Abuse Of Household Codes In The Bible

Reading the Aristotle's work On a Good Wife from Oikonomikos that was written in c. 330 BCE, one may see the reflection of the leading ideas, opinions, and rules in the Ancient Greek society. This work concentrates its attention on the guidelines for the young wives and husbands, their chords, values, and relationships. Reading through a long list of the requirements the wife should meet in order to acquire the respect and understanding of the husband, it becomes clear that the wives were expected to accomplish all the monotonous routine work and keep away from complaints. The author puts a strong emphasis on the importance of the reciprocity of the appropriate treatment in order to make the patriarchal way of life seem more democratic and

In Classical Greece, roles played by males and females in society were well-defined as well as very distinct from each other. Expectations to uphold these societal norms were strong, as a breakdown within the system could destroy the success of the oikos (the household) and the male’s reputation—two of the most important facets of Athenian life. The key to a thriving oikos and an unblemished reputation was a good wife who would efficiently and profitably run the household. It was the male’s role, however, to ensure excellent household management by molding a young woman into a good wife. Women were expected to enter the marriage as a symbolically empty vessel; in other words, a

The home is central to Judaism as it is the setting in which a husband

Life in the medieval household was also greatly influenced by the Catholic Church and the teachings it wanted to impose upon all of its faithful. Beyond simply being a central beacon of belief and trust, Catholicism presented many values that corresponded directly to the daily lives and structure of their followers. The Church had strict policies on monogamy throughout all of medieval Europe, regardless of class or stature. It was the belief of the church that there needed to be strict guidelines in a marriage. In requiring the relationship between solely two people, order became apparent in not only a single marriage, but in medieval society as a whole. Villages of the manor thrived on the given arrangement of conservative wedlock. This common rule of the Church formed an important structure that helped to guide the uniformity of medieval households.

The safe guarding tendency that I choose was aggression. According to the authors of Theories of Personality, J. Feist, G.J. Feist, and Roberts (2013) says, “Safeguarding through aggression may take the form of depreciation, accusation, or self-accusation” (pg. 86). Out of the three deprecation stood out to me the most. Comparing a tendency in the Bible, the story of Joseph and his brother’s behavior towards him was a sign of aggression. They did not appreciate the love that their father showed Joseph. They hated Joseph and they hated the attention that their father gave to him. The dreams Joseph had and interpreted his brothers did not appreciate them. They had to do whatever it took to get rid of Joseph. Joseph brothers were jealous and

The sphere dealing with the home can be taxing at times. The relationship here is much easier when everyone in the home are Christians. However, if dad is a Christian and mom is not, or vice versa, or perhaps a child or children surrender their lives to the calling of Jesus, and mom and dad have not, family relationships and harmony in the home can become much more difficult. Paul writes about how the relationships in the home should be. He talks about how each person should deal with the other. The book of Genesis tells us the story of Noah and how he was a successful father and husband. He was able to reach his entire family for God. It was his family that was saved

The governing legal, moral and religious codes of ancient civilizations were written and enforced by a minority that exercised power and authority over the majority. This minority consisted of priests, rulers and elites with established power and influence in society. In these codes of early civilizations, there was an overarching emphasis on maintenance of structure and order in society. Simply put, while these codes reflect the conditions, needs and values of the times in which they were formulated, they also unveil the authors’ agendas to preserve their power by maintaining the status quo. Therefore, these codes acknowledge and uphold the prevailing social, gender and racial inequalities as natural conditions of human existence and reveal the manifold biases present in early civilizations.

The Bible is divided into two sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. This paper mainly focuses on the Old Testament. The Old Testament has 39 books in total which is also subdivided into four categories namely; Pentateuch books (5 books), the historical books (12 books), the poetic books (5 books) and the prophetic books (17 books). The Old Testament books were written back in 1400 B.C. The Pentateuch books were written by Moses during his time in Canaan, while the other 34 books were also written by different authors at different stated time. The aim of this paper is therefore, to analyze the authorship, dating, content, outline, themes, and unique features of one book of the Old Testament, and the book chosen is the book of Leviticus.

