Galatians 3:28 and Feminism

November 3, 2007 at 11:14 am (NT-Galatians, Women)

Galatians 3:28 reads as follows (ESV):

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

The Greek reads as follows:

οὐκ ἔνι Ἰουδαῖος οὐδὲ Ελλην, οὐκ ἔνι δοῦλος οὐδὲ ἐλεύθερος, οὐκ ἔνι ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ: πάντες γὰρ ὑμεῖς εἷς ἐστε ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.

Egalitarians point to this verse constantly as a foundational principle for how the Bible treats male/female relations. This trumps Ephesians 5, 1 Timothy 2, 1 Corinthians 11, etc. However, this interpretation of Galatians 3:28 as erasing role distinctions between men and women is completely unwarranted, since this reading of the verse has been completely divorced from its context. Galatians 3 is about many things. Among those things are the question of sanctification (verse 3), justification by faith alone (verses 10-14), covenant theology (verses 15-22), and our position in regard to the law and in regard to faith. Verse 26 is crucial to our understanding of verse 28. Only sons inherited estates in the days in which Paul was writing. Certainly, we can say that Paul was thus dignifying women in an amazing way by saying that “you are all sons.” In other words, all Christians inherit. This happens by faith (verse 26). But as is completely clear, the idea here is all about our standing before God with regard to our sin, and what Jesus Christ has accomplished. It has nothing to do with proper roles for husbands and wives, or men in general and women in general. In other words, if Paul’s context had been one of delineating the roles of men and women in the church and in the home, egalitarians would have a fair argument. However, that is plainly not the case here. Everything has to do with our standing before God. Therefore, this passage cannot be used to “trump” the other passages, where the context clearly is the role of men and women in the church and in the home (see the three passages cited above).