Lady Sigyn over at His Lordship’s Domain has written an excellent post examining the concept of women being the weaker vessel, and how it pertains to female moral agency. I highly, highly recommend it. Her diving into the Greek is certainly a refreshing break from some of the shoddy biblical scholarship we see from the Churchians. A small sample:
The word for the phrase “with weaker [thing]” is asthenesterō. It specifically refers to infirmity; it can be translated to mean “lacking physical strength”, “lacking masculine qualities”, and sometimes “lacking moral fiber”—a word, in its declensions, used heavily throughout the New Testament to speak of the general human condition (which includes men). In other words, its use here is a call to remember that women are not perfect, and that it is unreasonable to expect us to be, so husbands should live “according to knowledge” (kata gnōsin) of this—aware of it, mindful of it.But at the same time, Peter goes on to say that husbands should be “rendering honor” (aponemontes timēn) to their wives. This is a strange turn of phrase here. Aponemontes specifically means “apportion or render to the object what is due”, and timēn references a perceived value or worth appointed to it. Who gets to appoint the worth? Why, Who else but He who made her a “joint-heir” (synklēronomois): a “participant” alongside Him?
I think that the ultimate conclusion which Sigyn reaches meshes with my own views quite nicely.
