Reply #38: Paul's views were very progressive for the age [View All]

[AlabamaYankee]

To add just a bit to your excellent post (sotle my thunder, you did).

At the time Paul wrote this, women were less than property in the highly partiarchal Greco-Roman world. Paul, by demanding that men honor and be faithful to their wives, puts the realtionship on a much more equal footing than had been thought possible. He's also writing to a tiny and unorthodox minority, and is careful that they do not become too noticibly different.

The literal minded barbarians, whether they be Baptist, Lutheran, or any other "ist", as you said, read only the surface words, and ignore the inconvenient parts, like, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the church"