Kerryn

Hello Greg

not sure if you are still reading this thread…

regarding 1 peter 3:7 and the wife being the “asthenestero” (without strength, ‘weaker’) vessel, Sarah Sumner has some helpful thoughts in her book “Men and Women in the Church”. I haven’t got her book right in front of me know, but from memory her opinion is that the word is better understood as ‘vulnerable’. ie women were more “vulnerable” physically (and socially/ economically etc too i think). If you have access to the book it could be worth a quick read… IMO it certainly is not a statement claiming that women are weaker spiritually or emotionally than men. Life ‘everyday’ around me simply proves that this is not the case.

I think it’s wonderful how God emphasises the importance of the husband showing his wife “respect” (TEV) / “honour” (NASB) and stresses that they are co-heirs in Christ even though ‘he’ may have some advantage in some area(s) of ‘strength’ over her… his relationship with God (prayer) is absolutely effected by how he treats his wife…
what a sober warning for any husband…

(-:
kerryn