George W. Knight III. The Role Relationship of Men and Women. Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, June 1, 1989. 88 pp.
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5 out of 5
There’s a lot of debate today concerning gender. For the Christian we must go back to the Bible as the foundation that formulate our views on the matter. Of course there are resources that examine the subject and God has given us teachers to aid the church. The author George Knight III is a theologian and professor of the New Testament has written this work that is relevant even though it was written nearly thirty years ago.
This book contain three chapters and two appendixes. A lot of these materials were originally articles that the author had published in previous publications ranging from theological journals and the author’s denominational’s report study committee. They are expansion and rearrangement from the original format. Chapter one gives us the introduction while chapter two is on submission and headship in marriage. Chapter three is on submission and headship in the church. There is a conclusion that deals with two objections followed by two appendixes. The first appendix is actually by Wayne Grudem on the meaning of the Greek term translated as “head.” Appendix two is a summary paper for the Advisory Committee for the Reformed Evumincal Synod on the topic of New Testament office and the ministry of women.
I thought this book had quite a bit of exegetical insights that helps one understand the biblical basis for the complementarian view. My favorite part of the book was actually appendix one by Wayne Grudem in which he examined over two thousand examples of the use of the Greek word translated “head” both within the Bible and outside the Bible in order to arrive at a thorough conclusion of whether or not the word only means “source” or it can mean “authority.” Grudem’s appendix here is a good example of good word study and he does conclusively prove that head does mean “authority over” and also he demonstrated that those who try to argue the Greek word for head primarily means source is exegetically problematic. Even as Grudem exposed commentators and theologians for being unfounded for their assertion (which likely result in them picking it up elsewhere) it also had me more aware of being critical and discerning even in my own use of Bible commentaries and other tools. This appendix was very valuable and in terms of page count it was even longer than some of the chapters! While the book does focus on headship and submission in marriage the book place a bigger emphasis concerning headship and submission in the context of church leadership.
I learned a lot from this book. Don’t judge this book by its size or age for that matter. I recommend it.
I appreciate your book reviews! I think it’s fascinating how the Word study alone affirmed the concept of authority. The deeper we dig into the Word, the clearer things become. I was raised to use commentaries with healthy skepticism. In our congregation, heavy emphasis was always placed on Biblical authority, hermeneutics, and the potential for people to be wrong. Commentaries in our home were only pulled out when we just had no clue; even then there was a lot of cross-comparing and discussion.
Elihu that’s a good approach towards commentaries you have. Every commentary, and even specialized books on a topic like the work I review, is a tool. We must always remember that books on the Bible can be great tools but never our masters. That alone is for God’s Word, the Holy Bible! Thanks Elihu for commenting and reading this review!
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Thanks, Jim. I appreciate this book review on a “controversial” topic. I know as a young married man I really relished being the “head” of the marriage and family, but being a servant-leader according to the pattern Jesus gave us in Scripture is something altogether different. I’m still learning how to strive to serve rather than be served.
As I grow more in Christ I believe more strongly that Servant leadership model is the goal.