Slavery

What an amazing year it has been! I have been overwhelmed by the uniformly enthusiastic responses to all the seminars I have given on the oneness of man and woman in Christ in Conferences in Uganda and Kenya, Universities, Seminaries, and churches. It was a special delight to be back at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School before Thanksgiving, where response to “How Complementarian is the Bible?” and its many follow up discussions were uniformly positive. You can see the full video of the Seminar on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29LlmlrL7fw&feature=youtu.be

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On Friday, July 29, 2011, from 12:30 – 2:00 PM I will be presenting the Christians for Biblical Equality Annual Meeting Plenary Lecture 1 at the Doubletree Guest Suites Seattle Airport/Southcenter. The title of the lecture is “The Biblical Foundation for Mutual Submission and Shared Authority Between Men and Women in Church and Marriage.” Click here to download the PowerPoint for this lecture. If you do not own PowerPoint, you may download the Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer or you may install LibreOffice, a free Open Source Office Suite that is compatible with Microsoft Office.

On Saturday, July 30, from 2:50 – 3:50 PM I will lead a workshop on “Justice and Equality for Women Created in God’s Image: The Scriptural Mandate for Ministry and Marriage.”

Hope to see you there!

Kriste Patrow is the contact person to use special discount coupon UPCBE11 for a discount on your registration, also available on site. Her telephone number is 612-872-6898 (good until she leaves for the Conference Wednesday, July 27, 9:00 AM CST).

A Critique of Thomas R. Schreiner’s “Philip Payne on Familiar Ground: A Review of Philip B. Payne, Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul’s Letters.” JBMW (Spring 2010) 33–46 (more…)

I found the following reviews of Man and Woman, One in Christ in respected blogs. Scot McKnight, Jesus Creed, writes, “Simply put, this is the most technically proficient study ever published on women in the Pauline texts.” (more…)

The first two are crucial studies for understanding Paul’s teaching regarding slavery.

The first gives twelve reasons to understand 1 Corinthians 7:21-23 as an encouragement for slaves to gain freedom if they can. These factors are crucial because some people have interpreted Paul as discouraging slaves from gaining their freedom and has been used to support slavery.

The second shows how Paul applies maximum social pressure on Philemon to free his slave Onesimus.

These two articles support the understanding of Galatians 3:28 argued in my book that in Christ there is no special privilege given to slave over free or to male over female. These studies show that Paul in practice undermines the slave/free dichotomy.

The third is a critique of Preston T. Massey’s article in New Testament Studies 53 (2007): 502-523. Massey states five conclusions regarding the meaning of “covered” in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. His article cites passages that contradict each of his five conclusions. He is unwarranted in concluding that “covering” implies a garment.

To see or download these studies, in the red box at the top of this page click on Publications, then click on Supplemental Studies.