρεσbύτερa appear to have been members of a synagogue council of elders.27’, Crawford, ‘Mothers, Sisters, and Elders: Titles for Women in Second Temple Jewish and Early Christian Communities’, in Davila, ‘The Dead Sea Scrolls as Background to Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity: Papers from an International Conference at St. Andrews in 2001’, Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, number 46, p.184 (2003).

 

³¹⁰ 'Bernadette J. Brooten argues that ’the inscriptional evidence for Jewish women leaders means that one cannot declare it to be a departure from Judaism that early Christian women held leadership positions.’’, Hove, ‘Equality in Christ? Galatians 3:28 and the Gender Dispute’, p. 92 (1999).

[Resource Manager]

Both of them 1^st century Jewish communities, the Essenes are believed by many scholars to have been egalitarian,^{311 312} and the Therapeutae are known for their egalitarian attitudes towards the division of labor.^{313 314}

 

These non-Christian texts have no ‘difficult passages’. Unlike Musonius Rufus and the Therapeutae, neither Paul nor Jesus opposed a gendered division of tasks. Unlike Jewish inscriptions, we find no sisters as elders or titled ecclesial leaders in the New Testament.

 

-------

³¹¹ ‘the Essenes and the Therapeutai show evidence of influence by Hellenistic utopian thinking (including the egalitarian aspects of such thought)’, ‘egalitarian features of actual ancient Jewish utopian movements (Essenes or Therapeutai)’. Beavis, ‘Christian Origins, Egalitarianism, and Utopia’, Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion (23.2.46, 48), 2007.

 

³¹² Evans, ‘Ancient texts for New Testament studies: a guide to the background literature’, p. 86 (2005).

 

³¹³ ‘No barriers can be placed around the women Therapeutae that would exclude them from any functions in the community.’, Taylor, ‘The Women “Priests” of Philo’s De Vita Contemplativa; Reconstructing the Therapeutae‘, in ‘On the Cutting Edge: The Study of Women in Biblical Worlds: Essays in Honor of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza’, p.118 (2003).

 

³¹⁴ ‘It is striking that the division of labor between elders and juniors is emphatically not along gender lines’, ‘The membership of this community was gender-inclusive, since women participated as both seniors and (implicitly) juniors’, Taylor & Davis, ‘The So-Called Therapeutae of "De Vita Contemplativa": Identity and Character’, The Harvard Theological Review (91.1.23, 24), 1998.

[Resource Manager]

Were the 1st century ecclesias egalitarian?

The claim made

 

‘Life and service within the ecclesia, according to Paul, are not divided up by reference to whether male or female, nor whether slave or free, nor whether Jew or Gentile.’

³¹⁵

‘But a new start had been made and the new equality in Christ within the ecclesia had set a pattern for the future even if it could only partially be realised in the first century.’

³¹⁶

Examination

 

The scholarly consensus is that the early ecclesias (though affirming of women), were not egalitarian in the modern sense:

 

'The evidence surveyed above concerning the Corinthian community in its early years also

presents a sharp challenge to socio-historical studies which describe the earliest Christian communities as radical or egalitarian communities

in sharp contrast to their societal context, or which characterize the movement as a 'discipleship of equals', into which patriarchalisation and social ordering gradually crept.'

³¹⁷

 

Historian David Horrell acknowledges that women did hold certain positions of responsibility.³¹⁸ However, Horrell points out that the 1^st century ecclesial ‘Haustafeln’ (‘household code’), placed males at the head.

 

-------

³¹⁵ ‘All One’, p. 58 (2010), which is the edition available on the ‘sistersspeak’ website at the time of writing (http://www.sisterssp...s/pdf/AOICJ.pdf); this document is dated 2010 on the cover page, but this web version was created from a Word document in February 2011, according to the document’s metadata.

 

³¹⁶ Ibid., p. 149.

 

³¹⁷ Horrell, ‘The social ethos of the Corinthians correspondence: interests and ideology’, p. 124 (1996).

 

³¹⁸ ‘Phoebe, for example, a diakonos of the church at Cenchreae, is described as a patron of many (Rom 16: 1-2)’, Horrell, ‘Leadership Patterns and the Development of Ideology in Early Christianity’, Sociology of Religion, (58.4.326), 1997.

[Resource Manager]

‘The Colossian and Ephesian Haustafeln address the same social groups in the same order: wives, husbands, children, fathers, slaves, masters (Col 3: 18-4: 1; Eph 5: 22-6:9).

