Some have found it helpful, when seeking to understand the scripture passages that speak of the place of women in the church and in marriage, to consider also those passages that speak of Christians in the context of slavery. These passages assume that there is slavery, and describe how to live the life of Christ within the context of a society that includes slavery. In the past, these passages were used by some to justify the institution of slavery. This type of argument for slavery is rarely heard today – and rightly so. We can appreciate a Christ-like attitude in the social context of slavery while understanding that slavery is a social institution that God does not endorse as his ideal. It is an evil of a fallen world; slavery is a form that cannot remain intact as the kingdom of God comes in its fullness.

Therefore, we interpret passages that teach about the behavior of masters and slaves to be culturally or socially conditioned rather than as establishing the institution of slavery as God’s plan for human relationships. We can learn how to live in testimony to Christ when embedded in the social context of slavery. We can see how living the radical life of love and truth embodied by Christ would begin to bring into question the underlying assumptions upon which distorted social structures of a fallen world are founded. We extrapolate from these teachings to other similar but different contexts such as the relationship between employees and employers. We understand that these scripture passages teach us Christ-like relational attitudes toward work and authority in the context of slavery, while not teaching slavery as a Christian social ideal.

Texts about women in ministry roles and about marriage often parallel texts about Christians in the context of slavery. So, many see a parallel between the social context of marriage and the social context of slavery in scripture. Could there be some parallel between women in patriarchal societies and slaves in a social context of slavery? However, we know that marriage is not parallel to slavery in that marriage is a creation of God. And yet scripture testifies to the effect of the fall and the resulting curse upon marriage relationships: “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” This effect can be seen in the roles to which women have been relegated in fallen human society. We cannot help but see the corruption brought by the fall in our marriages and in our society’s attitudes toward marriage. It is important to work towards views of the place of women in society and marriage that honor God’s creative goodness in giving us the gift of marriage. It is important that we seek to move beyond that which is less than God intended.

We can readily see that not all attitudes and beliefs about marriage honor the teaching of scripture about human relationships and love. Similarly, Christians have realized that not all attitudes and beliefs about the place of women in society honor the teaching of scripture regarding human relationships and love. Might it be that some scriptures that speak of the relationship between men and women are speaking from within and to the social context of the time without endorsing the patriarchal order of that social context? Might they be speaking into that context regarding how to live in it as a follower of Jesus? Judging by the precedent of texts speaking in the context of slavery, it could be so. It seems to me that it certainly is so! For an example of this approach, see Gordon Fee’s article The Cultural Context of Ephesians 5:18 to 6:9.

Of course, the key is discerning what is inherent in God’s pattern for marriage and the relationship between men and women. God is author of the difference between men and women. What in our culture reflects God-created difference and what is a refection of sinful humans living in a fallen world? Do any of the scriptures that discuss the place of women in the church or in marriage teach within a context of cultural patterns that are less than ideal? Might these scriptures in some ways be similar to the scriptures that discuss how a follower of Christ is to live as a slave or a master of slaves – not teaching the cultural pattern of slavery or patriarchal marriage but rather teaching how one lives as a Christian faced with an imperfect or unjust pattern in one’s culture?

Most cultures at the time of the early church were strongly patriarchal, with some instances of local reaction against patriarchy. Women were generally not well-educated or formally prepared for leadership. Women were not allowed to be the disciples of rabbis who taught young men to understand and apply the Hebrew scripture they had memorized as boys.

Other parallels may also be helpful. Moses was given laws governing divorce. And yet Jesus taught that these laws were not a reflection that divorce was pleasing to God, but rather a concession to the hard hearts of men. There is a clue that may help us from Jesus’ response when questioned about divorce. Consider Matthew 19:3-8 [niv]:

3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”
4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
7 “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

In verses four and eight, Jesus refers to “the beginning.” Marriage since the fall is not as it was “in the beginning.” The relationship between men and women in general is not as it was “in the beginning.” What was it like in the beginning?

Next: 7. Beginnings