William Webb's book, Slaves, Women & Homosexuals (IVP, 2001) really needed to be written. In the book, Webb systematizes many features of Hermeneutics that many of us have been using but never really had a basis for feeling confident that our methods are valid. Webb extracts the hermeneutical methods that tend to depend upon cultural context of the biblical text and examines the methodology and analyzes the effectiveness and validity of each method. After explaining each method, Webb applies it to the doctrines of slavery (usually), women (always) and homosexuality (usually).
The most useful method, in my opinion, is a method that Webb calls Redemptive Movement. Whenever the Bible talks about some doctrine, especially a doctrine about how God's people are supposed to treat others, we should ask ourselves what the culture was like in the context of the biblical saying. For example, the Bible has a lot to say about slaves and most of what it says somewhat turns our stomachs with respect to what our modern western culture thinks about the institution of slavery: We do not believe anybody has the right to own somebody else. However, if we look at what the Bible says about slaves, we see that God's expectation about how his people treat slaves is far more redemptive than the surrounding culture. In New Testament times, the rules about slaves is more redemptive than they are in Old Testament times and they are more redemptive than the social context of the New Testament text. Just examining the redemptive movement of the biblical doctrines surrounding slaves, we can see a movement towards total slave emancipation. The same is true for women. In the Bible, women gain more and more value as members of the faith community. So, when we observe the Biblical redemptive movement regarding women we can follow the trajectory to equal ministry value and roles for women as men within the faith community.
If we think about it, that is the whole method of the Sermon on the Mount. The Bible says, "Do not commit adultry." You should know that the trajectory of that command points to the implied command to not lust. You know that we are commanded to not murder. Don't you realize that the trajectory of that command requires that we don't get angry with people either? Don't call people names either!
We should be able to apply the trajectory of the biblical commands, especially as they reveal the heart of God. We can examine the commands against their cultural contexts and see where they are going and be able to make the contemporary application which may not be directly addressed in scripture--but is given trajectory within scripture.
When Webb applies his hermeneutical methods to the morality of homosexuality, we see that the Bible is always more restrictive about homosexuality than is the surrounding culture. The Bible never is more accepting of homosexuality. It is always less accepting of homosexuality than is the cultural context of the times.
Another of the particularly interesting methods Webb calls "Breakouts." There may be a statement that looks like a command but we look for examples where the command is broken and the ones who break it are commended for breaking what we thought was a command. Those exceptions are called "Breakouts." For example, we believe the Bible forbids women from exercising leadership over men. However, we have many breakout examples such as Deborah, Huldau, Junia, Priscilla, etc. Either what we thought was a rule has a specific and obsolete context or it is not as much of a hard and fast rule as we thought.
Webb observes that several of the popular hermeneutical methods that Bible students employ are open to poor exegesis. For example, there is a popular exegetical method that Webb calls "Closely Related Issues" (162). Some teachers attempt to condone homosexual practices by comparing those practices with the Old Testament purity laws. For example, in Old Testament times, a man engaging in sexual activity during his wife's menstruation made him unclean for a period of time. Those cultic impurity laws have been abolished in the New Testament. Therefore, the Old Testament commands against homosexuality should also be abolished. The problem is, sex during menstruation and homosexual sex really are not closely related issues. One resulted
in ceremonial uncleanness. The other resulted in stoning. In the Old Testament, activities that resulted in ceremonial uncleanness were not sins. Homosexuality was--in both testaments. This is an example of trying to make completely dissimilar issues related. Thus, the method is really poor and open to bad exegesis.
It is interesting that Webb's approach to the women's roles study concedes that there was a curse on the woman (women) in Genesis 3:16 and there is also an injunction against women teaching men in 1 Timothy 2:11-12. Even with these concessions, Webb's cultural analysis leads to the equality of women in the church. I believe Webb is wrong in his two concessions; but I think he is clever to conceed them. It avoids arguments over the meanings of the two passages so that we can get on with the cultural and redemptive analysis of the Biblical text.
Webb is equally critical of complementarianism and egalitarianism. His criticism of egalitarianism seems almost token. He either mischaracterizes the egalitarian position or he refrences extreme approaches that tend to stray away from the biblical text.
This book will be a permanent addition to my personal library. It needs to be available for further reference.
