William Webb confronts those often avoided biblical passages that call for the corporal punishment of children, slaves and wrongdoers. How should we understand and apply them today? Are we obligated to replicate those injunctions today? Or does the proper interpretation of them point in a different direction? Webb notes that most of the Christian church is at best inconsistent in its application of these texts. But is there a legitimate basis for these lapses? Building on the findings of his previous work, Slaves, Women and Homosexuals, Webb argues that the proper interpretation and application of these texts requires ascertaining their meaning within the ancient cultural/historical context. In recognizing the sweep of God?s redemptive purposes already evident in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New, we remain truly biblical.
Jadual kandungan
Foreword by I. Howard Marshall
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: A Troubled Christian Soul
Part I: Troubling Texts
1 Seven Ways Pro-Spankers Go Beyond the Bible
Part II: A Redemptive-Movement Hermeneutic
2 The Slavery Texts: A Redemptive-Movement Model
3 The Rod and Whip Texts: A Biblical Basis for Going Beyond
Part III: Lingering Questions
4 What About Adult Corporal Punishment?
5 What About Using Only Noncorporal Methods for Children?
Conclusion: Dare to Read the Bible Differently
Postscript: An Unplanned Parenting Journey
Appendix: A Response to Andreas Köstenberger
Bibliography
Scripture Index
Mengenai Pengarang
William Webb is an adjunct professor of New Testament/Biblical Studies at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto, Ontario. He has also written Returning Home: New Covenant and Second Exodus as the Context for 2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1 (Sheffield) and Slaves, Women and Homosexuals (Inter Varsity Press).