House Church Talk - There can not be male and female5

SameSpecies samespecies at charter.net
Tue May 4 18:35:43 EDT 2004


Another two cents on the woman issue.

1 Corinthians 1:11  "For it has been made clear to me concerning you, my
brothers, by those of the household of Chloe, that there are strives among
you."

Note:  By the italics we can see that the words "of the household of" are
not in the Greek.  They are not inferred in either by other wording.  So the
verse should read;  "For it has been made clear to me concerning you, my
brothers, by those of Chloe..."  Why would we add in words like this to a
verse in the scriptures when they add no clear meaning to the verse, other
then to place this woman in the house.  Is this addition of "the household
of" something of God, or something of the flesh nature that came out of the
dark ages?  Further the word "by" Strong's #5259 translates under, beneath,
as well as through.  If this word "by" was translated under, then it would
modify the word "those" and the translation would be "For it has been made
clear to me concerning you, my brothers, under those of Chloe".  Is it
possible that someone didn't want us to see the word as "under" Chloe, and
that's why "the household of" was added to the verse.  Now how can we prove
this.  Look at verses 1 Cor 16:15-18. In these verses we can see that Paul
praised Stephanas a minister to the saints and exhorts the Corinthian
brothers to subject themselves to Stephanas and ones like him.  Paul also
rejoiced at the coming of Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus who were
members of the Corinthian church.  These are the ones "by those of Chloe" or
"under those of Chloe", who brought the report on the Corinthian church to
Paul.  It was there "coming" from Corinth that brought the report from
Chloe.  They were now returning.  This is much more probable then to add in
the wording "of the household of" which is not in the Greek and infers that
Chloe had no position in the church.  We must also realize that these ones
who delivered this report carried it over approximately 200 miles across the
upper Mediterranean Sea from Corinth to Ephesus, were Paul was.  The
contents of Corinthians itself tells us that this was not a personnel
letter, but a report on the status of the church.  This report addressed
problems and questions to the apostle. We should also note that Paul
believed it, in verse 1:12 he goes on to say "Now I mean this, that each of
you says...".   Now also note that Chloe is mentioned in the beginning of
Paul's reply to the Corinthian report and it is apparent that she made the
report and that it was made clear by her messengers (Stephanas, Fortunatus,
Achaicus) who delivered it.  This is so easy to see if we will just stop
adding in words to the Bible and diminishing in our minds, the roles or
functions women had in the New Testament church.  If we are correct about
this?  Then this error probably came about because we rely on previous
translations when making ours.  Translations we know have many errors and
were translated in a very oppressive age for women.  Were the light of
scripture was just being brought out of that dark age.  Now, whether we can
see this about Chloe or not, it doesn't matter.  Please bare with this paper
for we have just started to look at the evidence, that will show us that
women performed all functions in the church, just as their male
counterparts.  Next, we will start looking at those verses, that appear to
diminish a woman's functioning in the church life.  Lord let us function by
The Gift, by You, mentioned in Ephesians, the Gift poured out on your
servants both male and female.  Let us not establish anything or any
practice that would fight against you.

Mike



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