Ephesians 5:21–33 teaches about equality between wife and husband.

Introduction

One of the most prominent discussions in today’s Evangelical Church is what the Bible says about gender roles. Ideas such as biblical manhood and womanhood became a considerable debate: a vision that both genders, man and woman, complement each other because they would play different roles. This way of interpreting what the Bible says regarding both gender is a short definition of complementarianism. One of the passages that complementarian Christians use the most to defend their theological point of view is Ephesians 5:22–33. Therefore, studying this passage and genuinely understanding what Paul says in these verses about gender roles inside a marriage is essential to be on the right path in this conversation.

However, starting the exegesis from verse 22 is a mistake; the correct starting point is verse 21. Because some translations put a title between verses 21 and 22, it seems that verse 22 is starting a different subject. An excellent translation to do the exegesis is the New Revised Stander Version which says,

Be subject to one another out of reverence to Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind — yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, because we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church. Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband.

Analyzing different aspects of this passage is necessary to understand what it meant for the original audience and what it needs to mean for the Church today.

Exegesis

As mentioned in the introduction, separating verse 22 from 21 when considering this passage of Ephesians is perilous, for it will give a mistaken conclusion about the theological principles that Christians should take from these verses. The first step to comprehend these twelves verses is to highlight every critical expression, grammar, and instruction that must be studied to interpret what Paul is teaching.

The first two words (be subject) are the second point that must be analyzed (the first is the right starting verse). Right after, Paul makes a simile when he says that wives should submit themselves unto their husbands by saying “as you are to the Lord.” In verse 21, when he talks about submitting to one another, he puts that as being something to be done in reverence for Christ. Then, the first question is what exactly submission entails. However, considering that the letter of Ephesians was not written in English but Greek, studying the original text is vital to know what Paul meant truly. Translations are already interpretation.

In verse 23, Paul makes a metaphor (husband is the head of the wife), another simile (just as), and then one more metaphor (Christ is the head of the Church). At the end of the verse, he establishes a relationship between head and body. After that, the following prominent element is verse 25, when Paul directs the instructions to the husband. He says that the husband must love his wife as (simile) Christ loved the Church, giving himself (Christ) for it. Verses 26 and 27 continue the comparison Paul made, talking more about the relationship between Christ and the Church.

In verse 29, Paul says that the husband must love his wife as (simile) he loves his own body. With this new point, Paul puts on the same level the love that a husband has for himself and the love that he has to have for his wife. Then, he compares the relationship of husband and wife with Christ and the Church, and, in the last verse of the chapter, he establishes his conclusion: husbands loving their wives like they love themselves and wives respecting their husbands.

Historical Context

In Lisa Baumert’s article called “Biblical Interpretation and the Epistle to the Ephesians,” she cites Gordon Fee. Fee explained in his 2002 article that “the household was a place of production, run by a man, wherein slaves, women, and children existed in hierarchal relationships that benefitted the male-dominated household business.” Unlike Christianity in Western society, marriage was not about finding someone the person loves but had as its purpose procreation and keeping the household structure. Therefore, a vital aspect of understanding the Ephesians’ passage is that Greco-Roman society did not consider men and women equal.

In Beth Allison Barr’s book called The Making of Biblical Womanhood, she explains Roman society’s cultural and historical context in the second chapter. Barr affirms that male guardianship was Roman law. She writes on page 46,

Wives legally had to submit to the authority of their husbands; unmarried women had to submit to the authority of their father or nearest male relatives; women could not own property or run businesses in their own right; women could not conduct legal or financial transactions without a man acting on their behalf. From this historical perspective, it is not surprising to find discussions about wives in first-century Roman texts (the New Testament) reflecting the reality of life for wives in the first century Woman world. Paul’s inclusion of a statement for women to be subject to their husbands is exactly what the Roman world would have expected.

In Romans 12:2, Paul says, “and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (NKJV). Putting this verse and the historical information together should bring essential questions into Christian’s minds today.

The Roman society’s belief in male superiority goes against the principles pointed out in Genesis 1:27, that both women and men were created in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, reading Ephesians 5:22–24 as a passage that affirms male authority over his wife would mean that Christianity was confirmed to Roman society? How would that be renewing Christians’ minds? Should not Paul be preaching something against the misogynistic beliefs of the Romans?

