Journal: Conservative Theological Journal
Volume: CTJ 05:16 (Dec 2001)
Article: Galatians 3:28 and Evangelical Egalitarianism
Author: Eric Peterman

CTJ 5:16 (December 2001) p. 265

Galatians 3:28 and Evangelical Egalitarianism

Eric Peterman

Senior Pastor
Valley Bible Fellowship, Boonville, CA

Introductory Comments

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28

In recent years this verse, Galatians 3:28, has been hoisted as the battle standard of feminists and Biblical egalitarians who count themselves as evangelical.1 They argue that this verse shows that the church has, in past generations, maintained unbiblical support of a paternalistic church and family order. This has kept Christian women from rising to their God-ordained place of equality of position and authority alongside men in the leadership of the church and in the family.

As Clark summarizes this view in Man and Woman in Christ, “Nowadays many assume that Gal 3:28 is the place in which we find the heart of the scriptural teaching about the roles of men and women. Moreover, many interpret Gal 3:28 to mean that ideally in Christ there are no role differences between men and women, an interpretation which opposes Gal 3:28 to all the other texts that assert such a difference. According to this line of interpretation, this tension should be resolved by giving a preference to Gal 3:28. This view sees Gal 3:28 as ‘the great breakthrough’ and regards

CTJ 5:16 (December 2001) p. 266

the other passages as ‘conservative’ or ‘traditional’ passages that express something of limited value.”2

In short, the Biblical egalitarian generally believes:

1. Gal. 3:28 to be concerned with, among other social issues, the functional roles of Christian men and women. As such it is the core or “heart” of the New Testament teaching to the church regarding that subject.
2. Tension between this passage’s clear teaching (as socially and functionally determinative) and those passages apparently in opposition to it should be resolved by preferring Gal. 3:28.

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