Jared Matthews > Recent Status Updates

Inspired by Lee-Barnwell’s article, chapter 7 persuasively argues that Eph 5 turns κέφαλε on its head, that is, Paul describes the function of the husbands “headship” in terms that radically reverses the cultural expection of what it meant to be “the head” over “the body”.

Chap 5 explains the scholarly debates surrounding Rom 16:7 such that a lay-person could understand. This is no small feat if you are aware of the complexity and relevant literature on the subject.

It is also one of the best refutations of Burer’s 2015 article, which has not been received attention by the majority of the scholars that addressed his 2002 article (due to the long time it took for him to publish).

Chapter 4 takes cues from Jesus in Mark 10, arguing that we must understand leadership in a Christian way before we seek to find women as leaders in the NT.

For Jesus, greater is “the one who serves” than “the one who is at the table”. Leadership is primarily identified by service, not hierarchical dominance. Significantly, women are identified by Paul with the same terminology of service as male leaders.

Chapter 3 sidesteps anachronistically reading the gospels through the lens of the egalitarian-complementation debate, recognizing that it is more or less uninterested in our question.

However, Sprinkle makes the unique insights that women are portrayed as “ideal disciples” in the gospels, embodying what Jesus’ defined as the traits of a leader (service), in direct contrast to men, even the twelve.

Preston’s second of two chapters on the Old Testament is an overview of the role that women played in Israel, without spending too much time getting into the weeds.

He spends some time on Deborah and Huldah, among other influential women, explaining that they had some kind of leadership role over men. The bible does not present this as wrong but actually contrasts them with men who fail to act righteously.

Sprinkle’s assessment of Genesis 1-3 was rather unremarkable… as it should be. Genesis teaches little that is binding for the women in leadership debate and many who draw hard conclusions from this chapter do so by assuming what they are seeking to prove.

Preston has a gift at summarizing massive scholarly debates such that any layperson could understand the discussion. This chapter is a great example of this.

Barr spends chap five speaking about English translations, primarily gender-inclusivity, and showing that it is not a capitulation to culture, but has a history far before feminism.

I’m disappointed that she only gave brief mention to Romans 16, which has often been translated to obscure the existence of female leaders. Eldon Jay Epp’s, Junia: First Female Apostle, is key reading that I wish she had drawn on.

Barr’s specialization as a Historian comes out in chapters 3-4 much better than her chapter on Paul.

She successfully shows that the medieval church saw serving Christ as a higher calling than marriage, even if a woman found herself married when she felt the call to serve Christ.

Only in the reformation was marriage thought of as the highest goal for women, preferable to leading in sharing the gospel.

I read this book years ago soon after the author’s death and it changed the way I view scripture and the world as a whole. I’m now reading the expanded edition and it is just as impactful as it first was.

Heiser’s insistence that we need to interpret the Bible “in context” is something we’ve all heard before, but he does a great job at articulating exactly what it means to do that.

In Chapter one, Barr does a great job in showing that patriarchy, while often portrayed as counter-cultural, is actually in line with most culture, yet not with Christianity.
Hierarchal authority among the sexes, rather than being God-ordained, is a result of human sin and a result of the fall (Gen 3:16). The Bible rather than propping them up, subverts their own cultural understandings of gender.

Barr does a great job in showing that patriarchy, while often portrayed as counter-cultural, is actually in line with most culture, yet not with Christianity. Hierarchal authority among the sexes, rather than being God-ordained, is a result of human sin and a result of the fall (Gen 3:16). The Bible rather than propping them up, subverts their own cultural understandings of gender.

Comer proposes that Jesus was a rabbi. As such, he invites us to follow him and become his disciple. Disciples’ in the ancient world were to be with their rabbi, become like their rabbi, and learn to do as their rabbi did. A disciple of Jesus must do the same. In our culture, being a Christian is radically different than being a disciple. We are called to an active life of discipleship, not a passive Christianity.

“People to be Loved” challenges both sides of the debate over sexuality and the Bible, holding both love and truth in tandem.

He argues strongly that homosexuality is not an issue to be solved, but people to be loved. Jesus requires the church to love gay people, a “love without footnotes”. Preston also argues that the biblical ethic excludes same-sex relations, a truth that need not exclude radical love.

Bauckham argues persuasively that the assumptions of the form critics, that the Gospels are a product of a long period of developing tradition, are unfounded and indefensible.

He argues that Mark, Luke (and even Matthew) show signs that their author was relying on eyewitnesses for their content. This would be wholly incompatible with a long developing tradition. They indicate this in ways typical for 1st century.