Blogging, the public ministry and Priscilla, and Bo Giertz

I am cleaning house, can you tell. (Did some already.)

In this house we read from the Giertz devotions periodically, truly, we do (To Live with Christ, CPH), never from the right place, though. Today we were on p. 640. Here we have a devotion on Acts 19:18 "Many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices."

Giertz writes:
...Ephesus, which is in ruins today, used to be the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire. There were already the beginnings of a church here under the leadership of the learned Apollos, who was instructed by the tent maker Aquila, or probably even more so by his wife, Priscilla. In the ancient church, everyone realized their duty to bring others to the faith. Only men appeared in public as teachers, according to the commandment of God, but in private it was not only a right by a duty for a christian--man or woman--to clearly show the way of God when someone found that another Christian lacked the necessary knowledge. this happened quite often. Many became disciples of Christ during His lifetime, then left Palestine. They weren't there at Easter or Pentecost. Maybe they were baptized by John in the Jordan River. Therefore, there may have been dedicated disciples who spoke of Jesus without having been baptized and without having heard the news of God fulfilling His promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Apollos was one of those disciples, along with the twelve men Paul met when he came to Ephesus. We see that they immediately were acknowledged as christian brothers, but at the same time it was made clear to them what was lacking, and they were grateful to find that out.

I've heard or read Bror make this distinction between the public ministry and what people like Priscilla were doing and we read it here in Giertz.

I think women can be super-good at correcting people. It must be from the child-rearing instinct and practice. However, men are not their children and it is better if a woman thinks twice about making a kerfuffle or scene about anything even in private.

Now, let's say we agree with this distinction. Women did not take the public role, but all Christians witnessed where ever they could. How does this distinction apply to say our current practice of blogging. Is it private or public? In a way it is privately in public. Nobody has to read it or take it seriously, nor does it necessarily get read at all or widely read, yet it could be.

Surprisingly, many of the very good theological blogs are apparently participated in by a lot of males. I am really glad to see it, quite heartened in fact. Often it seems the women are willing to do all the work in the church, but in theological discussion and debates, the men are very passionate in defending the Gospel and teaching. Very, very heartening.

I've also heard it said, that a blog of both male and female commenting helps people get the perspective of the opposite sex, which is something perhaps men in seminary have missed out on. Well, that could be. Dialogue is always good.

Where does that leave the women bloggers? No idea. Maybe they should be cleaning their houses. Ok, back to that. Blog again some other time.