Women, children, and slaves are instructed to be submissive

, the husbands, fathers, and masters are urged to be loving and just in their actions towards those under their care.’

³¹⁹

 

‘The ethos of the instruction

may indeed be appropriately labelled "love-patriarchalism," not merely patriarchalism

(Theissen 1982: 107; MacDonald 1988: 102-22).

³²⁰

 

‘

As Campbell has argued

, here (and in 1 Peter)

the "elders" seem to comprise a group of men who are senior in faith and prominent in social position

(1 Peter 5: 5; Campbell 1994: 210-16; cf., Maier 1991: 93, 100).

The prominent (male) heads of households

have their responsibility qua leaders of the community.

 

This is most clear

in the Pastoral Epistles

, especially 1 Timothy, where the main duties mentioned for the bishop and the deacon are their responsibilities for respectable citizenship and good household management (1 Tim 3: 1-13; Titus 1: 5-9).

This is where the instruction to the socially prominent men of the community is found

.

 

The corollary of these requirements is the instructions in the Pastorals that

women and slaves must be submissive and appropriately obedient

. Women are

forbidden to teach or be in authority over men

; they must learn in silent submission (1 Tim 2: 11-15).

 

The church community is shaped according to the household model; indeed, it is described as the "household of God"

(1 Tim 3: 15), and so t

he ecclesiastical hierarchy mirrors the domestic and social hierarchy

. "The role of leaders as relatively well-to-do householders

who act as masters of their wives, children, and slaves

is inseparably linked with

their authority in the church

" (MacDonald 1988: 214).’

³²¹

 

‘However, it seems clear that

the "false" forms of the faith allow women to take leading roles

, or at least, that women

regard themselves as legitimate teachers and propagators of this faith

. Why else would the author of 1 Timothy need to make the stern declaration: "I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent" (1 Tim 2: 12),

a declaration which is then undergirded with legitimation drawn from the Genesis creation narratives

(2: 13-14)?’

³²²

 

-------

³¹⁹ Ibid., p. 334.

 

³²⁰ Ibid., p. 334.

 

³²¹ Ibid., p. 335.

 

³²² Ibid., p. 331.

[Resource Manager]

Historian Alastair Campbell acknowledges the possibility of women as leaders of ecclesial meetings held in their households, but believes it is futile to argue the egalitarian case on this basis.

 

‘Rather than

striving to show that women played a more prominent part than our evidence suggests

, or that the prohibitions of the Pastorals

do not mean what they appear to say

, it would be

more honest to admit the facts

and then, if so minded,

set them aside

.’

³²³

 

Egalitarian historian Elliott recognizes that women had some leadership positions, but rejects the typical egalitarian claims.

 

‘The claim made that the Jesus movement was egalitarian

involves flawed reasoning and an anachronistic, ethnocentric, and ideologically-driven reading of the New Testament

. Feminist scholars including Mary Rose D’Angelo (1992), Amy-Jill Levine (1994), and Kathleen E. Corley (1998), are likewise rejecting the egalitarian theory, objecting, inter alia,

to its lack of historical support and its isolation of Jesus from his Israelite matrix

.'

³²⁴

 

‘That women were prophets is no indication of an egalitarian revolution (against Schüssler Fiorenza 1983:235),

since women prophets existed in the patriarchal world prior to the Jesus movement

(Luke 2:36-38). That women assumed leadership roles in the Jesus movement likewise can be attributed to their prior social status

rather than to the egalitarian revolution imagined by Schüssler Fiorenza

(1983: 235).'

³²⁵

 

‘

With every fibre of my egalitarian being

I wish it were demonstrable that the Jesus movement

had been egalitarian, at least at some point in its early history

. This surely would make it easier for

today’s advocates of equality, among whom I count myself

, to appeal to our past as a source of inspiration and moral guidance for the present.

 

But, as the historical and ideological critic in all of us insists,

wishing and politically correct ideology cannot not make it so

. Ultimately, this well-intentioned theory is an unhappy example of

anachronism and idealist thinking

that must be challenged

not just because it is indemonstrable or an example of flawed interpretation

but also because it is so seductive

.'

³²⁶

 

‘By imputing to the biblical authors

a modern concept of equality that is not found in the Bible and the ancient world

and by allowing this imputed concept

to determine their interpretation of the New Testament

, they have produced an interpretation that

distorts and obscures the actual content and thrust of these texts

.’

³²⁷

 

-------

³²³ Campbell, ‘The elders: Seniority within earliest Christianity’, p. 275 (2004).

