Cheryl Schatz

Continuing with @127 Holly,
You said:

The passage does seem to be pointing out the “roles” of men and women, and Titus 2:5 says for wives to be “obedient to their own husbands”.
The word “obedient”
1) to arrange under, to subordinate
2) to subject, put in subjection
3) to subject one’s self, obey
4) to submit to one’s control
5) to yield to one’s admonition or advice
6) to obey, be subject
This verse seems to be indicating a hierarchical point of view?

It isn’t indicating a hierarchical view because of several things.

First of all what wives are asked to do is the same word as what is expected of every Christian. The word in Eph. 5:21 where we are to be subject to one another is the same as in Titus 2:5 of wives to husbands. If we make the term subject to as hierarchical in Titus 2:5 then we would have to make it the same in Eph 5:21 but it is impossible to have a hierarchy that is reciprocal.

Secondly the context around the words does not support a hierarchy. In Ephesians 5:21, the subjection is one to another which is reciprocal. In Titus 2:5 the young wives are to be thoughtful (sensible), holy, blameless (free from sin) , stewards in the home as ones who watch and safe guard the home. The term workers at home is literally:

to watch or keep the house, Aesch., Soph.: generally to keep safe, guard, Liddell, H. (1996). A lexicon : Abridged from Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English lexicon (546).

Thus a woman can hire a maid to clean the toilets, but she is to be a watchman on the wall for her home to keep it safe. I love the lexicons which show the historic meaning outside of the New Testament. This helps to show the “normal” use outside of any religious bias.

And in Titus 2:5, right before women are told to be subject to their husbands, they are told to be kind. The term means to be good, useful, beneficial. This is exactly what being subject means in its context. It means to submit oneself to be a benefit to one’s husband. Submission has two opposing angles of benefit. For one we submit to learn and receive from someone else and the other angle is that we submit to give benefit to someone else by putting their needs ahead of our own.

What women are never commanded to do is to “follow” their husbands. In Ephesians 6:1 where the Bible says that children are to “obey” their parents, the Greek term is hypakouete. This primarily means to follow, obey:

This is a word that has the meaning of being an adherent to, a follower, obedient. This gives the meaning of having to listen to someone because they are in a better position than you are. In fact only slaves and children are told to have this attitude of being a follower. Wives are never told that they must be a follower to their husband’s leadership. Instead they are told they they are to be responsible, in charge of the home, kind, holy, carrying out one’s responsibilities with a sensible and thoughtful attitude and their service is also to benefit their husbands. This is a giving of oneself to serve another by choice and not by compulsion. Hierarchy removes the service by choice as hierarchy and compulsion are two sides of the same door.