Why Did the Pure Bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11.2) Become a Wedded Wife (Eph. 5.22-33)? Theses About the Intertextual Transformation of an Ecclesiological Metaphor

Abstract

To lead a Christian married life requires subordination on the wife's part and love on the man's part-the demand made in Eph. 5.22-33 agrees with Col. 3.18-I 9 in terms of substance, but Ephesians goes beyond its model in providing a deeper justification, one based on a christological-ecclesiological speculation in which a key role is played by the double metaphor applied to the church: as 'wife', it is at the same time the 'body' of Christ.' I believe that the pragmatic intentions behind the introduction of this complex metaphorical language have not yet been sufficiently clarified. There has been a great deal of discussion of the function of this metaphorical cluster in relation to the central 1.Considerations of space make it impossible to discuss many exegetical problems of Eph. 5.(21)22-33 in this article. Cf. H. Schlier, Der Brief an die Downloaded from 132 paraenetic goal of motivating women and men to lead a married life worthy of the Christian vocation, and two antithetical positions are found among scholars. On the one hand, feminist analyses lay particular emphasis on the intention to provide a religious legitimation of patriarchal structures by portraying the relationship between the sexes in christological-ecclesiological terms: in keeping with the philosophical tradition of oikoiioitiia, the author intends to inspire in both women and men a conduct that is conscious of hierarchy, so that women are submissive while men are 'lovingly' dominant.-' On the other side are broadly unconvincing analyses which infer from the demand for mutual subordination at Eph. 5.21, and from the centrality of the topic of love at 5.22-33, that the author's intention is to break open hierarchical structures (an intention subsequently lost to sight in the history of the reception of the text) .3 It would be worth investigating the extent to which the introduction of the new metaphorical cluster of woman/body intensified the apologetic function of the Ephesian household code. Such an investigation could clarify how these metaphors were intended to allay political suspicions by demonstrating that the Christian understanding of marriage was in conformity with that of the milieu in which Christians lived.' In this essay, I shall concentrate on the question 2. Zimmermann, Geschlechtermetaphorik. 4. Thus, the pattern of argument—deducing the necessity of human hierarchies from a hierarchically constructed metaphor of the body (vv. 23—24)—is in accord with the mentality of those in ruling positions, as is shown by Menenius Agrippa's image of the state as body (Livy, Ab urbe condita 2.32-33). (On the selflegitimation of patriarchy as a harmonious organism in the ideology of the state, cf. L. Schottroff, Lydias ungeduldige Schwestern [Gütersloh: Kaiser Verlag, 1994], pp. 54-56.) The affirmation that the man is the head and the woman the body (vv. 23a, 28-29) is akin to philosophical reflection on the relationship between the sexes (cf.,

Gen(de)red power: Die Macht des Genres im Streit um die Frauenrolle in Pastoralbriefen und Paulusakten

“…), die die Untersuchung von gen(de)red memories anmahnen. Der Sache nach habe ich mich mit dem Einfluss von Genres auf die Geschlechterfrage im Rahmen der Exegese schon länger beschäftigt, vergleiche schon Merz (2000Merz ( , 2004Merz ( , 2006a. Leben und kennen in der Person der Thekla eine weibliche Apostolin, die zum Lehren des Wortes Gottes ausgesandt wird, sowie weibliche Propheten, die eine wichtige Rolle im Gemeindeleben spielen.…”

“…Über den Beitrag des Paulus zur Diskussion über die Rollen von Frauen und Männern in den Gemeinden ist in den vergangenen Decennia viel geschrieben worden, das hier nicht detailliert gewürdigt werden kann (vergleiche Kraemer & D'Angelo 1999;Schüssler Fiorenza 1994) Merz (2004Merz ( , 2006aMerz ( , 2007b, für den Epheserbrief Merz (2000), für den Kolosserbrief Frank ( 2009), für 2 Petrusbrief Ruf (2011).…”