1 Peter 3: 1 - 7 Analysis

Essay by me540College, UndergraduateA, January 2007

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Peter H. David received his M. Div. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Ph.D. From the University of Manchester who was writing for the Kruse Kronicle, writes about the silent witness in the family.

David draws two different conclusions from this passage. First, it is clear, he says, that 1 Peter is addressed to a largely Gentile Christian audience. Their earlier state was ignorance, and they had futile ways inherited from their ancestors. They were once not a people and had already spent enough time in doing what the Gentiles do. Second, while it is clear that the wives in 1 Peter 3:1-6 are Christians, this is not evident regarding their husbands, who appear to be a separate group from the believing husbands addressed in 1 Peter 3:7 the focus of the passage is on women living with non-Christian husbands in the area of the Greco-Roman world to which the letter is addressed.

And even if women with Christian husbands were also intended, their behavior would likewise be conditioned by the evangelistic motive of the text.

David takes the side that women are to follow their husbands as the head of their household and that woman should submit to them if they are Christians and in a Christian home. He says that Peter is speaking to women with non Christian husbands. He is sounds like he is saying that if women are not in a Christian home with a Christian husband than maybe they should try and change that. But what about the other side of this verse. Is there an opinion of this verse that says something else?

On the other side of the spectrum, Dr. Ralph F. Wilson of the Joyful Heart Renewal Ministries Bible Studies Ministries takes a side that women should...