Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Apr 28, 2006 in Blog | 1 comment
“Who’s Afraid of Polygamy?” taunts John Tierney in a New York Times Op-Ed piece not long ago (3/11/2006). Referring to the HBO series “Big Love,” which features a husband with three wives in Utah, Tierney calls polygamy, not “a barbaric threat to the country’s moral fabric,” but “an arrangement that can make sense for some people in some circumstances, but not one that could ever be a dangerous trend in America.” Tierney even insinuates, in the kind of conspiracy theory that is increasingly en vogue (witness the Da Vinci Code phenomenon) that monogamous marriage is nothing...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Apr 26, 2006 in Blog | 1 comment
The following is excerpted from an article I wrote for Reformation 21:
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is a book about a non-existent code to provide clues to uncover suppressed evidence about a marriage that never took place. But why cover up evidence that does not exist? How does one cover up non-existing evidence? And why cover up evidence about a relationship that never existed in the first place? Such is the “logic” of The Da Vinci Code, and the above non sequiturs already make clear that the conspiracy theory underlying the book has holes so large to accommodate much more than the...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Apr 24, 2006 in Blog | 14 comments
In 1 Timothy 3:11, we read, “In the same way, women are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.” In context, the word “women” (Gr. gynē) refers either to women deacons or deacons’ wives. Translations are non-committal: the TNIV has “the women,” with a footnote, “Probably women who are deacons, or possibly deacons’ wives.” The NASB likewise has “women,” with a footnote, “either deacons’ wives or deaconesses.”
On the whole, “women deacons” is more likely, for the following reasons:
The absence of...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Apr 19, 2006 in Blog | 4 comments
In 1 Timothy 3:4, it is stipulated that an overseer’s children must “obey him with proper respect.” In Titus 1:6, the bar appears to be raised higher when it says that “[a]n elder must be . . . a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient” (NIV). The question, then, is this: Is it sufficient for an elder’s children to be generally obedient, whether or not they are born-again believers, or must they, as the NIV and many other translations have it, “believe,” that is, be Christians? If the latter, this would seem to rule out quite a...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Apr 10, 2006 in Blog | 4 comments
The release of the text of the so-called “Gospel of Judas” has been reported with considerable enthusiasm by the media. At the center of this gospel is Judas Iscariot, known from the biblical Gospels as the betrayer of Judas. Yet from the Gospel of Judas, a different figure emerges. In private conversation, Jesus tells Judas he will share with him alone “the mysteries of the kingdom” and asks him to hand him over to the authorities so that his body can be sacrificed. Why would Jesus want to be betrayed and crucified?
The answer is found in another enigmatic statement in the...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Apr 7, 2006 in Blog | 1 comment
There are many reasons why someone might blog. Here are the three major reasons why I do:
To disseminate biblical truth in a digestible format. While I have written at length on various subjects, I suspect many will find it helpful to have a brief summary of, say, an interpretation of a difficult biblical passage rather than a lengthy technical argument (case in point: 1 Tim. 2:15). Of course, if after reading the blog, you want more, you can always go and check out the fuller treatment.
To dialogue with others interested in biblical interpretation, biblical theology, biblical languages,...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Apr 4, 2006 in Blog | 1 comment
What is the one pressing topic no book on marriage and the family is currently addressing? What is the one issue that is integral to every marriage and family but that is completely ignored by most marriage counselors and popular treatments on evangelical authorities on marriage? The answer: spiritual warfare in marriage and the family. I have addressed this topic both in my book God, Marriage, and Family and at marriage seminars and have found that teaching on this subject has the potential of revolutionizing people’s experience in their marriages and the family life.
Spiritual warfare has...
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