From: Paul S. Dixon (dixonps@juno.com)
Date: Wed Feb 24 1999 - 11:50:49 EST
On Wed, 24 Feb 1999 10:45:47 -0500 "Kevin W. Woodruff"
<cierpke@utc.campuscw.net> writes:
>Another question. Does it mean that an "episcopos" MUST be married?
>I've been given this as the reason why being a bachelor, I cannot pastor
>(even though I've served as an associate pastor).
The EPISKOPHS has a moral obigation (DEI) to be above reproach.
This appears to be expanded upon in 2b-7, including the assumption
that he is the husband of one wife and the assumption that he
has proven himself by the raising of children EN hUPOTAGHi
META PASHS SEMNOTHTOS(v. 4), the rationale being that if he
does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care
for the church of God? (v. 5). It appears that a good marriage
and family are the proving grounds for the episcopate.
But, back to the initial question regarding MIAS GUNAIKOS
ANDRA. The parallel construction in 5:9 hENOS ANDROS GUNH
seems to suggest the meaning in 3:2 is husband of one wife
for life. This is not to say remarriage is unlawful or forbidden,
if the first wife dies. It is not. But, this does not imply that in
this list of qualifications for eldership that we should interpret
the meaning as being nor more than for all Christians in
general. Not all Christians are qualified to be elders. And, if
they are not, then it would not follow that what is acceptable
for Christians in general would be acceptable for the leadership.
At this point, we could introduce a truly volatile issue. What
about a woman? Could she meet the qualitifications here?
It would seem she could, only if she were MIAS GUNAIKOS
ANDRA, among other things.
Paul Dixon
___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
--- B-Greek home page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu] To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-329W@franklin.oit.unc.edu To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:40:18 EDT