Going back to the Greek and finding honor where we’ve been taught shame.
I love words. I pay more attention to them than most people probably ever will. I wonder, pick apart, and ask, “Why that word? Why that phrase?” And when I read Scripture, I don’t stop at just the spicy words. I read everything around it, before and after, to see what’s going on.
So I got the inkling to rabbit-hole 1 Peter 3:7 because it’s full of fascinating word choices.
“You husbands, in the same way, live with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to the woman as to the weaker vessel, as also being joint heirs of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.”
This verse, specifically the “weaker vessel” part, has been used in the church to justify subjugating and stifling women countless times, and I’ve never read it the way it’s been taught.
A Common Courtesy
To fully understand the ‘weaker sex’ issue and why it’s been treated so negatively, we have to step back a verse.
“So Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord,” 1…
