New Testament household code
Some argue that The Codes were developed to urge the new first century Christians to comply with the non-negotiable requirements of Roman Patria Potestas law, and to meet the needs for order within the fledgling churches.
[1]: p.52 At the time the apostles were writing their letters concerning the Household Codes (Haustafeln), Roman law vested enormous power (Patria Potestas, lit.
In a Tübingen dissertation, James E. Crouch[2] identifies Colossians 3:18–4:1 as the earliest traceable form of the Christian Household Code, with further developments being found in Ephesians, the pastorals, and 1 Peter (as well as in early patristic literature: 1 Clement, Polycarp, Didache, and Barnabas).
Stagg writes: Various theologians have assorted opinions as to why the apostles wrote the Codes in the first place, and then why they were directed to a variety of recipients in several New Testament passages.
Though the suggested intents have some common threads, the following are what appear to be the predominant theories of the original intent of the Household Codes of Paul and Peter: Margaret MacDonald argues that the Haustafel, particularly as it appears in Ephesians, was aimed at “reducing the tension between community members and outsiders.”[12] The early Christian Church, from its inception until the persecution under Nero in 64 AD, was tolerated by the Roman authorities who regarded it as merely another Jewish sect.
This majority view is that Paul was attempting to shield the new Christian movement from the suspicion that it might undermine contemporary social structures and ultimately threaten the stability of the Roman empire.
Balch concludes that both Philo and Josephus used similar strategies when facing accusations that Jewish proselytism was ruining the social fabric of Roman society.
Others, however, suggest that the New Testament Household Codes are significantly different from their predecessors, in that they "do not give absolute power to the men, but instead require a high degree of responsibility and mutual respect for all members of Christian families.
Labeling it as libertinism, Stagg envisions a scenario in which for some of Paul's hearers, particularly women and slaves, being freed from "The Law" was an invitation to reject all restraint.
[11] Similarly, Crouch concludes that the Household Code was developed to counteract the threat of a form of "enthusiasm", such as that which appeared within some of the new Christian churches, that was threatening to undermine the basic structures of first century society.
Called to be "God’s great missionary to the Gentiles",[25] Paul also can claim what Bilezikian has termed "an inaugural statement" in the New Testament: There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.Because of Paul's exhortations throughout Galatians about freedom "in Christ", Galatians has been called “the Magna Carta of the Reformation” and Luther’s “Katie von Bora.” It is the book on which the Protestant Reformation was founded.
He points to a seeming irony that the Code in the New Testament is associated with the apostle who fought so openly and suffered such personal sacrifice for both freedom and equity for Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female.
Citing the complexities with which Paul had to deal after his historic proclamation in Galatians 3:28, Stagg concludes that the New Testament Household Code was not a simple situation in which one man "single-handedly imposed male chauvinism on Gentile churches."
Pointing out that freedom is ever at the risk of its abuse in terms of permissiveness, disorder, anarchy, or chaos, "the twin threats of legalism and libertinism are ancient and recurrent".
Stagg: p.188 notes that various New Testament books reflect "this ongoing struggle for a proper relationship between law and grace, gift and demand, freedom and responsibility".
Michael Parsons takes the stance that the apostles' goal in developing the Christian Codes was to humanize relationships which, in the society of their own day, had become "battlefields of contempt and antagonism."
Many believe that in the 2 Corinthians passage, the apostle Paul is speaking to situations of, at a minimum, potential disorder in the churches—to include the breaking of all social order.
[20] Timothy Gombis argues that in the Letter to the Ephesians, Paul of Tarsus was laying out "a manifesto for the New Humanity, painting in broad strokes a vision for how believers ought to conduct themselves in new creation communities".
He believes the status quo in at least the Ephesians' world was patterned after the character of what he calls the "Old Humanity"—"selfish and self-destructive behavior" that was oriented according to that of its rulers.
Gombis writes: He finally concludes that Paul is not simply being socially conservative by maintaining a place for hierarchicalism, nor is he merely trying to shield early Christian communities from imperial pressure.
