Household Codes, Slaves and Hierarchy
I recently was drawn into an online discussion with an improbably named US dude, who was dogmatic that we must accept the "plain meaning" of the Scriptures. He claimed: "It is clearly written in the ancient scriptures.., *God, Man, Woman, Child, Creatures.* That is the order / hierarchy". But is that plain and clear? There is a reasonable biblical argment for humans over creatures: Genesis 1: 26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on ...