A New Social World

The Bible, both explicitly and implicitly, upends the social hierarchies that make qualitative judgments over people, putting them in their place based on birth and accomplishment.

In a rabbinic prayer, for example, a Jewish man would thank God that he was neither a Gentile nor a slave nor a woman.

Explicitly, these are the three very barriers Paul breaks down in Galatians 3:28--in Christ Jesus 'there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female.'

Implicitly, these are the three identities of the core group of the church plant at Philippi in Acts 16--the Gentile Philippian jailer, a slave girl whose demon is exorcised, and Lydia the female businesswoman.