Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul's Letters - Softcover

Payne, Philip Barton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0310219884 ISBN 13: 9780310219880

Publisher: Study Resources, 2009

Synopsis

Does Paul teach a hierarchy of authority of man over woman, or does he teach the full equality of man and woman in the church and home? In Man and Woman, One in Christ, Philip Barton Payne answers this question and more, injecting crucial insights into the discussion of Paul’s view of women. Condensing over three decades of research on this topic, Payne’s rigorous exegetical analysis demonstrates the consistency of Paul’s message on this topic and its coherence with the rest of his theology. Payne’s exegetical examination of the Pauline corpus is thorough, exploring the influences on Paul, his practice as a church leader, and his teachings to various Christian communities. Paul’s theology, instruction, and practice consistently affirm the equal standing of men and women, with profound implications for the church today. Man and Woman, One in Christ is required reading for all who desire to understand the meaning of Paul’s statements regarding women and their relevance for Christian relationships and ministry today. This work has the potential of uniting the church on this contentious issue.

About this title

About the Author

Philip Barton Payne (PhD, Cambridge) has served with his wife Nancy for the Evangelical Free Church Mission in Japan for seven years. He has taught New Testament studies at Cambridge, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Gordon-Conwell, Bethel, and Fuller, and is known for his studies on textual criticism, the parables of Jesus, and Paul's teachings on women.

From the Back Cover

Does Paul teach a hierarchy of authority of man over woman, or does he teach the full equality of man and woman in the church and home? In Man and Woman, One in Christ, Philip Barton Payne answers this question and more, injecting crucial insights into the discussion of Paul's view of women. Condensing over three decades of research on this topic, Payne's rigorous exegetical analysis demonstrates the consistency of Paul's message on this topic and its coherence with the rest of his theology. Payne's exegetical examination of the Pauline corpus is thorough, exploring the influences on Paul, his practice as a church leader, and his teachings to various Christian communities. Paul's theology, instruction, and practice consistently affirm the equal standing of men and women, with profound implications for the church today. Man and Woman, One in Christ is required reading for all who desire to understand the meaning of Paul's statements regarding women and their relevance for Christian relationships and ministry today. This work has the potential of uniting the church on this contentious issue.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Man and Woman, One in Christ

An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul's Letters By Philip B. Payne

Zondervan

Copyright © 2009 Philip B. Payne
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-310-21988-0

Contents

Acknowledgments..................................................................................................................11Abbreviations....................................................................................................................13My Odyssey.......................................................................................................................271 Backgrounds to Paul's Teaching regarding Man and Woman.........................................................................312 Women Paul Names as Ministry Leaders...........................................................................................613 Paul's Theological Axioms Imply the Equality of Man and Woman..................................................................694 Galatians 3:28: Man and Woman: One in Christ...................................................................................795 1 Corinthians 7: The Equal Rights of Man and Woman in Marriage.................................................................1056 1 Corinthians 11:2-16: Introduction............................................................................................1097 1 Corinthians 11:2-3: Head/Source Relationships................................................................................1138 1 Corinthians 11:4: The Disgrace of a Man "Having Down from the Head"..........................................................1419 1 Corinthians 11:5-6: The Disgrace of a Woman's Head "Uncovered"...............................................................14710 1 Corinthians 11:7-10: Theological Reasons for Head-Covering Rules............................................................17511 1 Corinthians 11:11-12: The Equal Standing of Woman and Man in Christ.........................................................18912 1 Corinthians 11:13-16: Shameful Head Coverings Explained as Hair............................................................19913 1 Corinthians 11:2-16: Conclusion and Application.............................................................................21114 1 Corinthians 14:34-35: Did Paul Forbid Women to Speak in Church?.............................................................21715 Ephesians 5:21-33 and Colossians 3:18-19: Husband-Wife Relationships..........................................................27116 1 Timothy 2:8-15: Introduction: The Ephesian Church Situation Addressed in 1 Timothy..........................................29117 1 Timothy 2:8-11: "Let a Woman Learn in Quietness and in All Submission"......................................................31118 1 Timothy 2:12: Part I: "I Am Not Permitting a Woman to Teach"................................................................31919 1 Timothy 2:12: Part II: Does [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Separate Two Prohibitions or Conjoin Them?.....................33720 1 Timothy 2:12: Part III: Does [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Mean "Assume Authority"?......................................36121 1 Timothy 2:13-14: The Need for Respect, the Danger of Deception..............................................................39922 1 Timothy 2:15: Salvation through "the Childbirth"............................................................................41723 1 Timothy 2:8-15: Conclusion..................................................................................................44324 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:5-9: May Women Be Overseers and Deacons?.........................................................445Conclusion: Paul Consistently Champions the Equality of Man and Woman in Christ..................................................461Select Bibliography..............................................................................................................465Select Hebrew Word Index.........................................................................................................485Select Greek Word Index..........................................................................................................485Scripture Index..................................................................................................................487Subject Index....................................................................................................................500Author Index.....................................................................................................................505

Chapter One

Backgrounds to Paul's Teaching regarding Man and Woman

Before analyzing Paul's teachings on women, it is fitting first to examine influences on his view of women, his women colleagues, and his theological axioms, since it is reasonable to expect a correlation among these. This chapter begins with Paul's Hellenistic and Jewish cultural context, including his teacher, Gamaliel. It then examines the most profound influences on Paul's view of women: the Holy Scriptures and Jesus.

