I agree with some of your points, and so do some churches.
However there is a division here you have not properly addressed.
The Bible treats unmarried women,(daughters), widows and divorced women and wives. differently.
Gen 3:16 He said to the woman, I will greatly increase your sorrow and your conception; you shall bear sons in sorrow, and your desire shall be toward YOUR HUSBAND; and HE SHALL RULE over you.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 34092795 I do hope everyone finds the time to read the links, as they go into all the detail I couldn't post here due to length. I did mention this one specifically in my OP.
Col 3:18 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 34092795 Do you know the Greek word being rendered "subject" here? Its semantic range includes "be supportive, upholding, appending, attached or joined, aligned, associated, related, loyal, committed, brought under influence". Notice also the word "own"; it makes no sense to specify this if it means what the surface-skim appearance is.
What no one can dispute is that in that time and culture, women simply did not have multiple husbands, and hardly needed to be told to "obey" or "be subject" with that meaning, since all the women had that drilled into them all the time. And I hardly think Paul was in the habit of overstating the obvious.
Instead, looking at all aspect of context and the actual Greek, Paul is telling
Christian wives that
their freedom in Christ is not a license for promiscuity. He is saying this in the context of telling
those with power and privilege how to change and become more Christlike. Otherwise, we would have to make Paul contradict everything Jesus said and did regarding all his disciples and the need for ALL to be humble, not just women.
Eph 5:22 Wives, subject yourselves to your own husbands, as to the Lord,
Eph 5:23 because a HUSBAND IS THE HEAD OF THE WIFE, as also Christ is Head of the assembly, and He is the Savior of the body.
Eph 5:24 But even as the assembly is subject to Christ, SO ALSO THE WIVES to their OWN HUSBANDS, IN EVERYTHING.
So it does say "Husbands are to rule over Wives" in both the Old and New Testaments.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 34092795 No, not at all. There is no verb in vs. 22; it gets it from vs. 21, and the passage is about MUTUAL SUBMISSION of all believers to all other believers. Clearly, this cannot involve authority because you can't have everyone being the boss of everyone. Submission is NOT a master/slave hierarchy at all, but deference and humility to all. Then Paul lists ways in which various groups can model that mutuality. See my commentary for more: [
link to bible.fether.net]
In Jewish society there were also different rules relating to oaths taken by women, as opposed to men...
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 34092795 Why are you appealing to OT rules for the NT church? We are not Israel; we are not under the Levitical priesthood (see Heb. 7); we are not Jewish society. And if we are appealing to society, let's remember that it was Paul being "counter cultural" in his letters about these things, not going back to the law, which is why he was persecuted by the Jews for the rest of his life.
Yet God treated women as equal to men in many things, but WIVES are to submit to their Husbands and Daughters,(as in all Children), to their Fathers.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 34092795 Wives are not children, not property, not slaves, and not animals.
So the EQUALITY of WOMEN, is limited at best, by God's own rules, not Man's rules. God is far harsher on Men than Women, so Women should appreciate that, instead of fighting it.
Failure to acknowledge this is Sin and Rebellion against God and His Plan.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 34092795 What you fail to acknowledge is that God is NOT the one limiting women in Christ, or making Paul contradict all that Jesus said about humility and laying privilege down. It is indeed "man's rules" to twist the Greek by imposing English onto it and then claiming God said it. Why do YOU fight against what Jesus did, in setting us ALL free? Why do you fear women as equal human beings? And it is double-talk to say a woman, by being a woman, is a permanent child, yet is somehow still equal in being.
