Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 174:693 (Jan 2017)
Article: Weaker Vessels And Calling Husbands “Lord”: Was Peter Insulting Wives?
Author: Sandra L. Glahn

---

BSac 174:693 (January-March 2017) p. 60

Weaker Vessels And Calling Husbands “Lord”:
Was Peter Insulting Wives?

Sandra L. Glahn

Sandra L. Glahn is associate professor of Media Arts and Worship, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas.

Abstract

After telling wives to be subject to their husbands (1 Pet. 3:3) and to have gentle, quiet spirits (v. 4), Peter added an example: “Sarah who obeyed Abraham, calling him lord” (v. 6). When speaking to husbands, he referred to wives as “weaker vessels” (v. 7). For many, these statements mark this apostle as a misogynist.

“Weaker Vessels and Calling Husbands ‘Lord’: Was Peter Insulting Wives?” explores the cultural setting in which Peter offered counsel as well as textual details that provide clues to his meaning. The result is a picture of partnership in which both husbands and wives honor one another in ways that are countercultural. This leads to the conclusion that Peter held a high view of women and marriage, but he was applying it to people with limited social power in a patriarchal culture in which they were suffering.

The less social power a person has, the greater the chance that he or she will suffer.1 And having little social power as a dispersed and despised minority group,2 the recipients of Peter’s first epistle were suffering. So he wrote to tell them how to leverage their difficulties in a way that, rather than hindering their witness, would further the gospel. Indeed, Peter’s instructions

BSac 174:693 (January-March 2017) p. 61

provided a how-to manual for enduring injustice in a way that his readers’ difficulty would make the gospel more appealing.3

Adopting The Household Codes

For his structure Peter used the household codes4 of his day to establish a framework for the church’s credibility within its cultural context.5 These codes were designed to facilitate relations within a household with an eye to the outside world.6 Peter borrowed the codes and infused them with new meaning.

Innovating With Existing Forms

In borrowing and repurposing, Peter created a distinctively Christian innovation in the household codes ...

visitor : : uid: ()