gengwall

Hey Charis. Hopefully Susanna and Cheryl will pick up on this and share some of theri discoveries about hupotasso. They have investigated the word far more deeply than I. I do wonder if this idea of submission being the “state” the wife is in will rub them slightly wrong. I know it doesn’t sound quite right to me. Let me explain.

I believe the instructions to husbands and wives in Ephesians 5 are fully parallel. In other words, I believe Paul is instructing both wives and husbands about a state they need to get to in order for marriage to function properly.

Now, you may argue that the passive for the wife coupled contrasts the active direction for husbands to love their wives. I think that is an argument worth considering. Never-the-less, Paul appears, at least to me, to be instructive to both husbands and wives. Put simply, he wants them to do something. The fact that he commands it for men but leaves it as a voluntary act for women does not alter my view that the whole passage is instructive to all concerned.