how is 10th commandment not offensive to modern christians as counting wife along with property?

Question

back then and to this day, wives can be bought and are considered property

how do modern christian women get around this or other ideas they are 2nd class citizens who must submit to a man?

Exodus version- (there are two slightly different ones)

17You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

wife belonging to neighbor...hmmmm

Answer 1

Most people read the Bible with an understanding of the time and society for which it was written. The Bible also tells us to cut off our right hand if it causes us to sin and to pluck our our eye if it causes us to sin. Hopefully no one is taking this literally but with the spirit in which it was written.

Answer 2

Submission is not 2nd class. It is a matter of function. God has placed me as the covering and authority over my wife and she is my helpmate, but not 2nd class.

I do not boss her. She handles the finances. She has domesticated my animal self. She is usually the other half of what my mind struggles with. Yet, she submits to me as the head as God has designed. She does this by consulting me about certain decisions and goes along with my decisions, even the ones I have had to apologize for. Yet, I value and need her input on decisions I ponder, as she, again, is the other half of my mind quite often.

If she were 2nd class, she would have no say. I would not only control the finances, but she would know no more than the money I allow her to have. If I say it is time to sell the house and move, she had better start packing. Does this sound like 2nd class?

When some think of it, they consider men the 2nd class as we are the ones who make sure there is money being made so the women can move forward in motherhood and organizing the household. But, this is actually how the partnership works - I make a paycheck so we can pay the bills, buy groceries and clothe the kids and my wife pays the bills, acquires (great deals on) groceries and makes sure the kids are appropriately clothed.

Do I ever submit to my wife? "Can you pick up some milk and eggs on the way home?"..."Yes, I can and will." If she were 2nd class, I would reply, "That is your job, woman."

Also, consider the scripture, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her." A 2nd class citizen has no one who gives themself up for him/her.

I hope this gives at least a little insight.

Answer 3

How is it not offensive? Because we read the whole thing and don't just take individual verses out of context. ;-)

When talking about husbands and wives, in a sense, we *do* belong to one another, not just the sense you are trying to portray it as...

"The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. 1 Cor 3-4 NIV

Besides, do you really think I'd be off-the-hook for lusting after my neighbors BMW - per the 10th Commandment - if he was *leasing* it?

Answer 4

Did it ever dawn on you that the commandment as directed towards the woman was that she should not covet her neighbor's husband, or anything that belonged to her neighbor?
We use the same terminology today when we speak of spouses. I think perhaps the stumblingblock is in your own mind.

Answer 5

The Tenth Commandment does not teach that a man's wife is his property. It does teach, however, that she is going to be coveted. The Bible actually places great honor on the woman. In fact, back in time when women were degraded, it was God's teaching that exalted women to their rightful place.

http://www.gty.org/resources.php?section=articles&aid=230837

Answer 6

the bible describes men treating women as little more than property, but that does not mean the bible indicates approval of that action. even in the instances where the bible is giving a command regarding the treatment of women, it isn't necessarily an indication of God’s ideal standard. the bible is far more focused on reforming our souls than our societies. God knows that a changed heart will result in a changed behavior

we have to remember that the bible describing an action does not necessarily mean that the bible is endorsing that action.

Answer 7

Jesus did not treat women as second-class citizens.

Luke 10:38, 42 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

I’m sure he was tired and hungry and would have been glad to have the meal prepared a little faster with both sisters working. But he would not deprive Mary of knowledge.

Christians are to follow the example of Christ.

Answer 8

The commandment actually prevents women being looked upon as property. It gives them individual worth, not to be sought after as objects.

When someone covets another man's wife, she is being looked upon as an object, instead of as a person with real wants, needs, and desires.

Coveting is the primary cause of all sorts of sexual offenses. The offender wants what someone else has, or could have. They gain power in their eyes by objectifying women.

Women are not considered as property, or as lesser than. Women are created as equal partners with men. Their role is different than a man's, because God has decided to make men the spiritual leader in the home. This actually goes against our fallen nature, as we'd prefer to let someone else do it, and it often falls to the woman, because the man won't step up to the plate.

Matthew Henry said it best, I think. "...the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved."

Answer 9

the ten are area of the previous covenant, and as such, no longer binding on Christians. Christians do no longer do those issues reported in the ten, or perhaps something of the regulation, as a results of fact they seem to be a written codification of regulation. A Christian's motivation isn't written regulation, yet an internalized regulation of the spirit, aka a regulation of religion, the place the Christian "fulfills" the regulation via love as contrasted to a minimum of one below the regulation who complied with the regulation, in spite of the heart, the place you may desire to refrain from homicide, yet nonetheless hate yet another. .

Answer 10

Christian women are not second class citizens. Simple answer. Dear.....in the time of the bible, women were chattel. Things are ..... ahem .... not that way anymore.