 

³²⁴ Elliott, ‘Jesus Was Not an Egalitarian. A Critique of an Anachronistic and Idealist Theory’, Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology, (32.88.90), 2002.

 

³²⁵ Elliott, 'The Jesus Movement Was Not Egalitarian But Family-Oriented', Biblical Interpretation: A Journal of Contemporary Approaches (11.2.184), 2003.

 

³²⁶ Ibid., pp. 205-206.

 

³²⁷ Elliott, ‘Jesus Was Not an Egalitarian. A Critique of an Anachronistic and Idealist Theory’, Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology, (32.88.90), 2002.

[Resource Manager]

Dale Martin is another egalitarian rejecting the claim that the early Christians were egalitarian:

 

‘

Contesting that Paul was an egalitarian with regard to gender

, Dale Martin (1995:199) aptly notes that “

in fact his writings confirm the Greco-Roman gender hierarchy

.”

 

Despite assigning women larger roles and more respect in his churches, “

he never makes The claim made that the female is equal to, much less superior to, the male

” (1995:199).

 

“Neither Paul’s androgynouse statement in Gal. 3:28 nor his admission of women to important positions within his churches

demonstrates that he was a gender egalitarian

” (1995: 232).'

³²⁸

 

-------

³²⁸ Martin, in Elliott, 'The Jesus Movement Was Not Egalitarian But Family-Oriented', Biblical Interpretation: A Journal of Contemporary Approaches (11.2.184), 2003.

[Resource Manager]

Was the role of sisters in 1st century ecclesias revolutionary?

 

The claim made

 

‘That women were actively involved, and to a considerable extent, is shown repeatedly in the New Testament. To us in the twenty-first century this does not seem surprising, but within the context of the ancient world

it was a new and important development

which followed on from the example of Jesus himself.’

³²⁹

 

‘

In view of the general male leadership which existed in society in the first century

, and in view of the problems in Crete which Paul was aiming to tackle,

it is not surprising if the elders there were all male

, for believers had to conduct themselves in a manner which was, as far as possible,

beyond reproach in the opinion of pagan society

.’

³³⁰

 

Examination

 

Stoicism was widespread,³³¹ and even had an egalitarian influence on Roman law.³³² The Stoics were the most egalitarian of the 1^st century Roman philosophical groups.^{333 334 335 336 337}

 

-------

³²⁹ ‘All One’, p. 33 (2010), which is the edition available on the ‘sistersspeak’ website at the time of writing (http://www.sisterssp...s/pdf/AOICJ.pdf); this document is dated 2010 on the cover page, but this web version was created from a Word document in February 2011, according to the document’s metadata.

 

³³⁰ Ibid., pp. 128-129.

 

³³¹ Not merely restricted to the elite classes.

 

³³² ‘The overall development of Roman equity law was influenced by the Stoic natural law principle of the equality of the sexes’, Hill, ‘The First Wave of Feminism: Were the Stoics Feminists?’, History of Political Thought, (22.1.20), 2001.

 

³³³ 'Perhaps they are better understood as failed proto-liberal feminists', ibid, p. 40.

 

³³⁴ ‘when compared with the attitudes toward women that prevailed in the days in which these arguments were put forward, the arguments are, occasionally, downright astounding.’, Engel, ‘Women's Role in the Home and the State: Stoic Theory Reconsidered’, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, (101.273), 2003.

 

³³⁵ ‘Stoicism is the only ancient philosophy that provides a sufficiently egalitarian concept of human beings to suit a liberal ideology.’, Long, ‘Stoic Communitarianism And Normative Citizenship’, Social Philosophy & Policy Foundation, p. 242 (2007).

 

³³⁶ ‘That Stoicism is fundamentally egalitarian and universalistic is well established.’, Hill, ‘The First Wave of Feminism: Were the Stoics Feminists?’, History of Political Thought, (22.1.15), 2001.

 

³³⁷ 'The Stoics condemned discrimination against people based on class, gender, ethnicity or any other contingent facts about them.', ibid., p. 17.

[Resource Manager]

Musonius Rufus is one 1^st century example.^{338 339} Unlike Paul, Musonius Rufus did not make any call for women to be subject,³⁴⁰ opposed explicitly a range of misogynist prejudices,³⁴¹ and challenged the view of any form of gendered division of tasks,³⁴² with a statement which has no Biblical parallel.³⁴³ Egalitarian views were also present in 1^st century Jewish society; women enjoyed active religious participation,^{344 345} and some even held leadership positions.^{346 347 348}

 

-------

³³⁸ ‘Musonius is probably the most enlightened Stoic in his attitude to women, sex and marriage.', ibid., p. 27.

