Regardless of how we interpret the prohibition passages, both DeFranza and Loader raise questions about the very nature of biblical ethics that will require further discussion. The question is not whether the Bible is authoritative, but how it is authoritative. DeFranza in particular makes the provocative point that marriages today are not—or should not be considered—“biblical” marriages. When the Bible talks about marriage, it inevitably uses patriarchal categories familiar to its time which do