What has gone so terribly wrong in Ephesus that Paul feels compelled to write the longest marriage code in the New Testament? 1 Peter only has seven verses about marriage. Colossians only has two. Titus only has two. Why does Ephesians have thirteen? Did Paul wish to set in stone the nature of gender relationships for all of time? Was he trying to ensure the survival of the emerging church amidst harsh Hellenistic realities of hierarchic marriage? Or did he have something else in mind? This is a book about the Ephesians 5 marriage code, the goddess Artemis, Eve, and the image of God in the believer. It explores the adverse influence of Artemis upon the Ephesian believers' thought world, why Paul raises up Eve and Adam as the example of loving marriage (5:31), what Paul thought the image of God looked like in the believer, and why some Ephesian believers thought differently. Dr Brennan argues that the primary purpose behind Ephesians 5:21-33 was to evangelize non-believing Ephesian onlookers to an ideal of marriage in Christ's new kingdom that far surpassed their personal experience in the first-century Roman world, and that Artemis was getting in the way.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1997. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived

A Guide to Navigate Evangelical Feminism In a society where gender roles are a hot-button topic, the church is not immune to the controversy. In fact, the church has wrestled with varying degrees of evangelical feminism for decades. As evangelical feminism has crept into the church, time-trusted resources like Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood help remind Christians of what the Bible has to say. In this edition of the award-winning best seller, more than 20 influential men and women such as John Piper, Wayne Grudem, D. A. Carson, and Elisabeth Elliot offer thought-provoking essays responding to the challenge egalitarianism poses to life in the church and in the home. Covering topics like role distinctions in the church, how biblical manhood and womanhood should work out in practice, and women in the history of the church, this helpful resource will help readers learn to orient their beliefs with God's unchanging word in an ever-changing culture.

From the FOREWORD. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is the Biblical story of Mankind's oldest couple. According to Church doctrine, they are recognized as the progenitors of the human species. Beginning several centuries ago, a proposed narrative inspired artists in their painted pictures and molded sculptures. My book analyses more than a dozen artists' interpretations. In the past, painters and sculptors were chosen by Papal patronage for their proficiency at depicting religious subject matter, whether their muse came from the Bible or other works of art. But, from a secular viewpoint, in our modern time artists were free to explore more dimensions to this biblical parable. The reader will notice that the artistic interpretation of this story varies over the centuries but the central personalities remain. Included in this work we will also see some scandalous characters such as Lucifer who was guilty of pride, envy, and prejudice. Lucifer may be pinpointed as the villain who ruined God's most prominent creations, Adam and Eve. Another name for the scoundrel is Satan, who engineered their downfall by catering to their most lascivious vice: human vanity. Religious doctrine views vanity as a manifestation of self-worship. Compare one-self to the significance of God: ones image becomes differentiated and in time, separated from the Divine elegance. Christian teachings define vanity as having too much pride in oneself and henceforth why pride is described as one of the seven deadly sins. Adam and Eve's pride came from their desire to be more god-like by ingesting the Forbidden Fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Their conspiracy with Satan (Lucifer) initiated "Original Sin", a curse that all men would inherit until the birth and baptism of the Holy Savior, Jesus Christ. The transgression of Satan confirmed his metamorphosis into the Devil. Rebellion to God results from his jealousy of man. Lucifer loathed God's decree that the majority of the heavenly angels ought to love the picture of God in the recently made Adam. Deconstructing Adam and Eve The Fall of Man narrative underlies the rationale for the existence of the Church because only through the baptism ritual can man be free of Original Sin and gain entrance to Heaven as interpreted in the Christian faith. This is the theme of the book you are about to read.

A Coherent Pauline Theology of Gender Respected New Testament scholar Cynthia Long Westfall offers a coherent Pauline theology of gender, which includes fresh perspectives on the most controverted texts. Westfall interprets passages on women and men together and places those passages in the context of the Pauline corpus as a whole. She offers viable alternatives for some notorious interpretive problems in certain Pauline passages, reframing gender issues in a way that stimulates thinking, promotes discussion, and moves the conversation forward. As Westfall explores the significance of Paul's teaching on both genders, she seeks to support and equip males and females to serve in their area of gifting.

Do women and men have different intellectual, spiritual, moral, or emotional capacities? Over the centuries, women have read and interpreted the story of Eve, scrutinizing the details of the text to discern God's word for them. Biblical scholar Amanda Benckhuysen traces the history of women's interpretation of Genesis 1-3, allowing the voices of women to speak of Eve's story and its implications for life today.