Margaret and Andreas Kostenberger recently fielded questions addressed to them by Matt Smethurst of The Gospel Coalition regarding their new book God’s Design for Man and Woman. Here is an excerpt of their interview:
In the book you survey the Bible’s theology of man and woman. What do you understand God’s design for man and woman to be?
In our biblical-theological survey from Genesis to Revelation we identify a pervasive pattern of male leadership as well as a pattern of male-female partnership. Far from flowing from a few isolated, debated passages, the pattern of male leadership spans from Adam to the patriarchs, kings, and priests, to Jesus (incarnated as a male, Savior of all) and the Twelve, to Paul and his circle, and to elders in the New Testament (NT) church, not to mention the 24 elders in Revelation. The pattern of male-female partnership is rooted in God’s creation of the man, and subsequently of the woman as his corresponding partner and helper; it continues throughout Scripture as women serve as prophetesses in both testaments and as witnesses to Christ and the gospel for which they are persecuted just as men are (Acts). So men and women are presented as partners, and at the same time men are given a special leadership role.
Read the whole interview here.
Thank you very much for holding to a scriptural view of complementary relationship between man and woman. The beauty of it all, God’s order of things, to His Glory and pleasure.
I have quite a few thoughts/comments regarding the Kostenbergers’ synopsis of their book. But, for the sake of brevity, I have distilled it down to one comment:
If it is true that God has assigned ultimate human authority in the church to males, then isn’t it true that males have it within their own authority to grant/share that same level of authority with females (their helpers)? Do you think that males would be shirking, dodging or abandoning their own authority? I think not. How gratifying it would be for the Father to witness this among his children!