Another point that Barr made was about how Paul’s instructions regarding wives and husbands go against the historical context. She says on page 51,

Ephesians 5:21 isn’t the only radical subversion of Roman patriarchy in the chapter. Paul also demands that men love their wives as they love their own bodies. Did you know that in the Greco-Roman world, female bodies were considered imperfect and deformed men? In his Generation of Animals, Aristotle writes that “the female is as it were a deformed male” and that “because females are weaker and colder in their nature… we should look upon the female state as being as it were a deformity.” Women were literally monstrous.”

Barr explains how the passage talks directly to wives before talking to husbands individually, showing how Paul was not trying to keep the gender hierarchy (male authority) present in his society during the first century.

One of the most critical social and historical contexts highlighted by Barr might be the one that explains how that society saw Christians regarding the subject of gender roles. She says that the Roman world perceived Christians as being “gender deviants.” She continuous,

Osiek and MacDonald remind us that Pliny the Younger, after discussing the torture of two Christian women whom he called deacons, described Christianity as a “depraved and excessive superstition.” As they write, “In drawing attention to some kind of female leadership in the group — to the exclusion of references to male leaders — Pliny was implying that the ideals of masculinity were being compromised. Women were in control.” And this, in Roman terms, was shameful.

The Church of the first century was not following the patriarchal culture present in their society.

Greek and Grammatical Structure

Usually, the discussion regarding Ephesians 5:21–33 revolves around what the words “submit” and “head” mean in the text. Some Christians today affirm that when Paul tells wives to submit to their husbands, he is saying that husbands have authority in the household. However, the first problem with this interpretation comes because they forget that they should start regarding the passage from verse 21. Ephesians is a letter Paul wrote without chapters, verses, and subtitles. Therefore, considering verse 21, Paul talks about how submission cannot come just from one person; instead, it is a principle that every Christian must practice, not just women. Conjointly, in the original Greek text, the verb for “be subject (Ὑποτασσόμενοι) appears just in verse 21 and not in verse 22, showing, therefore, that the beginning of the passage cannot be when Paul starts talking to the wives. The second problem is that, by saying the husband is the leader of his wife, Christians are forgetting or ignoring a lot of essential points to start interpreting the text.

The right path to understand what the text is saying with the word submission is to go to the original text and conclude whether the English word “submission” expresses the word used in Greek. Analyzing the Greek text is a significant step because this word used in most English translations gives the connotation, even that slightly, of obedience. Interpreting like this brings the problems listed before and a conflict with maintaining equality between men and women. Saying that man and woman are equal while affirming that the husband has authority over his wife is contradictory. Saying that an adult person has to obey another person because of their gender is sexism, and sexism has nothing to do with the Gospel.

Comparing the words used in Ephesians 5 with other passages with instructions regarding gender is helpful and vital to guide the interpretation. Therefore, an interesting point to notice is that in Ephesians 6:1, when Paul says that children should obey their parents, he does not use the same verb as he used in verse 21 of chapter 5. In Ephesians 5:21, the verb that was translated to “be subject” is “hypotasso,” while in Ephesians 6:1, the word translated to “obey” is “hypakouete” (ὑπακούετε). In 1 Corinthians 7, for example, the word ἐξουσιάζει is used to say that both husband and wife have authority over each other’s bodies. If Paul wanted to say that husbands have authority over their wives, he not just could but should have used this word (exousiazei). The same logic can be used in 1 Timothy 2:12. The word that was translated to authority there is not ἐξουσιάζει. Instead, Paul used the word αὐθεντεῖν. Using 1 Timothy 2:12 to compare the words in greek not just helps to show that Ephesians 5:21 and 23 are not about authority but also starts to point out that the word αὐθεντεῖν might not have as its best translation the word “authority.”

Another way to force and create an interpretation based on cultural patriarchy is by saying that the text means that husbands have the last word. In the article “Paul’s Radical Vision for the Family,” John E. Toews says,

The word “submission” (hypotasso) is a military term that means to attach one person or thing to the right unit and to order or arrange properly. Troops that are properly committed and “line up” are said to be “in submission.” They are attached to the right unit and ready to function as a unit in battle. Similarly, a husband and wife mutually submitted to each other are properly committed and lined up, ready to function as a family unit. A wife who is committed to her husband and properly ordered is ready to function as a unit with her husband.

