Texts in Conversation
1 Peter echoes the Greek household codes from Aristotle, incorporating the practice to encourage Christians to live so that outsiders cannot accuse the new Jesus movement of disorder.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics 8:30
Classical
These things are ascribed to ancestors as well. Further, by nature a father tends to rule over his sons, ancestors over descendants, a king over his subjects. These friendships imply superiority of one party over the other, which is why ancestors are honoured. The justice therefore that exists between persons so related is not the same on both sides but is in every case proportioned to merit; for that is true of the friendship as well. The friendship of man and wife, again, is the same that is found in an aristocracy; for it is in accordance with virtue the better gets more of what is good, and each gets what befits him; and so, too, with the justice in these relations. The friendship of brothers is like that of comrades; for they are equal and of like age, and such persons are for the most part like in their feelings and their character. Like this, too, is the friendship appropriate to timocratic government; for in such a constitution the ideal is for the citizens to be equal and fair; therefore rule is taken in turn, and on equal terms; and the friendship appropriate here will correspond. But in the deviation-forms, as justice hardly exists, so too does friendship. It exists least in the worst form; in tyranny there is little or no friendship. For where there is nothing common to ruler and ruled, there is not friendship either, since there is not justice; e.g. between craftsman and tool, soul and body, master and slave; the latter in each case is benefited by that which uses it, but there is no friendship nor justice towards lifeless things. But neither is there friendship towards a horse or an ox, nor to a slave qua slave. For there is nothing common to the two parties; the slave is a living tool and the tool a lifeless slave. Qua slave then, one cannot be friends with him. But qua man one can; for there seems to be some justice between any man and any other who can share in a system of law or be a party to an agreement; therefore there can also be friendship with him in so far as he is a man. Therefore while in tyrannies friendship and justice hardly exist, in democracies they exist more fully; for where the citizens are equal they have much in common.
Date: 350-325 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
1 Peter 3:1
New Testament
1 In the same way, wives, be subject to your own husbands. Then, even if some are disobedient to the word, they will be won over without a word by the way you live, 2 when they see your pure and reverent conduct. 3 Let your beauty not be external—the braiding of hair and wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes— 4 but the inner person of the heart, the lasting beauty of a gentle and tranquil spirit, which is precious in God’s sight. 5 For in the same way the holy women who hoped in God long ago adorned themselves by being subject to their husbands, 6 like Sarah who obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You become her children when you do what is good and have no fear in doing so. 7 Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as the weaker partners and show them honor as fellow heirs of the grace of life. In this way nothing will hinder your prayers.
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Notes and References
... The book Let Wives be Submissive makes a twofold case for a similar apologetic function of the household code in 1 Peter: the Romans' previous experience with foreign cults led them to expect sedition and insubordination, and second, several New Testament codes are explicitly apologetic. ... The texts of several New Testament codes exhibit this apologetic function. Immediately following the household code in 1 Peter, the author exhorts the readers: 'always be prepared to make a defense (apologia) to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you' (1 Peter 3:15b). These Christians know that others in Greco-Roman society are 'speaking against you as wrongdoers' (1 Peter 2:12b). By being subject to the emperor and his governors, they hope 'to silence the ignorance of foolish persons,' to stop the slanders of their behavior. ... The dominant Greco-Roman society exerted powerful pressure on the devotees of the foreign, Egyptian Isis, on the worshippers of the Palestinian Yahweh, and on the disciples of the crucified Christ to conform to the Roman 'constitution.' ...
Balch, David L.
"Household Codes" in Aune, David E. (ed.) Greco-Roman Literature and the New Testament: Selected Forms and Genres
(pp. 28-29) Scholars Press, 1988
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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