 

³³⁹ 'Musonius tells us that husbands who commit adultery are just as culpable as wives, and it is extremely objectionable for them to have sexual relations with their slave-girls.', ibid., p. 28.

 

³⁴⁰ ‘There is no demand on his part for subordination of the woman', ibid., p. 28.

 

³⁴¹ ‘C. Musonius Rufus challenged Roman prejudices about women head on.', ibid., p. 32.

 

³⁴² ‘Musonius now questions the reasonableness of a gender-based division of labour in the first place, noting that, apart from the relatively insignificant differences in physical strength and personal bent, no other rationale stands up to close scrutiny as a relevant basis for discrimination’, ibid., p. 33.

 

343 ‘[A]ll human tasks’, he says, ‘are a common obligation and are common for men and women, and none is necessarily appointed for either one exclusively.’, ibid., p. 33.

 

³⁴⁴ Hove, ‘Equality in Christ? Galatians 3:28 and the Gender Dispute’, p. 91 (1999).

 

³⁴⁵ ‘Jewish women in Rome were active participants in the religious life of their communities, both at home and in the public religious life of the synagogue.', Kraemer, 'Jewish Women in Rome and Egypt', in Juschka, ‘Feminism in the study of religion: a reader’, p. 227 (2001).

 

³⁴⁶ 'Other women more clearly singled out for their roles as leaders in the synagogues, include Sara Oura, called presbutis, or elder... Gaudentia is called hierisa, the feminine equivalent of the Greek word for priest.', ibid., p. 227.

 

³⁴⁷ ‘The women called πρεσbύτερa appear to have been members of a synagogue council of elders.27’, Crawford, ‘Mothers, Sisters, and Elders: Titles for Women in Second Temple Jewish and Early Christian Communities’, The Dead Sea Scrolls as Background to Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity: Papers from an International Conference at St. Andrews in 2001, p.184 (2003).

 

³⁴⁸ 'Bernadette J. Brooten argues that ’the inscriptional evidence for Jewish women leaders means that one cannot declare it to be a departure from Judaism that early Christian women held leadership positions.’’, Hove, ‘Equality in Christ? Galatians 3:28 and the Gender Dispute’, p. 92 (1999).

[Resource Manager]

Among 1^st century Jewish religious communities, the Essenes,^{349 350} and the Therapeutae^{351 352} are considered groups with egalitarian values and practices. Contrary to the claim mades made by Ian and Averil, 1^st century ecclesial organization and roles were neither revolutionary nor restricted by social attitudes. Ecclesias developed and operated in the same way as the contemporary Roman ‘voluntary associations’.^{353 354 355 356}

 

Even the very language of ecclesial fellowship is borrowed from these groups,³⁵⁷ within which social norms could be transgressed without penalty³⁵⁸ (though acknowledging the norms³⁵⁹).

 

-------

³⁴⁹ ‘the Essenes and the Therapeutai show evidence of influence by Hellenistic utopian thinking (including the egalitarian aspects of such thought)’, Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion (23.2.46), 2007.

 

³⁵⁰ Evans, ‘Ancient texts for New Testament studies: a guide to the background literature’, p. 86 (2005).

 

³⁵¹ ‘No barriers can be placed around the women Therapeutae that would exclude them from any functions in the community.’, Taylor, ‘The Women “Priests” of Philo’s De Vita Contemplativa; Reconstructing the Therapeutae‘, in ‘On the Cutting Edge: The Study of Women in Biblical Worlds: Essays in Honor of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza’, p.118 (2003).

 

³⁵² ‘the division of labor between elders and juniors is emphatically not along gender lines’, ‘membership of this community was gender-inclusive, since women participated as both seniors and (implicitly) juniors’, Taylor & Davis, ‘The So-Called Therapeutae of "De Vita Contemplativa": Identity and Character’, The Harvard Theological Review (91.1.23, 24), 1998.

 

³⁵³ Sometimes called ‘private associations’, known in Latin as sodalitates, or collegia.

 

³⁵⁴ 'It is in this larger cultural context that the early Christian associations emerge. The cultural readiness and modeling of individuals gathering voluntarily to explore new identities and a sense of belonging within a religious frame allowed the early Christian groups to form. The larger context of voluntary associations provided a cultural pattern in which nascent early Christian community could come into being.’, Nerrny, & Taussig, ' Re-Imagining Life Together in America: A New Gospel of Community ', p. 13 (2002).

