183
Q.
Do women need to follow the commands of 1 Peter?
patriarchal, and in that context a call for mutual surrender was a giant step
toward a more equitable way of living.
The word, “submit” means to surrender voluntarily, and 1 Peter sets up
the whole discussion in 5:5, replacing models of power and authority (chain
of command) with models of humility and leading by example. Therefore,
yes, women should submit to their husbands, and husbands should love their
wives, “just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”
(Eph. 5:25).
Rebecca Bowman Woods
A.
A few years ago, I did the Walk to Emmaus retreat. I loved the
retreat, but at one point the women in my group were talking about
books. All had read a book extolling wifely submission as both
God’s plan and a recipe for happiness. I said I didn’t believe God intended
half of humanity to submit to the other half rather than to make their own
decisions, with God’s help, on matters both holy and ordinary.
As I spoke, these women maintained gracious smiles, but I could prac-
tically see the thought balloons above their heads: “Oh dear!... an Angry
Feminist!” Later, one of them offered to pray for me.
The question behind the issue of submission is: How did God intend for
men and women to relate? Some Christians point to the second creation story
in Genesis as proof that females were created to be “helpers” to males and that
the woman’s role in the fall makes women inferior.
But Hebrew is a far more ambiguous language than English. At another
retreat, I met Heidi Bright Parales, a Southern Baptist scholar who went back
to the original Hebrew and found room for other interpretations. Genesis 2–3
can be read as indicating that men and women were created to live in mutual-
ity and harmony, rather than in a dominant/submissive relationship. Part of
humanity’s fallenness is that we replaced mutuality with something else, and
the world is worse for it.
Peter was writing to a particular group of Christians who were under
threat of persecution. He advised them to stick to established gender roles to
avoid trouble; he commanded husbands to show consideration and honor to
their wives—something the Roman Empire would not have required.
Scriptural References
Genesis 2—3; Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 5:21—6:8; Colossians 3:12–24; 1 Peter
2:24—3:22, 5:1–5