Susanna Krizo

Dear NN, I never said you said anything about the usage of hypotasso and epitasso together. I wanted to draw your attention to them since it is usually simply assumed that hypotasso is the antonym of epitasso – it is not. Wherefore the question is: if epitasso (command) is never joined with hypotasso, why would it include obedience to the one who commands? Greek lacks also the word “hypertasso” (set over), which should exist by necessity since in Greek that which is “hypo” (under) has always its counterpart in “hyper” (over). The Bible never says that man is “set over” the woman, hence the translation “set under” is quite peculiar. We do find hypotasso in the context of the Christians submission to God and it is found in Jas 4.6-9:
“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists (antitasso) the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Therefore submit (hypotasso) to God. Resist (anthistemi) the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
The antonym of hypotasso is “antitasso” (to resist) and “anthistemi “oppose, stand against” wherefore hypotasso in the above context has the meaning “not to resist and oppose as an enemy would” i.e. to stand close as a friend or an ally would. (We find the same in Rom 13 and 1 Pet 5) James is not portraying Christians as arranged in a hierarchical relationship with God in the top; he is admonishing them to draw near to God and to remove themselves from their friendship with the devil which had made them enemies of God (See also Rom 8.7).
An additional meaning of hypotasso is “to associate with,” hence I disagree that hypotasso was originally a military term which was converted into civilian use with the exclusive meaning to arrange persons in a hierarchical order. “Tasso” has the meaning “to set, arrange, to put in order” and Greek has tons of words which end with “tasso”: paratasso (“place or post side by side, draw up in battle order, stand side by side in battle”), diatasso (“to set in order”), epidiatassomai (“to add something that has been ordained”), protasso (“to arrange towards”), katatasso (“arrange, classify, enlist, rank”), entasso (“enroll, enlist, place among”), suntasso (“put in order together, put in the same class”), sunkatatasso (“arrange or draw up together, range oneself beside”), enkatatasso (“arrange or place in”), prosuntasso (“arrange beforehand”) metasuntasso (“alter the arrangement of a treatise”). I am sure the army used “hypotasso” but it does not mean that a civilian would have given the word the same meaning, just as the biblical ekklesia has nothing to do with the Athenian ekklesia. Paul certainly used military imagery in his writings (1 Cor 9.7; Phil 2.25; 2 Tim 2.3, 4; Philem 2). But consider this: who is the captain? Jesus is. All the apostles and co-workers were considered soldiers in the army of God, and they received their orders from God. The purpose of this army is to fight the army of darkness and anyone can become a soldier in the army of God by devoting one’s life to the task. Let’s for the sake of the argument assume that hypotasso is a military term in Eph 5, what is this army of two supposed to fight against? What is the purpose of the man’s commandments and the wife’s obedience? The enemy does not exist, unless of course we consider conflict an enemy in which case the man’s authority ends them very quickly. It is kind of ludicrous to consider a marriage in military terms, which is perhaps inevitable when only men do theology since men are generally more hierarchical in their thinking than women are and they often admire the army. But would a converted Pharisee see marriage in terms of military discipline? We do not find such a concept in Judaism, and when we take into consideration that the first three hundred years Christians refused to serve in the armed forces, it is highly unlikely that Paul would have seen marriage in such terms.
The literal meaning of hypakouo is “to listen attentively.” Obedience is the derived meaning of the word since to obey one must listen carefully. In 1 Pet 3 Peter recollects the story of Sarah in the tent listening to Abraham who stands by the doorway. The text in Gen 18 does not mention that Sarah obeyed Abraham; it mentions that she listened (shama) to Abraham, calling him sir (adown) in her thoughts, i.e. exhibiting an inner attitude of devotion despite their old age and childlessness.
“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him. “There, in the tent,” he said. Then the LORD said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son. Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?” Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.” (Gen 18:9-15)
‘Adown was a common word used to address men in the Old Testament era, much like our ‘sir’ is today. Only about hundred years ago women in the Anglo-Saxon world called their husbands ‘sir’ and husbands called their wives ‘madam.’ It sounds perhaps excessively polite to us who call our spouses “honey” and “sweetie,” but it was a culturally accepted way of speaking. In the NT we find that John calls the recipient of his letter “kyria” (lady) – a courteous way of opening a letter addressed to a woman in the Greek world. The people called ‘adown did not expect obedience from those who used the term.
I find your comment that there are several passages which use hypotasso with regard to our relationship to God highly puzzling since I found only two (Jas 4 and Eph 5). Considering I spent five years in research for a book on the subject, I would assume I would have found more – if there indeed are more. I would be grateful if you could provide them so that I could correct the chapter on hypotasso in the next edition.