| Summary: | In this thesis two interralted tasks are undertaken. First, this thesis is an attempt to gain mastery of an interpretive methodology, namely, socio-rhetorical analysis. Second, by looking at a crucial text that has major implications for the contemporary church, I have applied this method of analysis to a particularly Scriptural text, namely, 1 Timothy 2:8-15. In this thesis I demonstrate using socio-rhetorical analysis that the discourse contained in 1 Timothy 2:8-15 constitutes baptised patriarchal cultural practices and traditions from the dominant Greco-Roman culture of the first century. I demonstrate, therefore, that the portrayal of women in the text reflects a cultural imperative, and not a theological imperative, that was co-opted from the ""secular"" Greco-Roman culture of the day and transposed, using Scriptural texts as authentication, into the Christian community at Ephesus. Thus the text is simply re-enforcing normative Greco-Roman cultural values upon Christian women and camouflaging it as a Christian norm in order to persuade women to conform to patriarchal cultural standards. Such persuasion, however, is hardly required unless one has already accepted cultural assumptions about the subordination and silencing (objectification) of women in an androcentric hegemonic culture.
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