Question about New Testament (with OT)

[Beth]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "bluesqueak" <pipdowns at e...>
wrote:
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Kathryn Cawte" 
> <kcawte at b...> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Of course according to St Paul sex wasn't really something he 
> > approved ofanyway. 

<snip>
>
bluesqueak: 
> Yeah, that one always gets quoted [grin]. Usually people (like the 
> makers of your documentary) miss out the one vital little 
> phrase: 'Because of the present crisis...' [1 Corinthians Chapter 7 
> v. 26, New International translation. RSV has 'impending distress']
> 
> *What* the present crisis was, we have no way of knowing. Theories 
> have included the idea that Paul expected the Second Coming any 
> moment now. Alternatively, there is some evidence that there may 
> have been food shortages in Corinth [which would also explain why 
> the question of whether you could eat food that may have been 
> sacrificed to idols was also dealt with in that letter. ]. Or it may 
> have been a political crisis(this was not a fun period for the Roman 
> Empire). 
> 
> But the implication is not that marriage was a bad thing full stop 
> [period], but that marriage was a bad thing *at the present time*.
> 
> Pip!Squeak

Our church library has a book, _What Paul /Really/ Said About Women_ 
by John Temple Bristow, that I keep recommending to people ;o) The
copy I see on B&N right now (Amazon appears to be down...) is an
updated version, but what I remember from the 1988 version was that
his premise was much of what Paul wrote was completely misinterpreted,
including that verse referenced in a post earlier about women being
quiet in church. For example, that whole submit thing? IIRC, Bristow
says that Paul deliberately chose a word for head (of a family)to mean
something like the point man that goes out into battle, /not/ the head
of the body or the head like a general (Although I do love that Man is
head, Woman is neck scene in "My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding!"), and that
the word translated as submit should more correctly be support. But
since I just read about a member who studied Ancient Greek, maybe I'd
better stop and hope someone else clarifies... 

Beth