 

³⁵⁵ ‘In other words the notion of a diverse group coming together for the sake of a special sense and spirit of belonging was already going on in many different ways. That early Christians did this fits the larger social momentum of the day.', p. 13.

 

³⁵⁶ ‘'Early Christian communities need to be seen then as a kind of voluntary association. Their quick and strong development rides on the momentum of the larger Hellenistic momentum of the associations. Their interest in social experimentation is in keeping with the way the associations developed.', p. 13.

 

³⁵⁷ 'When the Greek literature of this time refers to a wide variety of voluntary associations, the terms often used are, in fact, koinoinia, or koine, meaning "community," "that which is held in common,", "friendship," or "fellowship".’, ibid., p. 12.

 

³⁵⁸ 'Transgressive commensality, according to Donahue, is characterized by temporal, porous group boundaries in which there is “a relationship of exchange between parties of a different social or economic status” (2005:106).' Ascough, Forms of Commensality in Greco-Roman Associations: draft paper for the SBL Greco-Roman Meals Consultation, p. 7 (2008).

 

³⁵⁹ 'According to Grignon (2001:30) transgressive commensality “plays upon oppositions between social groups and the borders which separate them.” Such borders, while recognized, are “temporarily and symbolically transgressed” and thus establish, in the context of a meal, a relation of exchange. Nevertheless, “it is by transgressing them that it contributes to recognizing and maintaining” social distinctions (2001:31).', ibid., p. 19.

[Resource Manager]

Slave and free mingled together,³⁶⁰ and slaves could even be leaders.³⁶¹ Men and women fraternized without the restraints of social convention,^{362 363} and ethnic and family loyalties were set aside.³⁶⁴

 

The ecclesias therefore could have appointed women as leaders and elders or provided them with authoritative speaking roles without fear of social reprisal. The culture of the day empowered them, rather than restricting them.³⁶⁵

 

Where is the evidence that the ecclesial roles of 1^st century sisters were restricted or opposed by Jewish, Greek, or Roman attitudes? Why is no such controversy mentioned in the entire New Testament?

 

-------

³⁶⁰ ‘The mix of slaves and free in this protected environment was frequent.’, Nerrny, & Taussig, ' Re-Imagining Life Together in America: A New Gospel of Community ', p. 12 (2002).

 

³⁶¹ ‘Slaves could be leaders in such groups.’, ibid., p. 12.

 

³⁶² ‘Similarly men and women associated in these settings far more than in public.’, ibid., p. 12.

 

³⁶³ ‘Both the joy and stress around this new mix of people and traditions evident in the Hellenistic literature indicates that the voluntary associations were places of social experimentation.’, ibid., p. 12.

 

³⁶⁴ ‘the general family and ethnic loyalties of former times were breached in the associations' acceptance of many different individuals.’ ibid., p. 12.

 

³⁶⁵ ‘Whereas in the larger outside world, both Roman control and residual customs mitigated against mixing men and women, slave and free, foreign and religious practice; in the voluntary associations there was a lively atmosphere in which these mixes could be tried out and experienced without threat of larger social catastrophe or consequences', ibid., p. 12.

[Resource Manager]

What is the historical background of 1st century Ephesus?

 

The claim made

 

‘Paul says that Adam was formed first, then Eve,

because the false teaching in Ephesus, as seen later in Gnosticism, gave priority to Eve

. Gnostic writers conflated Eve with the Mother Goddess – Isis/Cybele/Artemis. We gave one example on page 93.’

³⁶⁶

 

Examination

 

Timothy was in Ephesus, not Paul, so when Paul says ‘I suffer not a woman to teach’ he is speaking from his understanding of the position of sisters, he is not saying ‘When I am in Ephesus I don’t permit the sisters to teach’, or ‘I don’t permit the sisters in Ephesus to teach’. Paul’s words therefore are based on the Scriptural passages and principles to which he makes explicit reference, not to any specific environment in Ephesus.

 

Ian and Averil’s claim depends heavily on the work of egalitarian scholars Catherine and Richard Kroeger, which has been rejected by the scholarly consensus. The following are claims by the Kroegers which have been rejected by scholars in the relevant fields.

 

* A ‘proto-Gnostic’ background and Ephesian fertility cult forms the context of 1 Timothy

 

‘It is precarious, as Edwin Yamauchi and others have shown, t

o assume gnostic backgrounds for New Testament books

. Although the phrase, "falsely called knowledge," in 1 Timothy 6:20 contains the Greek word gnosis,

this was the common word for knowledge

. It does seem

anachronistic to transliterate and capitalize it "Gnosis"

as Kroeger does.’

