Paul’s command to the church at Ephesus when he says “wives [be subject to] your husbands” (Ephesians 5:22) is the single verse that started me down a year of deconstruction. I wrangled with this word for years, through premarital counseling and women’s retreats and scoldings from church leaders. The word upotassomenoi (Ὑποτασσόμενοι) actually only occurs in Ephesians 5:21, where it is accompanied by the word allelois. In the famous Ephesians 5:22 passage, the sentence points back to verse 21 for its verb. So first, we can define upotassomenoi allelois, and then we can insert in back into these two verses. ὑποτασσόμενοι | upotassomenoi | be submitting to The term is a combination of the verb tasso (τᾰ́σσω) and the preposition hypo- (ῠ̔πό). Upotassomenoi is passive, in this phrase, and the passive mood of the verb tasso is translated specifically to “fall into rank”. Hypo- means under, making the word, “fall into rank under.” The verb overall is an infinitive present participle, so it would be said “be falling into rank under”, implying a constant presence in the decision. So who are we placing ourselves under? ἀλλήλοις | allelois | to one another, mutuallyThe dative pronoun that follows upotassomenoi is the key to interpreting the subsequent verses. Allelois means that a verb is done to one another and is reciprocal. In this sense, verse 21 means that “I submit to you and you submit to me”. This asks a new question: what does it mean to place yourself under someone else? Webster’s dictionary defines submission as yielding to another person’s will. As Jesus People, we know that we yield to God’s will alone, which means to submit must align with that. I propose that this submission means yielding to another person’s best interest, because of the following qualification. We should be submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. We should honor God in the way we treat Their children, in yielding our own best interests in favor of theirs. What does this mean for verse 22, then? First, this idea of mutual submission is directly referred to when describing the relationship between husbands and wives. Paul could have restated the verb or used a new word for servitude or obedience. But he does not. He speaks of serving each other as followers of Christ and then says, “wives, do this to your husbands.” This implied correlation, then, is that husbands should also submit to their wives as equals in Christ. This verse has been used for decades to oppress women, especially in countries where women are not granted legal rights. The reality of this verse is that it does the opposite. Paul takes a culture where women have no rights and men hold power, and tells them to live as equals, humble, and serving for the sake of Christ. The women in Ephesus would have been subject to Pax Romana, a Roman law that defined women as property with no legal rights of their own. Paul flips this idea on its head, telling women that their submission should be done out of love and not law and (most shockingly) that husbands should do the same. To argue in favor of a hierarchy with this verse achieves only two things: first, it denies salvation through Christ alone, and second, it elevates Rome over God. The submission in these verses would place women and their spiritual growth under the men in their lives when we know that Christ died so that everyone would have equal access to their Parent, God. Not only that, but accepting the legal oppression of women in Rome as inerrant places the ideas of an ancient people over the rest of the Bible, which clearly tells us to love one another and give up our whole selves for our neighbor in the name of Christ. Further Reading:Pax Romana Wikipedia
ushistory.org, “The Pax Romana”, Ancient Civilizations Online Textbook, Accessed 26 September 2021, Web. https://www.ushistory.org/civ/6c.asp Byrd, Aimee. Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Zondervan, 2020. Osiek, Carolyn A., et al. A Woman's Place: House Churches in Earliest Christianity. Fortress Press, 2006.
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AuthorWren Bouwman is a student of linguistics and literature and a passionate Christo-feminist. Her works primarily focuses on advocated for equality in church leadership and marriage, although she has plenty of opinions on other things. ArchivesCategories |