In the Weeds About Women in the Church

From Genesis to Junia: An Honest Search for What the Bible Really Says about Women in Leadership
by Preston Sprinkle
David C. Cook | 2026 | 304 pages (paperback) | $19.99

Even for those who aren’t basketball fans, this year’s book publishing industry has ensured a little March Madness for us all. On March 3, David C. Cook released a book by speaker, teacher, podcast host and New York Times bestselling author Preston Sprinkle (PhD, University of Aberdeen) titled, From Genesis to Junia: An Honest Search for What the Bible Really Says About Women in Leadership.

Sprinkle’s book is a summary of his own three-year journey studying the scriptural evidence for women in church leadership. Each chapter is written after he has concluded his study on that particular section of Scripture or controversy, and ends with his own thoughts on whether the arguments seen in the text lean in favor of complementarianism or egalitarianism.

As you can imagine, From Genesis to Junia has seen a wide reception in the month since its release—more extensive and varied than I have seen for a book in quite some time. Thomas Schreiner, professor of New Testament interpretation and associate dean for Scripture and interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, whose work is referenced in the book, weighed in with a review on The Gospel Coalition. To no one’s surprise, Schreiner—himself a notable complementarian—disagreed with many of Sprinkle’s conclusions, but his most condemnatory reflection was that From Genesis to Junia hasn’t provided “any new data” regarding the scriptural arguments and that “Sprinkle explains why he changed his mind, but he offers no new reasons for other Christians to change theirs.”

Sheila Gregoire, speaker, podcast host, and best-selling author of The Great Sex Rescue, praises the book as a win for egalitarianism, but critiques Sprinkle for both ignoring the work of many of the women in academia who have already researched these topics and come to the same conclusions, and for positioning his journey to discover the biblical truth as one of an unbiased observer. “How can you be unbiased about the personhood of women? How can you see it as an intellectual exercise? Does he not see the immense privilege in that?” she writes. “And Preston has daughters. How can he not see how this is so crucial for them?”

And perhaps that’s why this book has gotten so much attention—this is a deeply personal issue for everyone in the church. What does God’s word say about women? Or, as is the purpose of this review, what does Sprinkle say God’s word says about women?

Broad But Not Deep

The extent to which Sprinkle covers the range of Scripture often brought up in the egalitarian vs. complementarian debates is one of the book’s best qualities. For those looking for a comprehensive introduction into the issues, or a quick reference to a summary of each point of contention, From Genesis to Junia is a great resource.

However, the depth necessary to really examine many of these issues is generally lacking. Sprinkle emphasizes several times the length and exhaustion of his study on these topics, but doesn’t show his work (although he does deliver on the footnotes promised in the introduction). This may be because of his attempt to write a book useful for laymen and academics alike (15), but instead of reaching a middle ground he may have just fallen short of two shores.

And, for as much as Sprinkle asserts that he wants this book to be an objective journey through the source material, the reader is led through the arguments that Sprinkle finds convincing—not necessarily the arguments that make the soundest case. As such, there are a number of topics where helpful cultural context or diverging roads of theological explanation have been left out of his final product. Maybe he looked at them and didn’t find them helpful, or maybe he didn’t consult them at all. This is particularly evident in his coverage of Genesis, which only briefly skims the controversial passages of 2:18 and 3:16. Sprinkle himself admits the first three chapters are crucial for the egalitarian vs. complementarian conversation: “But there’s one thing both sides agree on: Genesis 1–3 is pivotal for the debate,” he writes. “Some say it’s the most crucial passage of all. ‘As Genesis 1–3 go,’ writes Ray Ortlund, ‘so goes the whole biblical debate’” (19). Given this, it’s surprising that these passages receive so much less coverage than other topics.

A Framework Problem

Beyond the depth needed to provide a persuasive account of Scripture’s supposed egalitarian leaning (Sprinkle does conclude, in the end, that he is personally convinced of the egalitarian argument, but encourages readers to continue doing their own research), Sprinkle runs into a framework problem. Indeed, I would argue that the major weakness of this project is not the extent of the research or its presentation, but the theological foundations which Sprinkle himself brings to the book.

Covenantal Theology and the Two Adams

Sprinkle has a hard time making sense of the relationship between Adam and Eve; Adam, Eve, and the Serpent; and Adam, Eve, and the general calling of image bearers laid out in Genesis 1:26–27 with the specific calling of Adam in Genesis 2:15–17. His focus is trying to understand how these verses speak to women’s identity and creational purpose, but woman is created and called in the context of man’s creation and calling. We can’t understand Eve without first understanding Adam—and Adam’s story is one of covenant. We have to see Adam’s responsibility as the federal head with specific responsibilities, of which the failure to carry out has devastating consequences for humankind and necessitates the coming of a Second Adam.

Eve is part of this story, to be sure, and a correct understanding of her role in it is important in understanding women in the church generally—but we have to begin where Scripture does, with the primary story being told: the gospel story of God in covenant with humans.