Hellenistic Culture

The apostle Paul was born in Tarsus of Cilicia. His travels and the bulk of his ministry were in the Gentile, Greek-speaking world, so it is inevitable that he had extensive contact with Hellenistic thought and practice. The treatment of Hellenistic women varied dramatically from region to region; from Sparta and Rome, where women had political responsibilities, to Athens, where wives of the wealthy were essentially imprisoned. Women tended to have more freedom in the western portions of the Hellenistic world and in Egypt. The first-century BC Greek historian Diodorus Siculus 1.27. wrote that in Egypt "it was ordained that the queen should have greater power and honour than the king and that among private persons the wife should enjoy authority over her husband, the husbands agreeing in the marriage contract that they will be obedient in all things to their wives." In Paul's day Musonius Rufus (frag. 13A and 14.94.2-19) praised marital love and the deep union between husband and wife. Hellenism, however, had a broad misogynist streak, as has been demonstrated in many studies. Euripides' (ca. 479-406 BC) Hippolytus calls women "this bane to cheat mankind" (616-17), "a great bane" (627), and "this creature of ruin," and he wishes that men could just buy sons for gold at the temple (620-23); "I shall never take my fill of hating women" (664-65).

Even Plato (ca. 437-347 BC), who occasionally affirms the virtue of particular women (a woman could be a guardian, though not a philosopher-king in his republic), calls men superior to women (Tim. 42a). He writes, "Do you know, then, of anything practiced by mankind in which the masculine sex does not surpass the female on all these points? ... [The] one sex is far surpassed by the other in everything, one may say ... the woman is weaker than the man" (Resp. 5.455c-e). He warns that "whoso has failed therein [in life] shall be changed into woman's nature at the second birth" (Tim. 42b).

Aristotle (384-322 BC), too, says, "the male is by nature superior and the female inferior, the male ruler and the female subject" (Pol. 1254.b.13-15), "for the male is by nature better fitted to command than the female" (Pol. 1259.b.2-3, b.10), since man is rational and woman irrational (Pol. 1260.a.5-9). Consequently, "for the two parties to be on an equal footing or in the contrary positions is harmful in all cases" (Pol. 1254.b.9-10). Even their virtues are qualitatively different. Man has "the courage of command, and the other [woman] that of subordination" (Pol. 1260.a.23-24). He describes "the female is as it were a deformed male" (Gen. an. 737a and 775a).

Menander (ca. 343-291 BC) calls woman "nature's greatest misfit" (Fr. 488) and writes, "where woman is, there is all evil" (Fr. 804) and "to instruct a woman is simply to increase the poison of a dangerous serpent" (Fr. 702). Democritus (a.k.a. Democrates) states, "To be ruled by a woman is the worst insult for a man" (Saying 111). In Hellenistic Judaism, 2 En 30.18 (written between 30 BC and AD 70) describes God's purpose in creating a wife for Adam, "that death should come to him by his wife." After the second century AD, Pseudo-Lucian states, "Let women be ciphers and be retained merely for child-bearing; but in all else away with them," "perfect virtue grows least of all among women," and "all the gods, methinks, hate what he [Promethus] did in fashioning females, a cursed brood."

In first-century Hellenism, women were generally treated as their husband's property. In order not to dishonor their husbands, faithful observance of social conventions was expected, particularly in avoiding the appearance of an adulteress or prostitute. Plutarch (ca. AD 46-120), in Advice to the Bride and Groom, describes harmonious marital life: "The wife ought to have no feeling of her own, but she should join with her husband in seriousness and sportiveness and in soberness and laughter" (14, Mor. 140a). "A wife ought not to make friends of her own, but to enjoy her husband's friends in common with him" (19, Mor. 140d). "And control ought to be exercised by the man over the woman, not as the owner has control of a piece of property, but, as the soul controls the body, by entering into her feelings and being knit to her through goodwill" (31, Mor. 142d). Plutarch said that married people "should pour all their resources into a common fund.... [The] property and the estate ought to be said to belong to the husband even though the wife contribute the larger share" (20, Mor. 140-41). This attitude continued after Paul's time, as seen in Aelius Aristides's affirmations about husband and wife:

... not waiting to listen to his wife, he will tell his wife what must be done; nor does he attend to her words ... he will make his wife conform as closely as possible to his own nature, as a better person would treat an inferior one.... God is superior and more perfect than man, and the ruler than the private citizen, and the master than the slave and the husband than the wife ... or everything would be topsy-turvy.

Yet in Paul's day, new roles were appearing for women. Various philosophical, political, financial, religious, poetic, and romantic forces promoted equal rights or greater equality for women. The Isis cult taught, "Thou [Isis] gavest to women the same power as to men." Women of status could study, organize meetings, and participate in religious ceremonies and demonstrations. By staying at least three days in her parents' home each year, a Roman woman avoided becoming the property of her husband. First-century AD Roman law permitted women to hold political and religious offices, own and dispose of property, make a will, give testimony, terminate a marriage, and other things, such as sue for child support and custody. (Continues...)

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Edition details

• Publisher: Study Resources
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0310219884
• ISBN 13: 9780310219880
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 512