{"id":46557,"date":"2019-12-12T05:00:36","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T09:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=46557"},"modified":"2019-12-11T14:42:13","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T18:42:13","slug":"the-church-v-the-churches-in-early-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/12\/the-church-v-the-churches-in-early-christianity.html","title":{"rendered":"“The Church” v. “The Churches” in Early Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

You know what? I came upon a tweet lately that got me thinking about the discrepancy between these two New Testament passages:<\/p>\n

Galatians 3:28\u2014There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n

Ephesians 5:22-24\u2014Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.<\/span>\u00a0<\/sup>For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.<\/span> But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These don\u2019t seem to line up. Is there no distinction, and all are one in Jesus, or are women to be subject to their husbands\u00a0as they are to Jesus?\u00a0<\/em>The first passage suggests radical social egalitarianism. The second passage does the exact opposite, repeating itself for emphasis.\u00a0And, strangely, these books are both written by the same exact person\u2014Paul. Or are they?<\/p>\n

Actually, most scholars do not believe Paul wrote Ephesians. There are a lot of seeming discrepancies among the ostensibly Pauline epistles that resolve themselves when you accept the scholarly consensus about who did\u2014and did not<\/em>\u2014actually write these letters.<\/p>\n

Paul probably did write Galatians. He probably did not write Ephesians. How do scholars determine that? Well, for one thing, the writing style in Ephesians is substantially different from that in the books scholars are fairly sure Paul wrote. His word choice also varies far more widely than it does between the other books. And\u2014well\u2014there are theological inconsistencies between Ephesians and the other letters.<\/p>\n

And no, I\u2019m not talking just about the above discrepancy over gender relations. I\u2019m talking about other issues entirely. For instance<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[T]he eschatology of Ephesians is much more realized than that of authentic Paul. The expectation of the coming of Jesus has faded into the background and the church is more concerned with growing up or becoming mature. Paul\u2019s thought is dominated by eschatology; Ephesians is not. Paul very rarely speaks of the universal church, but the universal church is a major (possibly the major) theme of the letter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wait what now? The universal church?<\/p>\n

I just took to an online concordance<\/a> and \u2026 while Ephesians includes reference after terence to \u201cthe church,\u201d the other books written in Paul\u2019s name do not (with the exception of Colossians, which scholars also do not think Paul wrote). The difference is so stark it almost surprises me that I didn\u2019t notice it before.<\/p>\n

In the books scholars believe are authentic, Paul writes about \u201cthe church in this place\u201d and \u201cthe church in that place.\u201d Or, extremely commonly,\u00a0the churches.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

2 Corinthians 12:13\u2014How were you inferior to the other churches, except that I was never a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!<\/p>\n

Galatians 1:2\u2014and all the brothers and sisters with me, To the churches in Galatia.<\/p>\n

1 Thessalonians 2:14\u2014For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God\u2019s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And then there is Ephesians:<\/p>\n

\n
Ephesians 5:24\u2014Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The<\/em> church?<\/p>\n

As the church<\/em> submits to Christ?<\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t Paul. Instead, it\u2019s reflective of a later authorship, coming from a period when the church had become more settled\u2014had begun to think of itself as the church\u00a0<\/em>rather than as a collection of churches.<\/p>\n

Scholars believe<\/a> Paul wrote his letters between 50-60 AD. He died in 64 AD. Scholars believe Ephesians was probably written around 80-90 AD, and that the pastoral epistles\u2014which advise women to be submissive and obedient keepers of the home\u2014were written still later, around 100 AD.<\/p>\n

About the pastoral epistles, recall that those books also include the requirement that a bishop be the husband of one wife, which stands in contrast to not only Paul\u2019s own singleness but also his suggestion that singleness was the ideal state, and that people should marry only if they can\u2019t keep it in their pants. Recall, too, that the pastoral epistles\u2019 discussion of how the church should be set up\u2014the church<\/em>\u2014came from a very different place from Paul\u2019s insistence elsewhere that Christ\u2019s return was immanent.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, Ephesians 5:22-24 makes more sense, as does the sharp contrast between it and Galatians 3:28, which emphasizes a radical egalitarian ethos. Not only were the two epistles written by two different men, each with their won set of beliefs, but Ephesians was also written decades later, during a time when some Christian leaders were trying to reign in what they saw as egalitarian excesses.<\/p>\n

