Here is a segment of a paper I am in the midst of writing. My thesis is that Paul’s statement in Ephesians 5:24 is a repetition of “the facts of life” first reported in Genesis 3:16:
“your [the wife's] desire will be for your husband
and he will rule over you” Genesis 3:16
(God describing to the first woman what marriage will be like for her)
“wives are subject to their own husbands
in everything” Ephesians 5:24
(Paul describing marriage to the Ephesians)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING!!!!
“wives are subject to their own husbands
in everything” Ephesians 5:24
(Paul describing marriage to the Ephesians)
Paul reiterates the Genesis 3:16 description in Ephesians 5:24. Paul is not giving the Ephesians a prescription but a description.
We are used to hearing prescription/command in Ephesians 5:24. Wives “must be submissive”, “let them be subject”, “must submit”, “should be entirely submissive”, “ought to submit” IN EVERYTHING.
Both complementarians and egalitarians have come up with ways to tap dance around the harsh implications of hearing prescription in Ephesians 5:24 rather than description. Some complementarians attempt to soften the impact of Ephesians 5:24 by isolating the exercise of wifely submission to occasions of conflict where the husband is said to have “final decision making power”. Some egalitarians attempt to soften the impact by describing a wife’s submission as a “voluntary, self-instigated yielding”. However, being “subject in everything” has no limit, no exceptions, nor is it voluntary. Everything means everything!
So where have I gotten this idea that Ephesians 5:24 is not a prescription/command? It comes from the grammar of the Greek. In my study of Ephesians 5:24, I discovered that many translations, add extra words which change the grammar.
In various English Bible versions, the words of Ephesians 5:24 are rendered (source):
- “wives should submit” (NIV, NLT, ESV, )
- “wives ought to be [subject to]” (NASB
- “wives must be submissive” (ISV)
- “wives are under their husbands’ authority in everything.” (GW)
- “Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so [let] the wives [be] to their own husbands in every thing. (KJV)
- “so let the wives be” (AKJV, WBT)
- “so let the wives also be” (ERV, ASV, WEB
- married women should be entirely submissive to their husbands. (WNT)
- And as the church is under Christ’s authority, so let wives be under the rule of their husbands in all things. (Bible in Basic English)
The latter rendition of the Bible in Basic English is noteworthy for how visibly we can see the parallel of Ephesians 5:24 with Genesis 3:16. However, BiBE and all of the above translations add words and grammar which are not there in the Greek. The KJV at least brackets the added words so we realize they are additions. If we take out the “let” and “be” from the 6 translations above where they have been added, then they are more accurate. The grammar of the Greek verb hupotasso, translated “to submit” or “to be subject” is not imperative[i]: it is not a command! The grammar of the Greek verb is passive indicative.[ii] The following two translations reflect this accurately:
Young’s Literal Translation
“but even as the assembly is subject to Christ, so also are the wives to their own husbands in everything.”
Darby Bible Translation
“But even as the assembly is subjected to the Christ, so also wives to their own husbands in everything.”
WIVES ARE SUBJECT [not "must be submissive", not "let them be subject", not "must submit", not "should be entirely submissive", not "ought to submit" ] IN EVERYTHING.
So, what does this mean?
You ARE SUBJECT to your husband IN EVERYTHING like you are subject to gravity. Though you made a choice to marry him, you have neither control nor volition regarding your state of subjection; it’s a state of being.
The context of Ephesians 5 speaks of a HEAD and a BODY which metaphor is a remarkable fit with a passive voice understanding of “is subject” in Ephesians 5:24. The body “is subject” to the head, but there is neither volition nor even consciousness involved on the part of the body, nor is there agency involved on the part of the head. It is a description of a state of being, not a command for a certain behavior. Thus the head/body metaphor is a perfect illustration and object lesson of connectedness and “being subject” in the passive voice. Contextually, Ephesians 5:24 is a continuation of the thought started in Ephesians 5:21 and clarifies the nature and extent of the hupotasso Paul has in mind. Furthermore, Paul’s two uses of hupotasso in this context (21 and 24) are a sandwich around his introduction of the head/body metaphor (23). This head/body metaphor is key to understanding Paul’s intent. In the immediate context of Ephesians 5, Paul maps the husband to the head and the wife to the body and refers to the couple thus organically connected as “one flesh” which harks back to the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:24).
For a Christian wife, being “subject to her husband in everything” may or may not resemble her experience being “subject to Christ in everything” depending on how much her husband reflects Christlikeness in the manner in which he treats her (which is the thrust of Paul’s teaching directed to husbands in Ephesians 5).
You might argue that in this sense the husband is subject to the wife too and I would agree with you and point to Ephesians 5:21. However, Ephesians 5:24 clarifies that a wife has a unique and greater vulnerability to her husband which extends to EVERYTHING with no “vice versa” claim in scripture regarding the husband.
Once a wife says “I do” (any wife in any culture of any religion, past, present, and future), she becomes vulnerable to her husband in a way which she is to no other person on earth. The anatomy is a picture of this. The wife opens herself up to receive from her husband, and she will tend to internalize harsh things that he says! (See “Men and Women are Different” #3) That is why Paul repeats 5 times in Ephesians 5 employing imperative grammar (“command” verbs) that a husband needs to AGAPE/LOVE his wife.
ENDNOTES
[i] Imperative is a Greek verb “mood” which is identified by its distinctive form. “The imperative mood is a command or instruction given to the hearer, charging the hearer to carry out or perform a certain action.” The hupotasso (submit) verb of Ephesians 5:24 is NOT in the imperative, although many English translations (mistakenly) add imperative language. Greek verbs change form based upon the subject of the verb and the kind of action indicated. There are five basic parts (or aspects) that are clearly defined or indicated by every Greek verb form: Person, Number, Tense, Voice, and Mood. (ntgreek.org). The aspects relevant to my thesis are voice and mood.