Even being in a house with members of the opposite sex would insinuate that sexual wickedness was occurring. There was little room for error. To be different or to disrupt the herd was to be “a disturber of the peace” and said to be “Invading the rights & priviledges of the church contrary to Law”. Even though the punishments were harsh the people were put back into the community and expected to return to the behaviors the church had ordained for all

When referring to related texts, Cahill sticks closer to tradition, noting that many parts of the Bible emphasize heterosexual marriage and the family as the norm (67). However, her analysis of general biblical themes cites loving relationships and Jesus Christ’s model of forgiveness and acceptance as the authoritative themes across the Scriptures (68). The contradictions between the three areas of Scripture lead her to question whether Scripture is the ultimate authority for Christian ethics. This departure from Roman Catholic traditional teaching indicates her preference for the inclusion of other authorities in Christian ethical debates.

Despite the relative progressivity of the colonies towards women in comparison to England at the time, laws, religion, and social customs worked in conjunction with one another to maintain separate spheres of work for men and women. The doctrine of coverture, which stated at a woman’s legal identity was to be subsumed by her husband once married, reinforced the prevalence of patriarchal authority and tradition, and it was unquestionably accepted that a woman’s destiny was to be married. Although the domestic sphere and household issues were traditionally considered to be women’s work, the eldest male, following the tradition of patriarchy, managed financial household concerns, supervising and assigning tasks as well as distributing the subsequent awards to the family. This essentially meant that all transactions were dictated by the male figurehead, since the household became the primary unit of consumption and production, and individual family members did not have exclusive control over their wages and labor (Main).

When dealing with a situation in love, sometimes there is pain before the situation is resolved or restored. With a family we sometimes call this “tough love.” When a child is sinning, the parent works with that child to bring him into submission. Often the child does not want to repent. Instead, he continues in his sin, unwilling to turn away from it or “repent.” As a parent, we have the option of confronting the situation or ignoring it. The parent would be in a situation similar to the one we see Paul in. If the child refuses to repent, the parent must choose how to deal with the child lovingly. Paul, being totally surrendered to the Lord, was led by the Holy Spirit to write a letter to the Corinthians. The pain that he personally felt of not knowing how the Corinthians would respond and what they would do was outweighed by what he knew was best for the church.

Society’s influence of male domination over women's bodies, minds and economy force women to adhere to a male view. Women during this time period were directed to become exceptional housewives and mothers instead of reaching for specific careers or financial independency. Instead, society encouraged women into becoming domestic, obedient housewives who were discouraged to go against their husbands, brothers or any male. Women were to obey men and their requests, or suffer the consequences of isolation or ostracized by other

The prominent glaring topic that has to be dealt with is the teaching that wives should submit to their husbands. Many husbands today have taken this teaching too literally and have caused heartache in their marital relationships by demanding that the wives do everything that they say. The one thing that is left out in this way of thinking is that husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church. Christ loved the church so much that he sacrificed himself for her. The husband should do the same thing. As Manfred T. Brauch has pointed out, “Paul is actually saying that when a wife who is a Christian submits herself to Christ and lets Him be the Lord of her life she will have no problem

Households (or families) are one of the key elements of society for both Aristotle and Plato. Family is the first form in society of association between men as it answers man’s natural needs, and instincts. As Aristotle explains, the coupling “which necessity gives rise [to] is that between those who are unable to exist without one another,” in other words man is a being that is, by nature, social and political. Association is a natural phenomenon, which declines in interdependent forms such as the family, the village, and finally the city. However, it would be an error to assume that each form is not fundamentally different from one another. In Politics, Aristotle criticizes Plato’s assumption that a city must strive to be a unit, because “beyond a certain point, city will be reduced to family and family to individual.” [Book II, 1261a] Indeed, if a city state were to strive towards unity it would resemble a household, since he holds the household to be of higher degree in unity, but by assumption, a city state is different that a household.