Ephesians, KJV

2022: From my notes from my seminary class:

Ephesians was probably written between 70-100 AD

Ephesus was a major port city (exports and imports), the center of commerce and trade
Trade was often done in family systems

Historical look at the Household Codes:
What are the Greco-Roman Household Codes? They read like a literary formula regarding common philosophy in the Greco-Roman world containing instructions for what a household should look like. To talk about this common theme scholars decided to call “Household Codes.” The household was a kind of microcosm for the whole society.

What do we do with these difficult texts?
How do we handle/deal with oppressive texts that hold up systems of oppression?

This chapter in Ephesians begins with a call to mutual submission.
Ephesians includes it (Colossians doesn't) but it also increases the authority the husbands have over what Colossians has: Col 3:18 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Eph. 5:22-24: Wives, be subject to your husbands as to the Lord, 23 for the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.

How do we negotiate with these texts?
We can engage a range of approaches:
-Historical shows us where it's coming from
-Ideological reading - where we read with a critique of systems of domination and oppression
-Rhetorical / Literary skills show us what else is in the letter and hold this in tension with other parts of the letter. (In Ephesians, this problematic part conflicts with Eph ch 2 talking about the new life we have in Christ.)
-Canonical Criticism - read with the perspective of the larger Canon of NT or NT and OT and set this in conversation with that larger picture.

As interpreters, we get to decide (and we do decide) what is emphasized and what is not.
We decide what is the Gospel and what is not.

What from this text is an expression of God's good news, God's inbreaking kingdom, and what is being coopted from the ancient context?

The fact that the household codes are being stated here, stating the obvious, means there were people in the community who weren't doing that. It's an argument from silence.

How do we hold these multiple voices in tension with each other?