Andreas Köstenberger Set Free – Part I

CBMW is profoundly grateful to God for the gifted scholars he has given to the church, who graciously and boldly advocate a complementary view of men and women as truly reflecting the teaching of the Bible. One of these scholars is Andreas Köstenberger, who serves as Professor of New Testament and Director of Ph.D. Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also the editor of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. His website http://www.biblicalfoundations.org/ includes his own blog and much of his published biblical scholarship.

Many complementarians are familiar with the book Women in the Church: An Analysis and Application of 1 Timothy 2:9-15 (2^nd ed.), which Köstenberger co-edited with Thomas R. Schreiner. It is the quintessential work on 1 Timothy 2:9-15.

However, many may not be aware of the numerous articles Köstenberger has published on gender issues, all of which are now available for free on the CBMW website. Here are two of my favorites (more to follow tomorrow):

• "Women in the Pauline Mission" - How did women actually function in the Pauline churches and mission? Köstenberger examines references to specific women mentioned by Paul in the New Testament. While many interpreters have made sweeping claims about women in ministry based on these references in Paul's letters, Köstenberger's analysis is careful and balanced.
• "Gender Passages in the New Testament: Hermeneutical Fallacies Critiqued" - When reading discussions of gender-related passages in the Bible-whether at the academic or popular level-one encounters frequently repeated arguments. However, upon careful examination, the arguments often fall into similar patterns of error in interpretation. Köstenberger considers several common interpretive fallacies that occur in discussions of gender passages. How many of these have you seen?

Köstenberger has also made his own contributions to the debate over 1 Timothy 2:

• "The Crux of the Matter: Paul's Pastoral Pronouncements Regarding Women's Roles in 1 Timothy 2:9-15" - Calling this text "the most difficult passage" for egalitarians and "the most important ground of appeal" for complementarians, Köstenberger offers his own interpretation. In the process, he considers the ancient background (Wasn't ancient Ephesus plagued by feminism?), the genre of the Pastorals (Paul was addressing a local problem, so his restrictions on women don't apply today, right?), and word meanings (Doesn't the word authenteo mean "to domineer" or "to usurp authority"?). Priceless.
• "Ascertaining Women's God-Ordained Roles: An Interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:15" - There is no shortage of suggestions for understanding Paul's statement in 1 Tim 2:15: "Women will be saved through childbearing." Köstenberger surveys the interpretations of ancient and modern interpreters and offers his own take on this puzzling verse.