³⁶⁷

 

'Kroeger and Kroeger thus explain v. 13 as an answer to the false notion that the woman is the originator of man, with the Artemis cult in Ephesus, that had somehow crept into the church, possibly by way of the false teaching.

However, this explanation cannot be substantiated (except from later Gnostic writings

.'

³⁶⁸

 

'Scholer's particular comment is also generally the case, that there is "

no clear or particular evidence that connects this heresy [of 1 Timothy] with any pagan worship in Ephesus and its sexual activities and connotations

" (1984:199 n 19).'

³⁶⁹

 

‘Thus, Richard and Catherine Kroeger have argued that the opponents taught the priority of Eve over Adam and that Eve enlightened Adam with her teaching.11 Similarly, Gritz argues that the restriction on women teaching was related to the influence of the cult of Artemis among the addressees in Ephesus."

 

However, both works go considerably beyond the evidence

in their reconstructions of the opponents' teaching and its

supposed connection

with the context of Ephesian non-Christian religious life.'

³⁷⁰

 

'As a classicist, however, her [Catherine Kroeger] own contributions are

reconstruction of a background and choices from linguistic options

viewed as appropriate to that background.

Both have been discredited

.’

³⁷¹

 

-------

³⁶⁶ ‘All One’, p. 111 (2010), which is the edition available on the ‘sistersspeak’ website at the time of writing (http://www.sisterssp...s/pdf/AOICJ.pdf); this document is dated 2010 on the cover page, but this web version was created from a Word document in February 2011, according to the document’s metadata.

 

³⁶⁷ Liefeld (egalitarian), 'Response: 1 Timothy 2:12 - A Classicist's View', in Mickelsen, 'Women, Authority & The Bible', p. 246 (1986).

 

³⁶⁸ Marshall & Towner (egalitarians), 'A Critical And Exegetical Commentary On the Pastoral Epistles', p. 463 (2004).

 

³⁶⁹ Strelan (egalitarian), 'Paul, Artemis, and the Jews in Ephesus', p. 155 (1996).

 

³⁷⁰ Grenz & Kjesbo (egalitarians), 'Women In The Church', p. 119 (1995).

 

³⁷¹ Holmes (egalitarian), 'Text In A Whirlwind', p. 26 (2000).

[Resource Manager]

* Ephesus contains evidence of serpent worship related to the worship of the goddess Artemis (Diana), in a pagan theology similar to the Genesis narrative concerning Eve and the serpent, only with the serpent and Eve depicted favourably

 

‘Kroeger presents a wide range of material relating to the pervasive presence of the serpent in ancient religion.

Here again, caution is needed. The serpent motif was so common that we must not read too much into its appearance

. Its presence in the Timothy passage

is only an inference

. Kroeger develops a network of phenomena

without carefully explaining how closely these items truly are to each other and to the text in 1 Timothy

.'

³⁷²

 

‘The artifacts mentioned by the Kroegers bear witness to widespread beliefs

which had nothing to do uniquely with Ephesus, nothing to do

with Judeo-Christian imagery about Satan/Devil and the serpent, and were

certainly not

a possible "allusion to the Garden of Eden story in one form or other" (p. 168).’

³⁷³

 

‘One must recognize, though, that their portrayal of Ephesus

is inspired by an eccentric reading of 1 Tim 2:12

.’

³⁷⁴

 

* Paul’s use of didaskō (‘teach’), is intended to command that women not teach men error in the congregation, rather than they not teach men in the congregation

 

‘But in contrast,

neither of the Greek words used for the content of teaching

(didaskalia, didache)

is used in the verse under consideration

. The two nouns occur a total of seventeen times in the Pastorals and could easily have been used here. Kroeger's task is to explain how one can maintain that the verb didasko "prohibits the erroneous teaching"

when Paul, who could have said clearly, "I do not permit women to teach

error

," omitted any such reference to the content

. Then, too, the verb itself

is usually used in connection with good, rather than with erroneous

, teaching in the Pastorals. To propose that the verb refers in a special way to the content, and specifically to erroneous content,

goes beyond the natural meaning of the text

.

 

Also, while the verb

teach

is used absolutely, without an object expressing content,

it does have a subject,

woman

,

which is not mentioned in Kroger's initial thesis statement at all. In summary,

the Greek reader of this text would naturally understand the emphasis of the first words to be "I do not permit a

woman

to teach

," whereas Kroeger proposes to demonstrate that its emphasis is " I do not permit a woman to teach

error

."’

