I’ve come across a couple of sources lately that argue the book of Proverbs teaches that wives have a tendency to be complaining, contentious nags.While every wife should take the warning against becoming a difficult wife seriously, the question is whether Proverbs is highlighting innate gender differences when it identifies wives as nagging and contentious. Yet one author believes that is exactly what is happening in this ancient book of wisdom. In Proverbs we discover “gender sin,” she argues, which consists of anger for men and nagging and complaining for women.

A gender sin is a wrongful action or attitude commonly displayed by one gender as opposed to the other. Gender sin may not be in the dictionary, but Proverbs attributes “anger sin” to men and “nag sin” to women. Of course, wives get angry and husbands gripe, but every time Proverbs mentions a nagging, grumbling, contentious person, it is a married woman, a wife.^[1]

Continue reading “The Stereotype of the Nagging, Contentious Wife: Understanding Proverbs in its Original Setting” →