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  • From: "John C. Hurd" <John.Hurd AT Squam.org>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Romans 16:7
  • Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1999 20:52:32 -0500


As a comment about Maggie Hoop's project, it seems to me that one is on
firmer ground in these matters if one reconstructs Paul's view of the
future from his early letters and then looks at the role of women,
rather than beginning with a single text (if, indeed, that is what she
is doing). I think that initially Paul believed (1) that the end of
this age was near--within his life time and that of most of his
converts--and (2) that the church in the present was a fore-taste of the
kingdom to come. It was widely believed that in the Kingdom the
distinction between the sexes would be eliminated and that believers
"are as the angels", i.e., no marriage. For this reason Paul set aside
sexual distinctions in his congregations (1 Cor. 11:2-16, e.g., assumes
that women preach) and minimized the role of sex in the life of his
converts (1 Cor. 7). One would then read Romans 16:7 against this
background, rather than the background of either Jewish or Graeco-Roman
ideas of the place of women.
-- John Hurd
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:: Prof. John C. Hurd Internet: John.Hurd AT Squam.org
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