The Church in the Old Testament

From the outset, Sprinkle assures us he won’t be spending much time in the Old Testament—he even thought about skipping it altogether (39). “After all,” he tells us, “the Old Testament doesn’t talk about church, at least not in its post-Pentecost Spirit-filled form.” It is perhaps this assumption that leads to slimmer chapters covering Old Testament women and their roles among God’s people and within God’s redemptive work. And it’s a wrong assumption. Yes, the new covenant church looks different than it did under the old covenant, but to make such a stark separation cuts dangerously close to dividing the redemptive promises and work of God. New Testament authors go to great lengths to show the unity of God’s promises and people throughout the different administrations of grace. From Abraham to David and through the prophets and the Exile, God has had one people—one covenant assembly, the church, the true Israel (cf Rom. 4:13–25, 11:17–19; Gal. 3:15–29, 4:21–31). The Westminster Confession of Faith calls the Old Testament covenant community the “church under age” (WCF 19.3), and the Belgic Confession says, “This church has existed from the beginning of the world and will last until the end,” even referencing the time of Ahab when God preserved a remnant of his people (BC 27).

Are there important differences between the church that was nurtured on types and shadows and the church that has the fullness of Christ’s coming? Of course. But the Old Testament church has a lot to tell us about how God views women, their role among his people and their relationship to men. Sprinkle could have dedicated much more to the study of the women in the Old Testament than he does.

Ordination vs. “Leadership”

Sprinkle’s premise is to understand what Scripture says about women in leadership specifically. He defines a leader as “a person who (1) holds a recognized title or position of authority (such as ‘king’ or ‘elder’), (2) guides and directs a group of people toward a specific goal or mission, or (3) speaks or acts in a way that expects others to follow their direction” (15). He expounds this idea of leadership as modeled after service and Christlikeness—the opposite of what the world would expect.

Putting aside the fact that he repeatedly uses identifiers of leadership as being acts or attitudes of service rather than the authority and guidance laid out in his definition, leadership really isn’t the primary point of contention in the egalitarian vs. complementarian debate. Ordination is.

Now, how leadership is understood in the context of the church today and whether or not we appreciate the women who step into those positions of (servant-)leadership is an important conversation, and I think Sprinkle’s observations are helpful for that—especially his coverage of New Testament texts. But he does not address the issue of ordination specifically.

With the exception of the “hard complimentarians,” whose views on the subordination of women are already theologically tenuous, most complimentarians would agree that Scripture depicts women serving, supporting, financing, teaching, correcting, discipling, and leading, and in some cases, doing those very things to, for, or instead of the men in the church (Lydia, Priscilla, Phoebe, etc.). The big questions are: can women preach, and can they be ordained—and if so, to which offices?

Sprinkle makes a few large leaps to answer those questions (relying heavily on the implications of leadership and position in the Greco-Roman world rather than on the text itself), but doesn’t make a direct study of ordination itself and so misses an opportunity to weigh in on the critically controversial issues.

The Value Add

Schreiner’s critique that Sprinkle has nothing new to add to this conversation does fall slightly short of the mark. From Genesis to Junia adds several things to the egalitarian vs. complementarian discourse that are noteworthy.

The first is that the terms themselves are not helpful—although Sprinkle doesn’t make this claim outright. He does, however, observe (after 200 pages of wrestling to find clear leanings in one direction or the other) that, sometimes, egalitarian and complementarian don’t map out so cleanly onto Scripture. “Scholars have offered several different interpretations of this passage,” he writes at one point, “not all of which can be neatly placed into egalitarian or complementarian camps” (220). Indeed, if we truly want to know what Scripture is saying about women, the church, and authority, we may need to abandon our previous treatment of categorizing them into egalitarian and complementarian boxes, and be willing to leave behind labels, camps, and the cultures created by them.

His second helpful contribution is his continual reframing of the conversation from the modern connotations of concepts to their biblically-placed contexts. He points out that the “women’s work” of the Bible—managing households, primarily—is often looked at through the lens of modern disdain for the housewife. However, the management of a household in the Ancient Near East and in the Greco-Roman world was not only respected but also critical to the community as a whole. Thus, it’s quite likely that the modern church has diminished the worth of the Bible’s women based on our own cultural perception, when in fact those women were probably held in much higher esteem.

It should be noted there are a few issues with Sprinkle’s application of this thinking. The first is that he doesn’t address the real lack of agency women of that period had. Yes, some women managed households; others were servants, slaves, or concubines in them. And even the mistress of a house had to worry about the laws that secured her rights as a widow, or even as a wife if she failed to have children.

The second problem is that he often leaps to conclusions about what that respect of a house-managing woman would entail. His treatment of the wealthy women in the New Testament jumps from hostess to, potentially, preacher. He argues that Lydia’s role as a pastor might be “implied” even if it’s not stated directly because of her role as a wealthy patron and hostess for the church (117). This is a stretch. However, if we can throw out some of the exegetical shortcomings of this lens and maintain the rudimentary idea that we may be imparting or withholding value to women in the Bible in anachronistic ways, we might be able to find more nuance in our understanding of their treatment in Scripture.

Lastly, I think Sprinkle adds a helpful tone to this whole conversation. The book is written in a conversational first-person style that feels genuine, kind, and humble. Humility, above all, would be a service to this discourse, and Sprinkle models it well.

I would like to see more conversations held on this topic that imitate his approach, with an openness to being challenged and a spirit of kindness for those with whom we disagree. That alone would be a valuable contribution to the church.