Rediscovering Scripture’s Vision for Women: Fresh Perspectives on Disputed Texts

by Lucy Peppiatt

Publisher:

IVP Academic

, 2019

Overview

Does God call women to serve as equal partners in marriage and as leaders in the church? The answer to this straightforward question is deeply contested. Into the fray, Lucy Peppiatt offers her work on interpretation of the Bible and Christian practice. With careful exegetical work, Peppiatt considers relevant passages in Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Peter, 1 Timothy, and 1 Corinthians. There she finds a story of God releasing women alongside men into all forms of ministry, leadership, work, and service on the basis of character and gifting, rather than biological sex.

Those who see the overturning of male-dominated hierarchy in the Scriptures, she argues, are truly rediscovering an ancient message—a message distorted by those who assumed that a patriarchal world, which they sometimes saw reflected in the Bible, was the one God had ordained.

Key Features

• Provides thoughtful and thorough engagement with the biblical text
• Examines relevant passages in Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Peter, 1 Timothy, and 1 Corinthians
• Explores interpretation of the Bible and Christian practice

Contents

• An Androcentric Story? Men Everywhere!
• Joining the Story: The Place of Women in God’s Great Plan
• A Woman’s Natural Place: What the Creation Narratives Tell Us
• Talking Heads: The Meaning of Headship
• Balancing Marriage: The Hierarchicalist View
• Redressing the Balance: The Mutualist View of Marriage
• Mistranslations, Misinterpretations, and Misunderstandings: The Dominant Narrative of Male Bias
• A Final Barrier: 1 Timothy 2:8-15
• Conclusion

Top Highlights

“There are various possible meanings for the word kephalē. These range from a literal, ‘physical head’ (which is the normal meaning) to ‘source’ or ‘origin,’ ‘first principle,’ ‘ruler,’ ‘one in authority,’ ‘crown,’ ‘completion,’ ‘the coping of a wall,’ ‘the capital of a column,’ and still other uses. So we face two challenges of interpretation with verse 3. First, we need to work out which definition of kephalē might have been in Paul’s mind. Second, we need to ascertain whether Paul is using the same word with exactly the same meaning in all three pairings.” (Page 70)

“Are the prominence of the androcentric and patricentric narratives in the Bible an unequivocal endorsement of patriarchal structures in the church, the home, and society, or are there other narratives within the texts that would lead us to conclude that the Bible subverts these patriarchal structures, offering alternative ways of relating for men and women?” (Pages 11–12)

“This then makes sense of the idea of head as the cornerstone or foundation upon which a structure is built up and through which all things hold together, and this concept of head as cornerstone also works quite well for God-Christ, Christ-husband, and husband-wife relations.” (Page 108)

“As we are referring to terms that describe the way that men and women relate in concrete ways in the world, I have chosen to designate those currently known as complementarians as hierarchicalists and those currently known as egalitarians as mutualists.” (Page 6)

“The truth is that women have very little choice but to relate to both an androcentric and patricentric faith. Androcentrism and patricentrism are in the fabric of the Christian faith.” (Page 10)

Praise for the Print Edition

Lucy Peppiatt has written an encouraging book that invites women to see themselves in the biblical story, not as props but as protagonists, and along the way she explains many of those confusing texts about wives, head coverings, and prohibitions on teaching. In the end, Peppiatt offers a biblically grounded case for Christian mutuality that unites the sexes in service of a common Lord.

—Michael F. Bird, academic dean and lecturer in theology at Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia

I am so grateful to Lucy for this wonderful packaging of all her best ideas about women in the Bible and church.

—From the foreword by Scot McKnight, professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary

In her highly accessible and well-researched book, Lucy Peppiatt offers a clear hermeneutical vision for a ‘mutualist’ reading of the Bible. She closely analyzes controversial and debated biblical texts about women and men in leadership and marriage, while keeping in view the whole witness of Scripture and the revelation of God in Christ. One of the book’s central tenets is that mutualist views of women are not new: women from the beginning have been part of God’s story for humanity. Early church fathers, such as Augustine, also resisted hierarchical interpretations of the Bible that conceived of women as inherently inferior or spiritually subordinate to men. What is new about the book is how Peppiatt presents readers with the hermeneutical, exegetical, and theological considerations needed to challenge damaging theologies of female submission and promote women’s God-given capacities for leadership, teaching, and ministry in the church. I strongly recommend this book for any student, seminarian, layperson, teacher, or pastor who desires to engage difficult biblical texts about women not in order to win debates but to envision more mutually empowering and God-glorifying ways both women and men can live into their identities as new creations in Christ.

—Janette H. Ok, associate professor of biblical studies, Azusa Pacific Seminary at Azusa Pacific University

Product Details

• Title: Rediscovering Scripture’s Vision for Women: Fresh Perspectives on Disputed Texts
• Author: Lucy Peppiatt
• Publisher: IVP
• Publication Date: 2019
• Pages: 184
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Topic: Leadership

About Lucy Peppiatt

Lucy Peppiatt (PhD, Otago) is the principal of Westminster Theological Centre. Her research interests are Christ and the Spirit, charismatic theology, discipleship, and 1 Corinthians, and her books include Unveiling Paul’s Women and Women and Worship in Corinth.

Sample Pages from Rediscovering Scripture’s Vision for Women: Fresh Perspectives on Disputed Texts