Quote:
Originally Posted by Dumbledore
So much of modern biblical scholarship is like looking at your own reflection in a well. It is the imposition of modern ideologies on the text (snip snip) so that you get a Bible that looks like you. I prefer to just take it in it's literary and historical context and deal with the reality of the Bible as it actually is. It is good old fashioned classical Biblical scholarship.
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So there was an era prior to the modern era when people had no ideologies and they really understood the real Bible like it really is! When was that?
Sorry to lay the irony on so thick, but my point is that no interpreter, ancient or modern, is free of ideology of one sort or another. Gender ideologies may be some of the most difficult to overcome.
In a previous post you seemed to suggest that only modern people could imagine the blending of genders, or imagine overcoming gender divisions. I don't believe that is so. I believe Paul did understand that "in Christ" gender divisions would cease to matter anymore (and at the same time Paul demonstrates that he has not entirely overcome the gender ideologies of his time.) The idea of androgyny is an ancient one going back several centuries before Paul. (Plato, for instance, expresses the idea that humanity was originally androgynous.)
At the same time, neither we nor Paul can become entirely free of the gender ideologies that are part of "the air we breathe." We constantly need to be challenged on the issues, like gender, that we take for granted.
Steven Webster