Kristen

Getting back to the issue of whether authority of husbands is a God-given mandate in Ephesians 5:
Understanding the underlying cultural assumptions can be very important in helping us see what’s missing in this passage, which the original audience could not have helped noticing, but which we tend to overlook.
Here’s a quote from Michael Kruse in The Kruse Kronicle, about the ancient world’s household codes:
http://krusekronicle.typepad.com/kruse_kronicle/2007/07/household-the-h.html
“The ancient Greeks saw the household as the primary institution through which order was kept in society. To promote effective household management Greek sages would offer their advice to the paterfamilias on household management. These discourses came to be known as the “household codes” or “household tables” (and sometimes the German haustafel.) Aristotle’s household instructions (fourth century B.C.E.) in Book I of Politics are among the most commonly referenced of the household codes. Included in the codes are usually instructions about how the paterfamilias should manage his wife, his children and his slaves. There is often wisdom given about how to manage wealth. Most codes articulate the importance of the paterfamilias dutifully fulfilling his role for the good of society. Some sages advocated an authoritarian approach and others a more benevolent demeanor but whatever their take was on style, they were unified in their conviction that the paterfamilias was obligated to rule his household for the good of society.”
When I quoted from 1 Peter 5:1-5 earlier, I couldn’t help noticing the specific instructions he gave to elders about leading the church: “Be shepherds of God’s flock, serving as overseers. . . not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples. . .”
How easy would it have been for Peter and Paul, both of whom set out lists of household instructions as Kruse describes, to have said something similar for husbands that Peter says to church elders? “Husbands,” he could have said, “guide and lead your wives as those under your care, not lording it over them, but being examples.” The original readers, accustomed to ancient Roman and Greek household codes, would have found the complete absense of any such instruction to be absolutely glaring. And yet we, coming from a society where husbands are not considered patriarchs of their clans, miss this– and we see the opposite of what they saw, which was a omission of any instruction to husbands to take authority, replaced instead by a command to love and act like Christ did in His submissive death!