a participle is a verb form used as an adjective to modify nouns and pronouns. Participles can add vigor to our writing as they add information to our sentences.
Eph 5:18-21
be [ye] filled with the Spirit; (18)
Speaking to yourselves in
psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and making
melody in your heart to the
Lord; (19)
Giving thanks always for all
things unto God and the Father
in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ; (20)
Submitting yourselves one
to another in the fear of God. (21)
All of the red above are participles (source 1 and 2). The main verb (aka predicate) of the sentence is the phrase “be filled”. The participial phrases which follow (vs 19-21) modify the subject of the sentence “YE” (vs 18). (Without the “ye”, the participles would be “dangling participles”- a situation described near the bottom of this grammar lesson)
I’m sure I’ve seen this grammar analyzed before, but yesterday it clicked . Paul is describing what it looks like to “be FILLED with the Spirit”. Paul is not singling out wives for instruction in submission. Verse 22 does not even have a verb in the Greek. The verb is carried from verse 21 above. The teaching above is directed to “ye”. And “ye” is anyone- male or female- who desires to “BE FILLED with the Spirit”.
This is really something, Charis.
I’m gonna hafta chew on it a while.
I knew that vs 22 refered back to 21.
But maybe it really refers back to 18, 19, 20, & 21.
Hhmmm. Chew, chew, chew…