8: CHOOSING OUR FAVORITE VERSES? 83But this is not an approach toward Scripture that evangelicals
should accept. This approach essentially claims that various parts of the
Bible teach different, self-contradictory positions, so people can just
decide what position they want to find in Scripture and then go there
and find it! In the end, rather than Scripture having authority over our
lives, this process allows us to have authority over the Bible, because we
can just go there and find what we want to find and decide that these
verses will have “hermeneutical priority.” If other verses appear to con-
tradict our view, we just say that we have chosen not to make those
verses a priority, and therefore they are overridden by the verses that we
have chosen.
Someone might object, “Doesn’t everybody have to do something
like this? When there are verses that seem to conflict, don’t we all have
to decide which ones we will favor and emphasize?”
No, I do not think so. I think that when we rightly understand all
the relevant Bible verses on any topic, they will be seen to be not con-
tradictory but complementary. And I believe that is the underlying con-
viction of all current complementarian writers (those who, like myself,
hold that men and women are equal in value but have different roles in
marriage and the church).
Of course, I cannot examine all complementarian writings here to
demonstrate this point. But I can use my own writings on this subject as
one example, probably a representative example. Nowhere in my writ-
ings have I claimed that we must minimize or ignore so-called “egali-
tarian texts” (like Gal. 3:28) on the basis of some kind of “hermeneutical
priority” of other texts. I do not believe we should treat Scripture that
way, because all of it is God’s Word, and all of it is “profitable for teach-
ing, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness”
(2 Tim. 3:16). We must not minimize these texts but rather treat them
fairly and remain subject to their authority. This certainly includes such
“egalitarian texts” as Galatians 3:28, and the passages about Deborah,
Huldah, Phoebe, Priscilla, and Junia(s). Even if we studied all of these
texts first and drew conclusions from them before we looked at any
“complementarian texts” such as 1 Timothy 2:12, these “egalitarian
texts” would not lead us to affirm that women could have governing and
teaching roles over New Testament churches. The texts would not lead
us to affirm that, because they do not teach that. They surely honor the