Journal of Biblical Literature - Society of Biblical Literature

JBL 123/2 (2004) 253–279
WOMEN ON THE EDGE:
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON WOMEN
IN THE PETRINE HAUSTAFEL
BETSY J. BAUMAN-MARTIN
bjbmartin@cox.net
University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
In October 1998 an article appeared in the Los Angeles Times detailing the
difficulty that some mainstream churches have when dealing with domestic
abuse. In the article, Nancy Nason-Clark of the University of New Brunswick
noted that although domestic violence occurs no more often in religious families
than in nonreligious families, “religious families may be more vulnerable in
confronting the problem because of biblical beliefs about the honor of suffering
and sacrifice, the premium placed on family unity, the dominant role of
men in many religious traditions and the creed of transformation and forgiveness
that could let perpetrators off the hook too easily.” 1 In one story, a woman
told her pastor that her husband woke her up at two in the morning and started
beating her with a metal tricycle. She was advised to “go back, be a kinder wife;
then you will win him to Christ because that’s what the Bible says.” 2 That pastor
clearly was referring to 1 Pet 3:1–2, where the author explains to Christian
wives that their unbelieving husbands “may be won over without a word by
their wives’ conduct when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.” 3 But
although the advice in 1 Peter seemed to fit the situation perfectly, the pastor’s
1 Teresa Watanabe, “Domestic Violence a Thorny Issue for Churches,” Los Angeles Times
Saturday, October 10, 1998: B1, 9. According to a recent study by James and Phyllis Alsdurf, religious
men and women are sometimes less likely to confront the problem because many religions,
including Christianity, discourage marital dissolution, often choose to depend on God rather than
other people, and are advised by religious leaders to “preserve the family” and “pray for the batterer”
(Battered into Submission: The Tragedy of Wife Abuse in the Christian Home [Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1989], 32).
2 Watanabe, “Domestic Violence,” B1.
3 All translations are from The HarperCollins Study Bible, New Revised Standard Version
(New York: HarperCollins, 1993).
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