gengwall

NN – “What could make this hypothesis untrue? Well if we misunderstood the nature of the instruction given – for instance if ‘hupotassoe’ didn’t really convey the ideas of obedience. Or if the command was given because of a specific cultural condition which is no longer true.”

Exactly. In Eph 5:21, ‘hupotassoe’ does not convey the idea of obedience. Nor does ‘hupotassoe’ literly mean obey. Nor is the idea of obedience absent from Paul’s letter – it is explicit in the next chapter when his concludes his trilogy of relationships. If Paul meant “wives obey your husbands”, why didn’t he just say that like he says it for children and slaves? The answer seems obvious: because he is not conveying the idea of obedience with wives.