Women's Roles in Certain Second Testament Passages

Abstract

The role of women in early Christianity remains a contested topic among Second Testament scholars. This paper creates a cross-cultural, macrosociological model of the role of women in agrarian societies against which appropriate Second Testament passages are examined. The model centers upon three aspects of the role of women growing out of the social structure of agrarian households: (1) the care of households; (2) the bearing of children; and, (3) the public and private behavioral expectations of women. Through the delegated authority of her husband a wife manages the domestic realm. A woman's "salvation" is through bearing children, many children if possible, and especially sons. A woman's place is within the private world of the household. The public realm belongs to men. The Second Testament evidence supports the model as described. Significant passages which appear to negate the model do not do so upon closer examination. Aprevalent but contested topic among Second Testament scholars concerns the role of women in early Christianity in which a variety of positions and/or interpretive approaches are taken. The following examples are illustrative. Some center their efforts on Second Testament ecclesiology (Tetlow; Jewett, 1980). What role(s) did women have in the early church? Did they officiate over the sacraments? What part did widows play (Bassler) ? Some debate specific passages or pit particular texts against each other such as Eph 5:24 vs. Eph 5:21; 1 Cor 11:7 vs. Gen 1:27; 1 Cor 14:34 vs. 1 Cor 11:5 (Brown: 185; Bilezikian vs. Hurly). A variation to this approach centers upon a study of Jesus and/or Paul in which either or both is seen as an advocate of gender equality (Scroggs) or, conversely, as an exponent for a Christian paradigm of subordination (Davis; Hurly). Still others stress the place of women within a given Second Testament Christian community (Brown), while others focus either upon the issues of power and the theology of the family in the Second Testament (Bartchy), the application of an anthropological acculturation theory to the domestic code of 1 Peter (Balch, 1986: 86-89; see Segal: 983, 985), or consider women in the Second Testament from a feminist perspective (Schussler Fiorenza, 1983). Such efforts have occurred during a period when Second Testament studies have emphasized the social setting of early Christianity attempting to understand the social life of early Christian communities against the social backdrop of first century C.E. Mediterranean society (Meeks; Judge; Kee; Theissen; Elliott; Malherbe). This emphasis typically has built up a mass of sociological data on topics like the household (Elliott). Our study approaches the Second Testament evidence from a somewhat different perspective. Instead of establishing a deep base of empirical data (micro sociology), we will establish a broad comparative social analysis, a cross-cultural examination of the role of women established by the empirical delineation of societal types (macrosociology) (Chaney; Lenski and Lenski; Sjoberg; Pa...