³⁷⁵

 

--------

³⁷² Liefeld (egalitarian), 'Response: 1 Timothy 2:12 - A Classicist's View', in Mickelsen, 'Women, Authority & The Bible', p. 247 (1986).

 

³⁷³ Oster, review of ‘I Suffer Not a Woman. Rethinking 1 Timothy 2:11-15 in Light of Ancient Evidence’ by Richard Clark Kroeger and Catherine Clark Kroeger, in Biblical Archaeologist (56:4.226), Nomadic Pastoralism: Past and Present (December, 1993).

 

³⁷⁴ Baugh (complementarian), ‘The Apostle among the Amazons’, Westminster Theological Journal (56.1.155), Spring 1994.

 

³⁷⁵ Liefeld (egalitarian), 'Response: 1 Timothy 2:12 - A Classicist's View', in Mickelsen, 'Women, Authority & The Bible', p. 247 (1986).

[Resource Manager]

* Paul’s letter to Timothy is attempting to deal with local Ephesian religious practices involving sex, castration, and the worship of fertility goddesses

 

‘My evaluation of their work will be organized into three sections:

1) Erroneous information; 2) Problematic evidence; and 3) Methodological fallacies

.’

³⁷⁶

 

‘The most serious issue of methodology in I Suffer Not a Woman

is the authors' frequent neglect of primary sources of Ephesian archaeology and history

. It is perplexing that the Kroegers' views about Ephesus, about Artemis, and about the role of women in the city's life

are so uninformed by the appropriate corpora of inscriptions, coins, and scholarly literature about the city's excavations

. ‘

³⁷⁷

 

‘The Kroegers often

string sources together even when these are separated by centuries and perhaps hundreds of miles

. On occasion ancient literature

is cited with little regard for the propensities of the author or the context in which the statements were made

.’

³⁷⁸

 

‘In conclusion, irrespective of one's sympathy for the pain and frustration of women who have been oppressed by the "traditions of men," irrespective of one's sympathy for some of the goals of I Suffer Not a Woman,

this publication does not present a cogent and defensible way to circumvent or neutralize 1 Tim 2:11-15

.’

³⁷⁹

 

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³⁷⁶ Oster, review of ‘I Suffer Not a Woman. Rethinking 1 Timothy 2:11-15 in Light of Ancient Evidence’ by Richard Clark Kroeger and Catherine Clark Kroeger, in Biblical Archaeologist (56:4.225), Nomadic Pastoralism: Past and Present (December, 1993).

 

³⁷⁷ Ibid., p. 226.

 

³⁷⁸ Ibid., p. 226.

 

³⁷⁹ Ibid., p. 227.

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Is Galatians 3:28 an ‘equality text’?

 

The claim made

 

‘If we understand what he says in accordance with the context,

Paul approves of equal service by sisters and by brothers

. Life and service within the ecclesia, according to Paul,

are not divided up by reference to whether male or female, nor whether slave or free, nor whether Jew or Gentile

. Society might still impose restrictions, and it did.

But as far as life and service in the ecclesia was concerned, in Christ you are all one

:’

³⁸⁰

 

Examination

 

Many scholars agree that this passage is not about the role of women in the ecclesia. Hove notes there are two key reasons why the ‘all one’ phrase does not mean ‘all equal’. One is the fact that the Greek word for ‘one’ here simply does not mean ‘equal’. ³⁸¹

 

The other is the fact that uses in other Greek literature of this same ‘all one’ phrase,³⁸² indicate that it was not used to refer to equality, but unity.³⁸³

 

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³⁸⁰ ‘All One’, p. 58 (2010), which is the edition available on the ‘sistersspeak’ website at the time of writing (http://www.sisterssp...s/pdf/AOICJ.pdf); this document is dated 2010 on the cover page, but this web version was created from a Word document in February 2011, according to the document’s metadata.

 

³⁸¹ 'As noted in the previous chapter, there are two critical reasons why “you are all one” does not mean “you are all equal.” I will review these two reasons briefly. The first reason is the lexical range of the word one.43 Lexically this word cannot mean “equal.” Our overview of BAGD confirmed this, as we found that there is no known example of one being used this way.’, Hove (complementarian), ‘Equality in Christ? Galatians 3:28 and the Gender Dispute’, p. 108 (1999).

