George W. Knight III

George W. Knight III
Born
George William Knight

(1931-12-16)December 16, 1931
DiedOctober 11, 2021(2021-10-11) (aged 89)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)New Testament scholar, theologian, author, preacher, and churchman
TitleProfessor Emeritus of New Testament at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Board member ofFormer President of the Evangelical Theological Society
Academic background
EducationWestminster Theological Seminary
Alma materFree University of Amsterdam (PhD)
Thesis (1968)
Academic work
InstitutionsKnox Theological Seminary
Covenant Theological Seminary
Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

George William Knight III (December 16, 1931 – October 11, 2021) was an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.[1] He was a theologian, author, preacher, churchman, and adjunct professor of New Testament at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Taylors, South Carolina. Formerly, he was the founding Dean and Professor of New Testament at Knox Theological Seminary. Prior to his appointment at Knox Theological Seminary, he taught New Testament and New Testament Greek at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. As a pastor, he planted Covenant Presbyterian Church in Naples, Florida and has served numerous other local churches in the Presbyterian Church in America and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. A former president of the Evangelical Theological Society, he has also taught and preached the Bible at many other seminaries and churches around the world. He has authored several works, most notably The Pastoral Epistles[2] and a short commentary of Timothy and Titus as included in the Baker Commentary on the Bible.[3] He received his theological doctorate from Free University of Amsterdam in 1968.[4] Dr. Knight was a member of the General Assembly-appointed Ad Interim Committee to study the number of ordained offices in the Presbyterian Church in America according to Scripture. His Ad Interim Report of the Number of Offices by George W. Knight III Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine was incorporated into the polity of the Presbyterian Church in America. He also served on an ad interim committee to study the issue of marriage, divorce and remarriage, which brought about the 1992 publication of a Position Paper of the Presbyterian Church in America on Remarriage and Divorce, 1992. Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine.

In 1977, he argued in a book about gender roles that the role relationship of men and women is theologically analogous to the subordination of the Son to the Father in the Trinity.[5] Australian theologian Kevin Giles has more recently responded that complementarians have "reinvented" the doctrine of the Trinity to support their views of men and women, suggesting that some complementarians have adopted a heretical view of the Trinity similar to Arianism.[6] Knight released a response to "evangelical feminists" in a 2009 book.[7] Knight's contributions to the complementarian view of the role relationship of men and women, and especially as it is applied to the issue of the ordination of women to the ministry, have greatly influenced the founding of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, where he served for many years as a council member.

  1. ^ "Remembering The Life Of Dr. George W. Knight III (1931–2021)". Covenant Seminary. Archived from the original on 19 November 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  2. ^ The Pastoral Epistles: A Commentary on the Greek Text. George W. Knight III. 1999. William. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
  3. ^ Baker Commentary on the Bible. Water A. Elwell, editor. 2000. Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
  4. ^ "The Role of Women in the Church, by George W. Knight III".
  5. ^ George W. Knight III. The New Testament teaching on the role relationship of men and women. Baker Book House, 1977.
  6. ^ Kevin Giles. Jesus and the Father: Modern Evangelicals Reinvent the Doctrine of the Trinity. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2006.
  7. ^ George W. Knight III. The Pauline Doctrine of Male Headship: The Apostle Versus Biblical Feminists. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2009.