Sue

Mark,

Sorry I completely forgot that you said you would look into it. It seems that you then put that aside to retain your original assumption. When the BDAG says “subject oneself, or be subjected” it then offers the range of meaning

– to an ordered structure
– to husbands, masters, parents, secular authorities
– to church officials, the will of God
– of submission in the sense of voluntary yielding in love

The sense of “to an authority” is not part of the meaning of hupotasso, but is contained within the word that the person is subject to. The Christian is to submit to his neighbour, and we are to submit to each other. This is mutual.

Not only does Clement interpret Christian submission as to a neighbour, without authority, but we have an instance where a king submitted to the Jews. You dismissed this with a little casuistry.

I suggest that if Christian men do not want to live within a democracy, if they do not want a government that must submit to the people, then, when Christian men have given up their vote and surrendered their democratic rights, they may then talk about their experience of living in a non-democratic society.

We are commanded as Christians to love our neighbour as ourselves. My question has always been why some Christian men do not regard women as neighbours. I don’t understand why there is one standard for men, and another for women. Why don’t men request a non-democratic imperial government. W