Household Codes

Dismayed and confused by constant concerns about safety for girls and exclusion of women from church leadership, Faith Martin began a journey searching for theological developments regarding such demeaning views of women. Other studies of women in the church, such as Ruth Tucker and Walter Liefeld’s Daughters of the Church, reveal a consistent disparagement of women since the third century. Interpretations of NT household codes favoring male authority have often been cited to support such practices. These interpretations bear two kinds of illusions. One implies that church membership is predominantly male. The more serious concern is that presumptions of superiority and inferiority contradict the gospel message of love and grace, the good news of setting the oppressed free. Therefore, a proper theological hermeneutic of the NT household codes demands the inclusion of cultural dimensions.

4QInstruction preserves an interpretation of the fifth commandment, to honor one's father and mother, which has similarities with Philo's comments on it. Because Philo's treatment of the command plays a pivotal role in assigning influences on instruction to family members in the New Testament, and the present opinion overwhelmingly views Philo as indebted to Greek schemas and content, evidence from more recently available Qumran literature suggests some of the New Testament Haustafeln may have more of a Jewish intellectual history than is currently acknowledged. is article explores the way biblical traditions -especially the Decalogue and creation traditions-are used for construing teachings to members of the family in the 1 Cor 11, Eph 5-6, Philo and 4QInstruction.

Even though the Greek word for virtue “ἀρετή” does not appear throughout the letter to Titus, the ethical perspective of the letter corresponds significantly to the contemporary neo-Aristotelian concept and characteristics of virtue ethics. The presence of virtue-ethical features implicitly and explicitly embedded in the linguistic elements, theological motifs, and ethical norms within the text are so prevalent and central to its theology and ethics that it warrants the description of the letter to Titus as a virtue-ethical text. This research, therefore, seeks to contribute to the novel but growing inter-disciplinary scholarly efforts to understand the concepts of virtue in biblical literature and to build bridges between biblical studies and virtue ethics.

The aim of the presented text is to question the feminist re-interpretation of Ef 5,21-33, the so-called Christian Haustafeln („household codes”). It is one of the texts by St Paul, on the basis of which the Apostle is being accused of misogynism. In particular parts of the article, we have tried to rebut these accusations, and at the same time highlight pro-female aspects of his activity. The Apostle was presented as a modern leader of his times who fights with the low status of the women, and even appoints women as his collaborators during his missionary journeys. The aims were reached on the basis of examining the structure of the fragment and analysing the meaning of two Greek words: agapaō and hypotassō. Furthermore, the pericope was interpreted in its social and cultural context of late-Hellenic and early-Roman era, depicted by epigraphic, papyrologic and literary examples of strong women emancipation, reflected in greater freedom in the eyes of the law, getting married for love and weakening the patriarchal family model.

Much scholarly discussion by both conservative and liberation theologians is focused on 1 Peter 3:1–6. The wives’ submission to their husbands, the exhortation’s descriptive or prescriptive nature,  whether Sarah actually addressed Abraham as “Lord” and obeyed him,  the extent of the obedience or submission of wives to their husbands,  the abuse that this pericope has fostered throughout church history,  the function of the participles,  the silent witnessing of the wives,  whether wives are supposed to teach or not,  and how to live with an unbelieving husband  have garnered heated debates and discussions. However, these important conversations seem to neglect the equally important following verse: 1 Peter 3:7. If it is picked up at all, the discussion of this verse is usually confined to the meaning of the term “weaker vessel.”  As such, this paper will attempt to show the importance of the responsibility of the Christian husbands with regard to their own wives. The paper also investigates whether Peter colluded with the Greco-Roman culture and promulgated the oppression of wives. The passage will be analyzed in its social/historical, theological and literary context. This will be followed by a lexical analysis of 1 Pet 3:7. Finally, the theological implications of the passage will be in order.