Paul, Women & Wives

Marriage and Women’s Ministry in the Letters of Paul

CRAIG S. KEENER

Paul, Women & Wives: Marriage and Women’s Ministry in the Letters of Paul

Copyright © 1992 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.

P. O. Box 3473

Peabody, Massachusetts, 01961-3473

All rights reserved

Eighth Printing—August 2009

ISBN 978-0-943575-96-4

Preface © 2004 by Craig S. Keener

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Keener, Craig S., 1960–

Paul, women & wives: marriage and women’s ministry in the letters of Paul / Craig S. Keener.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-943575-96-6

1. Women in the Bible. 2. Women in Christianity—Biblical teaching. 3. Marriage—Biblical teaching. 4. Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul—Theology. 5. Women in Christianity—History—Early church, ca. 30–600. I. Title. II. Title: Paul, women, and wives.

BS2655.W5K44 1992

261.83′442—dc20

92–26515

CIP

This book is dedicated to all our sisters in ministry, especially those who have had to endure opposition to follow God’s call. May God fulfill all the work of your calling.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

Part 1: The Roles of Women in the Church

1. Head Coverings in 1 Corinthians 11:1–16

2. Questions about Questions—1 Corinthians 14:34–35

3. Learning in Silence—1 Timothy 2:9–15

Part 2: Women’s Roles in the Family

4. Why Paul Told Wives to Submit—The Social Situation of Ephesians 5:18–33

5. Mutual Submission in Ephesians 5:18–33

6. A Model for Interpreting Wives’ Submission: Slaves in Ephesians 6:5–9

7. Closing Words

Appendix A: Women’s Ministry Elsewhere in Paul

Appendix B: Mysteries, Music, Women, and Wine—Ephesians 5:18–21 and the Threat of Subversive Religions

Bibliography

Index of Names

Index of Ancient Sources

Preface (2004)

As Paul, Women, and Wives enters a new printing, I am grateful for the opportunity to revisit some of the issues this work raised and to bring it more up to date. My primary academic interests are exegetical and historical, and I hope to have time in years to come to develop those questions in future commentaries on some of the New Testament letters addressed in this book. (Questions about particular Pauline letters’ authorship raised by some critical reviewers would also need to be addressed more fully in those works.)

Nevertheless, I also have a pastoral interest in the subject (how we apply Paul’s teaching in the twenty-first century), which will not be addressed so easily by purely academic works. Further, most of the response to this book has been theological, and since I am less convinced that I will have opportunity to revisit this book’s theological questions in future works, I am especially grateful to be able to offer the present preface.

In some circles, debates over the pastoral application of Paul’s teachings on gender are settled, but in others they are just warming up. Among those Christians who regard Paul’s teaching as authoritative, the debate over gender roles is probably more polarized ...