Imagine that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve said it before but it\u2019s still true\u2014I find the Bible more interesting as an atheist today than I did as an evangelical Christian. Or perhaps the issue is that I find it interesting on a different level. I used to comb it for theological truth; I read it daily, and sought to make it my life\u2019s guide. But since losing my faith, it\u2019s like I\u2019ve been handed tools for understanding it on a level I could not before. I don\u2019t have to try to reconcile passages that seem contradictory, or milk a theological point out of confusing text. Instead, I can understand the why<\/em> behind it. Textual criticism is a truly heady rush.<\/p>\n

I have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is there no distinction, and all are one in Jesus, or are women to be subject to their husbands\u00a0as they are to Jesus?\u00a0The first passage suggests radical social egalitarianism. The second passage does the exact opposite, repeating itself for emphasis.\u00a0And, strangely, these books are both written by the same exact person—Paul. Or are they?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":46587,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism"],"yoast_head":"\n"The Church" v. "The Churches" in Early Christianity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is there no distinction, and all are one in Jesus, or are women to be subject to their husbands\u00a0as they are to Jesus?\u00a0The first passage suggests radical social egalitarianism. The second passage does the exact opposite, repeating itself for emphasis.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/12\/the-church-v-the-churches-in-early-christianity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""The Church" v. "The Churches" in Early Christianity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is there no distinction, and all are one in Jesus, or are women to be subject to their husbands\u00a0as they are to Jesus?\u00a0The first passage suggests radical social egalitarianism. The second passage does the exact opposite, repeating itself for emphasis.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/12\/the-church-v-the-churches-in-early-christianity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-12-12T09:00:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-12-11T18:42:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2019\/12\/chapel-19316_1920.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/12\/the-church-v-the-churches-in-early-christianity.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/12\/the-church-v-the-churches-in-early-christianity.html\",\"name\":\"\\\"The Church\\\" v. \\\"The Churches\\\" in Early Christianity\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-12T09:00:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-12-11T18:42:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"Is there no distinction, and all are one in Jesus, or are women to be subject to their husbands\u00a0as they are to Jesus?\u00a0The first passage suggests radical social egalitarianism. The second passage does the exact opposite, repeating itself for emphasis.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/12\/the-church-v-the-churches-in-early-christianity.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/12\/the-church-v-the-churches-in-early-christianity.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/12\/the-church-v-the-churches-in-early-christianity.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"“The Church” v. “The Churches” in Early Christianity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \\\"purity culture,\\\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"The Church\" v. \"The Churches\" in Early Christianity","description":"Is there no distinction, and all are one in Jesus, or are women to be subject to their husbands\u00a0as they are to Jesus?\u00a0The first passage suggests radical social egalitarianism. The second passage does the exact opposite, repeating itself for emphasis.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/12\/the-church-v-the-churches-in-early-christianity.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"The Church\" v. \"The Churches\" in Early Christianity","og_description":"Is there no distinction, and all are one in Jesus, or are women to be subject to their husbands\u00a0as they are to Jesus?\u00a0The first passage suggests radical social egalitarianism. The second passage does the exact opposite, repeating itself for emphasis.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/12\/the-church-v-the-churches-in-early-christianity.html","og_site_name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","article_published_time":"2019-12-12T09:00:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-12-11T18:42:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2019\/12\/chapel-19316_1920.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Libby Anne","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Libby Anne","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/12\/the-church-v-the-churches-in-early-christianity.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/12\/the-church-v-the-churches-in-early-christianity.html","name":"\"The Church\" v. \"The Churches\" in Early Christianity","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-12-12T09:00:36+00:00","dateModified":"2019-12-11T18:42:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2"},"description":"Is there no distinction, and all are one in Jesus, or are women to be subject to their husbands\u00a0as they are to Jesus?\u00a0The first passage suggests radical social egalitarianism. The second passage does the exact opposite, repeating itself for emphasis.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/12\/the-church-v-the-churches-in-early-christianity.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/12\/the-church-v-the-churches-in-early-christianity.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/12\/the-church-v-the-churches-in-early-christianity.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“The Church” v. “The Churches” in Early Christianity"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/","name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2","name":"Libby Anne","description":"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \"purity culture,\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.","sameAs":["http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/845"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}