Friday, April 8, 2011

Made of the Same Stuff

The Greeks were one of the most misogynic cultures known back in the day. The philosophers taught that men and women were not even made from the same substance.

The Jewish culture knew better because they had the creation story. But the Greeks? They had Pandora and taught that men were made of higher material and women were made of lower substance.

This is one reason Paul's letter to the Ephesians is so important yet it's significance is so lost on us. While modern day teachers try to force hierarchy on Ephesians 5, the concept of men and women being made of the same stuff and are even from the same body is completely overlooked.

The Head and the Body are part of the same thing. They aren't made of different things nor were they made in different places, like Eldredge says. The head wasn't made outside the garden while the body was made inside.

So Ephesians 5 is more evidence of the closeness and connectedness of the male and female in God's creation. And it is the New Testament foundation that defies John Eldredge's claim that men and women are polar opposites and originated in different places. They aren't. They are different expressions of the same creation.

Now, hopefully, in a future post, I'll be able to deconstruct Wild at Heart's claim verses cultural conditioning. And I don't mean male/female conditioning. I mean wild/tame conditioning.

These conditionings are forces to be reckoned with, but they absolutely, positivily are NOT biblical foundations.

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