tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343277549128598933.post8393497652172911152..comments2023-08-10T09:38:07.159+01:00Comments on Revising Reform: Inconsistency in the complementarian understanding of 1 Tim. 2:11-12Rev R Marszalekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01831340057673771787noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343277549128598933.post-62310384381344240402015-01-12T19:15:40.110+00:002015-01-12T19:15:40.110+00:00In the New Testament there are 34 instances (vario...In the New Testament there are 34 instances (various tenses etc.) of the verb ‘hupotasso’ which is the word translated ‘is subject’ in Ephesians 5:24. One is Ephesians 5:21, “being subject to one another in the fear of Christ”. 4 are about wives being subject to their husbands (the correct understanding of which is at the heart of the disagreement), 1 is about women learning ‘in all subjection’ and the context of the other 28 makes clear that “being subject” involves the notion of authority and/or obeying or disobeying that authority.<br /><br />The church collectively and Christians individually are called upon to be subject to Christ’s authority and to obey his commands. To say that Ephesians 5:21 is the framework for understanding Ephesians 5:22-31 and so to say that husbands should be subject to their wives in symmetry with wives being subject to their husbands cannot be right, because this understanding would, because the Christ-church/husband-wife analogy is so closely coupled, depend on Christ being subject to the church in symmetry with the church being subject to Christ. This is not so. The passages often given as examples that it is so are not cases of Christ being subject to the church. So this notion of male authority in the husband-wife relationship is, because of the analogy, as inescapable as the notion of Christ’s authority in the Christ-church relationship.<br /><br />In 5:22-23 wives are exhorted to be subject to their own husbands because “a man is kephale of the woman”. It does not ultimately matter what we understand by kephale. What does matter is that male kephale is the reason why wives are exhorted to be subject to their own husbands. What also matters is that in 1 Corinthians 11:3, where the context is not marriage but the church, we find the phrase “and the kephale of a woman the man”, almost exactly the same words and exactly the same meaning as Ephesians 5:23. Assuming that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, Ephesians and 1 Timothy, and assuming that this is common ground for both sides in this disagreement, the notion of male authority must be part of Paul’s overall thought and present in 1 Corinthians 11 as well as in Ephesians 5. And because 1 Corinthians 11:3-9 is a connected line of thought and because 11:7b-9 clearly refer to the pre-Fall situation in Genesis 1 and 2, this notion is part God’s very good pre-Fall creation.<br /><br />All this has to be born in mind when we seek to understand 1 Timothy 2:11-15, 1 Timothy 3:2 and 1 Timothy 3:12.<br /><br />Phil Almond<br />Phil Almondnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343277549128598933.post-76848907724533765862009-09-09T08:59:20.476+01:002009-09-09T08:59:20.476+01:00Dr Ann Nyland's explanation of this passage ma...Dr Ann Nyland's explanation of this passage makes a great deal of sense to me.<br /><br />http://ezinearticles.com/?Bible-and-Women---Women-in-1-Timothy-2:11-13&id=1787559Timnoreply@blogger.com