Verse 21 gives the impression that what Paul is teaching is for each one to help, support, and be at the service of one another. Christians today do not see verse 21 as Paul saying to have authority over every sibling in faith, but that, whoever the other Christian is, each one that is following Christ should care and serve. Considering the military context, a way to express the meaning in English could be: “Put yourselves into service one to another out of reverence for Christ; wives unto your husbands, as unto the Lord.” Variations from this considering the connotation of the word are possible. The word “submit” might not even be the problem, but since Christians today do not fight against their patriarchal minds when reading the text, “submit” tends to cause some issues.

The other essential word to consider is “head” (κεφαλὴ — kephalé). Ephesians 5:23 says, “for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.” As pointed out by Baumert, the verse presents a metaphor (husband is the head of the wife) and a simile (as Christ is the head of the Church). She points out how asking what this relationship of head and body means is necessary to understand the text.

In his book “Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul’s Letters,” Philip B. Payne analyses the order of the words in verse 23 in the original Greek text. He concludes that the metaphor and the simile point to Christ as the Savior of the body as the head of the church. Therefore, even though some people might attempt to put head meaning authority or source, Paul expressed how Christ is the Savior of the body since he is the head of the Church and pointing that husbands should sacrifice themselves to their wives as their heads. Interpreting κεφαλὴ as literal head and head as someone who sacrifices themselves makes sense considering that Paul was going against the Greco-Roman culture that thought that husbands did not even have to love their wives. Therefore, verse 23 talks about sacrifice, which connects to what Paul wrote in verses 25 until 32.

Conclusion

The Greco-Roman world would not be surprised if Paul said that wives had to obey their husbands, but the Church that received the Ephesians letter probably had its first shock when he put everyone on the same level because of verse 21. When those Christians heard Paul directing the speech toward women, as he talked to them first, they were being confronted on many different levels regarding the gender subject. However, the high point was when Paul told husbands to love their wives.

Considering a society that viewed women as inferior to men in every aspect and had a pretty shaped vision of hierarchy between men and women, Paul challenged its patriarchal view inside of marriage in more ways than Christian today might be able to comprehend fully. Men thought that women’s bodies were inferior, and hearing that they had to love their wives like their own bodies meant that they received a challenge to change their patriarchal worldview.

The context of the Church today is entirely different from the context of the Church of the first century. However, even today’s Church still has its challenges. Not because today’s society is as misogynistic as the Greco-Roman society (obviously, it is not), but because, as Barr explained in her book, the idea of biblical womanhood and biblical manhood took centuries to be formed. These concepts were formed because of social and historical context, supported by a patriarchal society. Therefore, considering how Paul confronted the Greco-Roman patriarchal mind in the Ephesians letter, Christians today must ask themselves how the Church is similar to the world. Christians should challenge misogyny since they were called to be different (Matthew 5:13–14). The principle of mutual submission is critical in Ephesians 5:21–33 since for two people to become one flesh, they must be there for one another.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Book

Beth Allison Barr. The Making of Biblical Womanhood (BrazosPress, 2021).

Bruce W. Winter. Roman Wives, Roman Widows: The Appearance of New Women and the Pauline Communities (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003).

Philip B. Payne. Man and Woman, One in Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study of Paul’s Letters (Zondervan Academic: 2009).

Scott B. Rae. Moral Choices (Zondervan Academic: 2018).

Electronic Documents

Bible Hub. https://biblehub.com/lexicon/ephesians/6-1.htm.

Blue Letter Bible, https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g1849/kjv/tr/0-1/.

John E. Toews, “Paul’s Radical Vision for the Family,” Direction, Vol. 19, №1 (Springs 1990), https://fpuscholarworks.fresno.edu/bitstream/handle/11418/648/Toews-Pauls-1990.pdf?sequence=5.

Lisa Baumert, “Biblical Interpretation and the Epistle to the Ephesians,” Priscilla Papers, Vol. 25, №2 (Springs 2011), https://www.cbeinternational.org/sites/default/files/Biblical_Baumert.pdf.