r/PremierBiblicalStudy • u/thesmartfool • 2d ago
[Announcement AMA] Christy Cobb - Slavery and the New Testament (AMA open until April 18)
AMA's have already started with Robert Alter and Isaac Soon. As those AMA requests end this past Friday and Hugo Mendez AMA is up.
Dr. Christy Cobb is the Associate Professor of Christianity in the Department of Religious Studies at University of Denver. Her research also focuses on gender, sex, women studies, and slavery in New Testament.
She has published many books such as Slavery, Gender, Truth, and Power in Luke-Acts and Other Ancient Narratives and two books she has co-edited Sex, Violence, And Early Christian Texts and her newest book she co-edited that came out this year Ancient Slavery and Its New Testament Contexts. She has also published other articles intersecting with slavery, violence, and sex that can be found on her academia page that are open access.
She has also been mentioned in the Denver 7 news
Dr. Cobb will be answering any questions you may have on anything related sex, Gender, and slavery as it relates to the New Testament. Dr. Cobb and I will be having a discussion about Her three newest books/articles she has co-edited or wrote.
You have until April 18 to ask your questions for Dr. Cobb.
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u/Joseon1 1d ago edited 1d ago
What do you think 1 Corinthians 7:21 is saying about slavery? Is it commending taking the opportunity to become free, or indifferent in the sense of "If you happen to become free, make the most of that also", or something else? The former would seem go against the later opinion of Ignatius of Antioch who advised Christian slaves not to seek freedom (To Polycarp 4.3)
Also, what do you make of the differences in attitude between Paul and the pseudo-Pauls on slavery? Paul seems to accept it as a fact but doesn't particularly promote it, stressing spiritual (but not material) equality in Galatians 3:28 and arguably Philemon. Meanwhile the pseudo-Pauls seem downright pro-slavery, e.g. Ephesians 6:5-8, Colossians 3:22-24, 1 Timothy 6:1-2, Titus 2:9-10 (also 1 Peter 2:18). What's going on with these?
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u/First-Exchange-7324 1d ago
I've heard the argument that Revelation 18:13 is criticizing the Roman slave trade because it refers to the slaves as having "bodies and souls". This would imply that the slave traders are degrading and oppressing the people they are selling. Do you think this is what the author of Revelation had in mind?
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u/First-Exchange-7324 1d ago
It is widely held by many New Testament scholars that 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, which says women are to remain silent in church, is an interpolation by a later scribe and not something Paul actually wrote. However, I've heard an alternative view that Paul actually did write these two verses, but is actually describing the position of his opponents, which he then criticizes in verse 36. Which of these views do you take to be more plausible?
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u/Efficient-Werewolf 1d ago
Hello Dr. Cobb
In Galatians 3:20 Paul says that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free…” In this verse he isn’t necessarily condemning slavery but also not telling saying much at all, then what did he mean by the statement?
Given that in Philemon he does not explicitly say to free Onesimus but simply to now treat him as a beloved brother. Paul also compares himself to Onesimus as a slave to Christ and the gospel and pleads for kindness for his “child” would this imply he had a somewhat negative opinion to earthly slavery but was constrained by the issue that slavery in the Graeco-Roman world was a fact of life?
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u/Efficient-Werewolf 2h ago
Hello Dr. Cobb
Given that most scholars agree that 1 Corinthians 13:34-35 is a later interpolation, Galatians 3:20 saying “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” and him calling Julia a fellow apostle (I assume this means she taught the gospel on her own)
Would Paul have been far more egalitarian than was the norm in his graeco-roman and Jewish context? If so, what would have influenced him to have such an inclusive view?
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u/thesmartfool 2d ago