Happy New Year! Emphasis in Ephesians 5:21-26

Recently I got into a discussion with my mother concerning verses offensive to women in the Bible.  There is a widespread impression that the Church hates and wishes to subordinate women, etc., and so, in an effort to see what the text really says, I cracked open one of the offensive verses in the original.  There are quite a few verses that fall into this category — go to http://www.futurechurch.org/wicl/scriptures.htm for a nice list from the NT — and it is highly doubtful that they are all independently defensible.  But since it is the habit of the Church to read each in the context of every, I can here present at least a partial defense of the relevant sections of Ephesians 5 which is broadly applicable.  As usual, the Greek text, the KJV translation, and then my own + analysis is presented.  I still haven’t figured out how to do Greek accents with my new operating system — so please bear with me.

Greek: Υποτασσομενοι αλληλοις εν φοβω Χριστου, αι γυναικες τοις ιδιοις ανδρασιν ως τωι κυριωι, οτι ανηρ εστιν κεφαλη της γυναικος ως και ο Χριστος κεφαλη της εκκλησιας, αυτος σωτηρ του σωματος.  αλλα ως η εκκλησια υποτασσεται τωι Χριστωι, ουτως και αι γυναικες τοις ανδρασιν εν παντι.  Οι ανδρες αγαπατε τας γυναικας, καθως και ο Χριστος ηγαπησεν την εκκλησιαν και εαυτον παρεδωκεν υπερ αυτης,

KJV: Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so [let] the wives [be] to their own husbands in every thing.  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

My translation: Be marshalled [ordered, drawn up] under each other in fear of Christ, wives, be ordered under/to your own husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife as even Christ is the head of the Church, He the saviour of the body: but as the Chruch is marshalled by/to Christ, thus even wives be marshalled by/to your husbands in all things.  Men, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her.

At first blush, the subordination of women to men in this passage seems abundantly clear, but there are a few features in the Greek text that ought to give us pause.  The first is the use of Υποτασσομενοι at the beginning of verse 21.  Υποτασσω is a blatantly militaristic word, used often in Greek literature to refer to the marshalling of soldiers or the ordering of armies (hence my translation).  Paul would have been aware of this usage, and meant it, rather than the other verb used for obedience generally, πειθομαι.   The second thing that should catch our eye is how the emphasis of the translations are not true to the original.  Consider the line: Υποτασσομενοι αλληλοις εν φοβω Χριστου, αι γυναικες τοις ιδιοις ανδρασιν ως τωι κυριωι.  The verb translated traditionally as “to submit” (υποτασσω) occurs only once, and yet must be translated twice, since English isn’t as able to be elliptical as Greek is.

As a consequence in isolation, the phrase translated as “women be submissive to your husbands as to the lord” would simply be (lit): “women be to your men as to the lord.”  The meaning of the initial participle carries through, and so the translation “women be marshalled under your men as to the lord” is appropriate, but the emphasis is not on the submission of women to men, but the mutual submission of both under the Lord.  Paul could have reiterated the participle in the feminine, instead he let it go.  This structure is paralleled later in the only other usage of the verb “to submit, be marshalled” in the text cited: αλλα ως η εκκλησια υποτασσεται τωι Χριστωι, ουτως και αι γυναικες τοις ανδρασιν εν παντι. But as the Church is marshalled by Christ, thus even women [be marshalled] to your husbands in all.  Again, here, the emphasis is on the submission of both men and women (i.e. the Church) to Christ, where the submission or ordering of women to men is deemphasized by the ellipsis of the feminine participle and inclusion of the “semantically distributive” masculine.

Another thing ought to cue us that there is more going on here, and that is the imprecision of Paul’s comparison.  If men and woman are to be ordered to/under each other in fear of Christ, what is the absolute and correct relation of woman to man?  The man might be the head of the woman (according to Paul) as Christ is the head of the Church, but if this is the case, why should there be an initially stated equality in submission between husband and wife?  Why is the submission of the wife not emphasized while mutual submission of husband and wife in fear of Christ is?  A more full analysis of the passage is required to actually engage these questions, and that, with translation, probably out to the end of the chapter is forthcoming in the next few days.  Next Post: Gender Equality in Ephesians.

Credo ut Intellegam

JS