 

³⁸² Searching Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (a collection of thousands of Greek texts), I found only one use of the phrase ‘all one’ as used in Galatians 3:28 (Greek εἷς ἐστε, eis este), between 200 BCE and 100 CE (Hove lists 16 analogous phrases in Greek literature during the same time frame, pp. 73-74), used to speak of two nearby cities as ‘one community’; ‘you are almost one community, one city only slightly divided’ (‘κaὶ σχεδὸν εἷς ἐστε δῆμος κaὶ μίa πόλις ἐν οὐ πολλῷ διaστήμaτι.’), ‘Orationes’ 41.10.7, Dio Chrysostom (Greek orator 40-120 CE), Cohoon (trans.), ‘Dio Chrysostom IV’, Loeb Classical Library, p. 159 (1946).

 

³⁸³ ‘The second reason “you are all one” does not mean “you are all equal” is that the phrase was not used in that way in the era of the New Testament. As we have seen, a study of every parallel use of the phrase “we/you/they are one” in the 300 years surrounding the New Testament reveals that this expression fails to express the concept of unqualified equality. In fact, “you are all one” is used of diverse objects to denote one element they share in common; it is not used of similar objects to denote that they are the same.’, Hove, ‘Equality in Christ? Galatians 3:28 and the Gender Dispute’, p. 108 (1999).

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Watson argues Paul is not addressing hierarchy and equality in this passage, but unity in Christ.³⁸⁴ He objects to an egalitarian reading of Galatians 3:28 on the basis that the relationships referred to by Paul are not hierarchical.³⁸⁵ Wright objects to misuse of this passage by egalitarians,^{386 387} identifies a common egalitarian straw man,³⁸⁸ and notes a mistranslation of the verse used commonly by egalitarians.³⁸⁹

 

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³⁸⁴ ‘In baptism, Jew, Greek, slave, free, male, female receive a new identity as they ‘put on Christ’ (3.27): the emphasis lies not on their ‘equality’ but on their belonging together as they participate in the new identity and the new practices and modes of interaction that this will entail. Paul could have assumed that the three distinctions he mentions were hierarchical ones, and that in Christ these are replaced by an egalitarian oneness, but there is nothing in the wording of his statement (or in the hypothetical baptismal formula supposed to underlie it) to suggest that he actually did so.', Watson (egalitarian), ‘The Authority of the Voice: A Theological Reading of 1 Cor 11.2–16’, New Testament Studies (46.521), 2000.

 

³⁸⁵ 'In Gal 3.28, for example, the three distinctions (Jew/Greek, slave/free, male/female) do not straightforwardly represent a series of hierarchical relationships. The distinction between Jew and Greek does not constitute a hierarchical relationship, since each party regards itself as superior to the other.’, Watson, ‘The Authority of the Voice: A Theological Reading of 1 Cor 11.2–16’, New Testament Studies (46.521), 2000.

 

³⁸⁶ ‘The point Paul is making overall in this passage is that God has one family, not two, and that this family consists of all those who believe in Jesus; that this is the family God promised to Abraham, and that nothing in the Torah can stand in the way of this unity which is now revealed through the faithfulness of the Messiah. This is not at all about how we relate to one another within this single family; it is about the fact, as we often say, that the ground is even at the foot of the cross.’, Wright (egalitarian), ‘Women’s Service in the Church: The Biblical Basis. A conference paper for the Symposium, ‘Men, Women and the Church’’, (4 September, 2004).

 

³⁸⁷ ‘The first thing to say is fairly obvious but needs saying anyway. Galatians 3 is not about ministry. Nor is it the only word Paul says about being male and female, and instead of taking texts in a vacuum and then arranging them in a hierarchy, for instance by quoting this verse and then saying that it trumps every other verse in a kind of fight to be the senior bull in the herd (what a very masculine way of approaching exegesis, by the way!), we need to do justice to what Paul is actually saying at this point.’, ibid.

 

³⁸⁸ ‘I am surprised to see, in some of your literature, the insistence that women and men are equally saved and justified; that is, I’m surprised because I’ve never heard anyone denying it. Of course, there may well be some who do, but I just haven’t met them.’, ibid.

 

³⁸⁹ ‘First, a note about translation and exegesis. I notice that on one of your leaflets you adopt what is actually a mistranslation of this verse: neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female. That is precisely what Paul does not say; and as it’s what we expect he’s going to say, we should note quite carefully what he has said instead, since he presumably means to make a point by doing so, a point which is missed when the translation is flattened out as in that version. What he says is that there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, no ‘male and female’.’, ibid.