Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 10:2 (Spring 1996)
Article: Family Ties: A Contrast Between The First Christian Families And The Roman Family Environment.
Author: Marc Zeisloft

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PP 10:2 (Spring 1996) p. 9

Family Ties: A Contrast
Between The First Christian Families
And The Roman Family Environment.

Marc Zeisloft

Marc Zeisloft is currently a student at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

The 1990’s have seen the deterioration of the traditional American family, and the rise of the blended or patchwork family. The normal father, mother, and two children model has become mother, step-dad, brother, step-sister, and sister, etc. Included in the term patch-work family is the broken family, where neither spouses are together any longer, or the people who started the family were not married in the first place. Confronted with the breakdown of the traditional family, we as Christians wonder how to minister to people in non-traditional family structures, and we also wonder what standards we should uphold in our own families.

The problem is not a new one. Although the circumstances were different, much the same questions about family arose in the early church. The Roman family was a very important part of the Roman empire, so much so that legislation was passed to keep more marriages together.1 The family or household was a key building block for the Empire socially, economically, and politically: “...the household represented the ultimate constituent of the political community.”2 The Roman family was a direct descendent of the Greek family, sharing similar philosophy and practices. However, both had as much dysfunction as does today’s American family.

From the writers of the New Testament and other Christian writers, we see how the Christians adapted to this Greco-Roman family environment. Christianity held a higher standard for the family, one that created a more favorable environment for all members. Both broken families and stable families were now part of a larger family, the family called the church.

Greek And Roman Views Of Family

The Romans’ sense of family flowed from their Greek predecessors, making the Greek and Roman families quite similar. Writing in the first century B.C., the Roman writer Cicero said this about the family: “It is a great thing to share the monuments of common Ancestors, to participate in the same religious rituals and to use the same tombs.” (On Duties, 55).3

The philosophers of Greece and Rome painted a picture of the family throughout their writings. First of all, the Greek view of women was very low, almost putting women on an animal level. Romans were not quite as harsh, but they still held to male superiority, a view that transferred into marriage relationships. The wife was subordina...

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