Marriage and the Image of God as it is Reflected in Paul\u27s Understanding of Women and the Ministry in Four Passages: 1 Cor. 11:2-16; 14:33b-36; Eph. 5:22-33; 1 Tim. 2:11-15

This study proposes to examine the Pauline texts which bear most directly upon the subject of women and their involvement in the ministry of word and sacrament. Several evangelical feminist6writers will be engaged in the study at specific points in the interpretation. The primary goal of this paper, however, is to produce an exegesis of these four passages which identifies the basis of Paul\u27s comments and demonstrates their unity. This work is intended to answer the question: how does what Paul\u27s says about women in four passages reflect his understanding of the image of God and Christology? The contribution this paper strives to make to New Testament scholarship is three-fold. First, that Paul base his understanding of women in ministry in the identity of mankind as the image of God (Genesis 2) and the order or structure inherent in it. Second that a human being is restored to his identity in Jesus Christ as the image of God, and thereby restored to the structure of humanity revealed in Genesis 2. Thus, there is more continuity than discontinuity between the order of creation and the order of redemption. 8 Finally, Paul sees in marriage a pattern which not only represents the structure of humanity but the relationship of Christ and the church, so that the relationship between Adam and Eve in Genesis 2 becomes the model for marriage, for union with Christ as his bride, and for order within the church. As Mary Hayter has explained: Misunderstanding of biblical teaching relevant to the subject of women\u27s ordination involves a misconstruction of biblical teaching about God, priesthood, the Imago Dei, sexuality, the effects of Christ’s incarnation and redeeming work upon men and women, as well as a misconception of the nature of the Bible and its authority. It is my hope that this book will play some port in the expunction of such misconceptions. . . .7So also is the goal of this study