Video Transcript: Method Question and Answers

Hi, I'm Henry Reyenga, president of Christian Leaders Institute. And we are so happy about  this class and I could be part of this class. This topic is dear to me, because I see the  opportunities by which God is using to launch women of faith in every country of the world to  proclaim Christ. So, after each of these segments, we have a little opportunity to discuss  questions, many of the questions will come from you, where you've asked this question. Many of you women and men in ministry are wondering about some of these topics. And of course,  they're not addressed much because we just found out that there's not really hardly an  indigenous woman writer. So, Dr. Osiek, I'm so glad  

Carolyn - you can call me Carolyn.  

Henry - Okay, Carolyn. Okay. So, Carolyn, I am so happy to hear some of this I'm not as I  listened. I was wondering about the comment you made about later. Some of the perspective  especially as it's written about women are written more by the upper ranks of society. And yet the early church is starts out really with poor, the fisherman, are poor, the early church starts  that way. What do you make of that disparity?  

Carolyn - Yeah, that's an interesting question, because the New Testament really is one of a  few examples from the early Roman Empire from the first and second centuries, in which you  have literature written by the non elites. There are some other examples from the Roman  poets and satirists people like Juvenal. But, but the New Testament is right, right in there as,  as a very helpful indicator of what some non elites were thinking. And when I say non elites,  you know, they're, they're not the dregs of society. I mean, these are literate people, they  have a certain level of education, Paul certainly had a very good education. But they are not  from from the elites of the society, which is a very clearly delineated social level.  

Henry - Okay, so on that, think about that era in history too where being able to write and  being able to have literature training, that a lot of the classes in society had access to writing. And we think about like the apostle John, when I read him in Greek to see suggestions. Of  course, we know that the New Testament was written in Koine Greek, mainly. And but there  are pieces where you'd like John, which is very simple Greek.  

Carolyn - The Gospel of John is written in in some of the simplest Greek you know often when,  when you're teaching introductory, Biblical Greek, you start with either the Gospel of John, or  the first letter of John, because the grammar is so simple. Yeah. And in that case, the  grammar is simple. And the meaning is not.  

Henry - Right. So the point I'm making this here you have people with in a sense, more lower  ranks side not a lot of money it's not this established organization. And John writes in simple  Greek with powerful, meaning that's true. Okay, then you have the apostle Paul, and he's an  

educated rabbi. highly intense, knows language very well. And he writes, it's very powerful.  But for complicated language,  

Carolyn - Very definitely more more educated, more complex literary structures. Yes.  

Henry - So one more question. So as we think about each of our lives, because some of you  may be in Africa, you understand? Not having a lot of resources, but you have a smartphone,  and you're doing ministry training. And this is so awesome. And then we have some of you, in  America, you're doing this on your Macintosh and your Apple computer you know the whole  gamut of things. In some ways, is there a bias that we readers bring? We talked about the  literary bias of the writers. But talk briefly about the literary bias of the readers now.  

Carolyn - Yeah, I think I said something about that. But the literary biases of the readers, how  do we approach things from our own context? What do we expect to find? We're going to find 

usually what we expect to find unless somebody points out to us Oh, there's also this. Right.  So yeah, that's, that's true.  

Henry - My wife who loves to learn and loves to teach. Always says, see what you see. Don't  see what you think you see. See what you that's one of the things that she's guided me in my  life is and I've made some amazing avoidances I should put that way of huge mistakes  because she reminds me see what you see. Don't see what you think you see. She's a  powerful woman of faith in my life. As we read these things, that's probably our always our  danger is to as you mentioned, the problem with women as special topic is to, you know, in a  sense, we're on a hunt it's a little bit of a mystery. Discovery, we're looking for clues.  

Carolyn - A mystery discovery of half the population.  

Henry - Wow. Yeah. So, what a journey, this is exciting journey you're on it with us. Welcome  aboard. I can't wait to see what the Lord is going to reveal and what Carolyn is going to share  to give us next and more insights about this very important topic.