Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 16:1 (Spring 2011)
Article: Considering the Egalitarian Stumbling Block: A Review of Recent NT Commentaries
Author: Christopher W. Cowan

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JBMW 16:1 (Spring 2011) p. 61

Considering the Egalitarian Stumbling Block:
A Review of Recent NT Commentaries

Christopher W. Cowan

Senior Project Manager; Academic Editor

B&H Academic

Nashville, Tennessee

A number of new evangelical Bible commentaries were published in Fall 2010—several on New Testament books that address biblical manhood and womanhood. These include commentaries from Clinton Arnold (Talbot School of Theology) and Frank Thielman (Beeson Divinity School) on Ephesians, and Thomas Schreiner (The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) on Galatians. Bible students, preachers, and teachers will want to take note of these new works. My concern in this brief review is with how these scholars handle the gender-related texts of Eph 5:21-33 and Gal 3:28.

Clinton E. Arnold’s commentary on Ephesians appears in the new Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (ZECNT) series. As I write this, only four volumes have appeared in print, but the series has been well-received so far. Notable features of the series (that precede the actual verse-by-verse comments on each passage) include a consideration of each pericope’s literary context, a concise statement of the main idea of the text, a brief structural assessment of how clauses relate, a visual thought-flow diagram of the passage, and an exegetical outline. Such elements help one see the forest of the biblical author’s argument for the trees of the individual verses.

In considering Eph 5:21-33, Arnold offers the following description of the “main idea” of the passage:

Paul projects a vision in this passage for a distinctively Christian marriage. He bases his instructions for each spouse not on what is appropriate in Roman culture, but on lessons that can be derived from the nature of the relationship between the church and Christ. Husbands are called to love their wives in the way Christ loved the church, and wives are called to recognize and follow the leadership their husbands provide (364-65).

Though there are some similarities between this passage and contemporary Greek and Roman “household codes,” Arnold contends that much in Eph 5:21-33 is “strikingly different and, indeed, countercultural” (370). His excursus on “The Role of Wives in Roman-Era Ephesus and Western Asia Minor” highlights the radical diversity of trends affecting men and women in the surrounding society. He concludes the brief essay by saying, “Paul’s remarks to husbands and wives are counter to every cultural pattern ...

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