Ehe als Sanatorium Plutarchs

Abstract

Th is study examines the relevance of Plutarch's Conjugal Precepts for the interpretation of the Pastoral Epistles' view on marriage with special regard to 1 Tim 2:9-15. By comparing the two texts the author concludes that not only do they share a conservative marriageethos, which can be detected in their approval of female subordination, but they more importantly share the belief that marriage acts as a kind of sanatorium within which the wife is made free from her so-called vitium feminae. According to Plutarch, marriage helps women to be freed from a lack of logos that supposedly characterizes their nature. In the Pastoral Epistles the healing function of marriage is directed toward the Satanic deception that every woman supposedly suff ers from as a result of Eve's transgression. Th rough marriage the vitium feminae is transformed into the salus uxoris.