Susanna Krizo

How about this one: according to some women need more love than men (Eph 5), hence we could argue that women can override their husband’s authority and right to command by their need to be loved since we know from 1 Cor 13 that love does not seek its own (which means that the husband cannot command the wife to do something he wants her to do, since he does not need to command her to obey God, since as a Christian her relationship to God is her private matter, not something her husband needs to be concerned about, other than how it affects the entire family). I.e. the husband overrides the wife’s authority in all matters and the wife the husband’s in all matters and voila, we are back at Eph 5.21.

One more thing about hypotasso (submit): don’t you all think it is strange that we should read it as a military term when the true military term is ‘ezer (help) in Gen 2.18-24? And we are not talking about someone who is “under authority”. ‘Ezer refers always to an equal (if human) or superior (if God) who is sent, or comes to aid, when needed. The term cannot refer to a weaker, subordinated creature, for what good would it do to send such a person against an enemy which is too much for one to handle? The woman was not created to be subordinated to the man, but to be an equal strength. After all, puppies are adorable, but not really all that great when one feels alone and in need of company.