Shane, a podcast listener, emails in to ask this.

Pastor John, is there any truth about roles and marriage given in Scripture that would

encourage the tradition of a wife taking her husband's last name and marriage, stated

in a different way, based on your knowledge of the Bible and its revealed truth about

marriage, would you encourage or discourage a woman to keep her last name and marriage,

and why or why not?

Okay, let me give you my viewpoint first, my conviction, and then try to put some foundation under it.

I would encourage, in our culture, especially, a woman to take her husband's last name,

and if she wants to give special honor, also to her given name, to her family, of origin,

to make it her legal middle name, so that every time she signs her whole legal name,

that would be my encouragement to any woman who asked me, or any man, or a couple who

were pondering what to do in marriage, and here are my reasons.

I've got a cultural reason, a practical reason, and a biblical reason.

Culturally, that's the way it's been done in the West for a long time, and to push against it,

usually signals a resistance to something good, namely that the man, and this is what's good,

that the man bears a special burden of responsibility and accountability for leadership

and provision and protection in this relationship, and I think giving the family that his name signifies that.

I'm aware that other cultures may handle naming in different ways.

I don't know enough to pass judgment on those cultures, but I would guess that the custom in the West

has its roots in biblical reality, even if it has been forgotten.

Culture is not absolute, and our culture and others all are in need at various points of change for the sake of God's truth.

So my guess is it's a good thing, and a biblical thing that the West has over time taken on this particular pattern of naming.

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