Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 14:1 (Spring 2009)
Article: The Definitive Analysis Of 1 Timothy 2:12
Author: Andrew David Naselli

JBMW 14:1 (Spring 2009) p. 71

The Definitive Analysis Of 1 Timothy 2:12

A Review of Andreas J. Köstenberger and Thomas R. Schreiner, eds.,
Women in the Church: An Analysis and Application of 1 Timothy 2:9-15. 2d ed.
Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005.

Andrew David Naselli

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Deerfield, Illinois

The role of women in the church is becoming an increasingly explosive issue in American culture, and Women in the Church defends a complementarian position that is radically counter-cultural. The book’s thesis is that 1 Tim 2:9-15 teaches “that it is not God’s will for women to teach or have authority over men in the church” and that the office of elder is “reserved for men” (8). The book’s intended audience is scholars more than lay people. The discussion is advanced, complex, and exacting.

Differences From The First Edition

This second edition differs from the first (1995) in at least eight ways:

(1) It is 48 pages shorter.

(2) Its subtitle alters the older one (previously A Fresh Analysis of 1 Timothy 2:9-15).

(3) It adds an application essay by Dorothy Kelley Patterson, which is reflected in the new subtitle.

(4) It omits two essays: T. David Gordon’s “A Certain Kind of Letter: The Genre of 1 Timothy” and Harold O. J. Brown’s “The New Testament Against Itself: 1 Timothy 2:9-15 and the ‘Breakthrough’ of Galatians 3:28.”

(5) It omits both appendixes: Daniel Doriani’s “History of the Interpretation of 1 Timothy 2” and Henry Scott Baldwin’s “αὐθεντέω in Ancient Greek ­Literature.”

(6) It omits sections from the included essays such as Robert W. Yarbrough’s summary of New Testament Abstracts since 1956 to gauge what scholars have been writing on 1 Tim 2:9-15.

(7) It uses endnotes rather than footnotes.

(8) It updates the included essays in light of scholarly developments by interacting with responses to the first edition and incorporating newer literature such as Two Views on Women in Ministry.

Köstenberger and Schreiner explain, “To enhance the work’s usefulness, material judged to be less central to the overall argument of the book has been omitted” (7). The material...