POWER PLAY IN THE CHURCH? THE CASE OF 1 TIMOTHY 2:8–15

Thinking in terms of ecclesiastical power as a negative force has often found a breeding ground in the Pastoral Epistles. To what extent is that justified? This article examines a passage that always comes up when the position of women in the church is discussed: 1 Timothy 2:8−15. Three aspects will be considered consecutively: power, powerlessness, and authorised power. Power says something about the underlying problem that Timothy faced: the male/female relationship in the Ephesian congregation threatened to degenerate into a power struggle. Powerlessness refers to the story of Adam and Eve mentioned in verses 13−15. The Genesis narrative recounts human weakness, which in 1 Timothy becomes a sort of triptych about Eve and creation, Eve and the fall, and Eve and redemption. Authorised power is the way in which the problematic situation in Ephesus was regulated with apostolic authority, to create space for the trustworthy Word. Paul’s instructions about the behaviour of women could nowadays easily be considered a kind of misogynistic power play. However, the apostle should be interpreted on his own terms. This is true both for his social context and for his missionary drive. KEYWORDS: power, man, woman, congregation, Pau

THE APOSTOLIC DECREE AND OUR MEAT MENU: READING ACTS 15 IN REDEMPTIVE- HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

The decision of the Jerusalem Council concerning Gentile believers - that they had to abstain, among other things, from meat with blood still in it and from sexual immorality - was officially recorded in order to be obeyed in the early Christian communities (Acts 15). It is echoed in Paul's letters, because this apostolic instruction was intended for non-Jewish believers like us. The prescription from Jerusalem was by no means incidental, it is rooted in basic principles of created life, and it was generally observed during the first centuries. Yet, most Christians today no longer feelbound bythis biblical rule and have no problem with eating blood pudding or rare steak. The purpose of this article is to explain why, in the course of time, the Apostolic Decree was considered to have become obsolete. In a church with an increasing number of Gentile Christians, the redemptive-historical necessity of the decree had ceased to exist