Category Archives: Women

‘The Making of Biblical Womanhood’ – 4

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The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth, by Beth Allison Barr, Brazos Press, 2021.

In chapter 4 (‘The Cost of the Reformation for Evangelical Women’), Dr Barr considers the effects of the Protestant Reformation on the role and status of women.  For Barr,  the Reformation, for all its achievements, laid the groundwork for the patriarchy that has been so prevalent in the church ever since.

Patriarchy, Barr often reminds us, is a ‘shapeshifter’. …

‘The Making of Biblical Womanhood’ – 3

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The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth, by Beth Allison Barr, Brazos Press, 2021.

In chapter 3 of this book (‘Our selective medieval memory’), Beth Allison Barr might be supposed to be on pretty solid ground.  She is, after all, a medieval historian who has a special interest in women preachers of that period.

So who (myself included) is competent to doubt her when she claims that history is on the side of her particular version of egalitarianism?…

‘The Making of Biblical Womanhood’ – 2

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The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth, by Beth Allison Barr, Brazos Press, 2021.

In chapter 2, Dr Barr asks: ‘What if biblical womanhood doesn’t come from Paul?’

She begins by noting that many have taken Paul’s teaching to be heavily patriarchal.  Complementarians look to 1 Corinthians 11 and 1 Timothy 2 to support their case.  But this, suggests Barr, is to misread the apostle.

If, writes Barr, instead of focussing narrowly on texts such as those just mentioned, and take more account of the broader sweep of Paul’s teaching, then a different picture emerges.…

‘The Making of Biblical Womanhood’ – 1

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The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth, by Beth Allison Barr, Brazos Press, 2021.

I realise that Dr Barr is first and foremost a historian (with Religious Studies as her second area of academic expertise).  I know that she frequently appeals, in her book, on personal adecdote (often in involving her students).  However, I am sure that she would agree that her case for egalitarianism stands or falls on a convincing interpretation of the biblical text. …

Genesis 1:27 – a hint of male headship?

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Genesis 1:27 God created humankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them,
male and female he created them.

Raymond Ortlund argues that this Scripture, in referring to the human race as ‘man’ (and not ‘woman’, or ‘person’) is hinting at male headship. (Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, p97f.).  This view is repeated by the Kostenbergers (God’s Design for Men and Women).

Although I regard this view as rather speculative, I think that Giles (What the Bible Really Teaches on Women) is quite wrong to dismiss it as ‘special pleading’, and not based on ‘serious scholarship’.…

Biblical complementarity

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Andrew Wilson is Teaching Pastor at King’s Church London.  He has written a piece on biblical complementarity.  I’m not convinced by everything that he writes.  But I do think that it’s one of the best accounts of this hotly-contested topic that I have seen.

Here are some highlights.

1. Creational differentiation

From an undifferentiated chaos (Gen 1:1), God formed a cosmos full of complementary distinctions:

  • Light and darkness
  • Day and night
  • Water above and waters beneath
  • Sea and land
  • Sun and moon
  • Male and female
  • Days of work and day of rest
  • Cain and Abel
  • Holy and profane

Complementarity, then,

‘is written into creation.

…

May we speak of male and female roles?

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Well, of course we may.

But, to focus the question down: May we speak of indelible, God-given, complementary roles for men and women?

Kevin Giles (What the Bible Actually Teaches on Women) is a strident critic of this notion, and I want to look carefully at his concerns.

I’ll begin with a summary of Giles’ critique.  Then, I’ll offer a few comments by way of response.

Giles credits George Knight III with the ‘invention’ of evangelical complementarianism, in his 1977 book New Testament Teaching on the Role Relationship of Men and Women.…

This is no way to have a theological debate

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Kevin Giles, in his What the Bible Actually Teaches on Women (Cascade Books, 2018) selects one major ‘conversation partner’ from the complementarian side as a foil to his egalitarian interpretation of Scripture.

That ‘conversation partner’ is God’s Design for Man and Woman: A Biblical-Theological Survey, by Andreas and Margaret Kostenberger (Crossway, 2014).

I have discussed elsewhere some of the substance of this debate.

In this post , I would like to consider how Giles treats the Kostenbergers and their work.…

Male-female differentiation in egalitarian teaching

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Kevin Giles (What the Bible Actually Teaches on Women) repeatedly complains that Andreas and Margaret Kostenberger (and other complementarians) accuse evangelical egalitarians of teaching undifferentiated equality between the two sexes.

Giles insists:

‘Evangelical egalitarians do not deny male-female differentiation, they affirm it.’

‘Yes, in Gal 3:28 Paul speaks of the equality of the sexes in salvation but this does not negate male-female role differentiation.’

‘The Köstenbergers and all complementarians argue that evangelical egalitarians reject the authority of Scripture, embrace cultural relativity, and deny male-female differentiation, arguing for “undifferentiated equality.”

…

Romans 16:7 – ‘Junia…well known to the apostles’

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Romans 16:7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my compatriots and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me.

The main issue to be discussed here is whether Junia (along with Andronicus) is being described as ‘well known to the apostles’, or ‘outstanding as apostles’.

A cluster of issues surround this commendation:

1. What general background can we infer about this couple?

Along with Prisca and Aquila, Epenetus, and Miriam, Andronicus and Junia would have quite recently returned to Rome after Claudius’ decree of banishment of Jews and Christians from that city had been reversed. …