For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. I particularly love the model of headship you pointed out in Philippians 2 – I think it captures this idea so well. * « a profound mystery, http://newlife.id.au/equality-and-gender-issues/kephale-and-male-headship-in-pauls-letters/, http://newlife.id.au/christian-theology/who-is-the-head/. Immediately, in the beginning Eve was directly consulted by God, and not bypassed through Adam. I’ve been going through Philip Payne’s book, “Man and Woman, One in Christ”, and he presents a very solid case that “head” would have meant “source” in Christ’s time. “… some appeal to this text as a kind of handbook for Christian marriages, perhaps as part of a sermon series on godly relationships in the home.” I saw this recently, Patrick. . First, they should love their wife this way because this is what love is. And women were generally regarded as inferior. On looking for synonyms for fountainhead, I found some interesting, and very Biblical sounding words: “seed” and “origin” “nucleus” and of course, ‘source’…perhaps we still don’t know or have a true understanding of the meaning of head. Thanks again for a great entry. Thanks for this. Biblical instructions to husbands are the opposite of that. What does it mean for wives to submit to their husbands? . Aristotle believed the heart was the thinking part of humankind. I recently heard an excellent definition of headship with a contrasting definition for lordship (I can’t remember what preacher I was listening to but it sounded old). As Christ is Head of the church, so the husband is head of the wife. The story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well is told in chapter…, Thank God for those who protect a woman’s call! http://godswordtowomen.org/boss.htm I’m curious if the issue in Ephesus (assuming we are dealing specifically with Ephesus in this letter) centers around potential abuses arising out of the cult of Artemis. Ephesians 5:4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather … He is the Savior of his body, the church." Husbands had relatively few obligations in the home beyond providing food and shelter. You say that Paul doesn’t use the word “head” as we know it today to mean “boss.” How was he using it, then? It’s difficult in this passage to distinguish the difference between being a ‘head’ and being a servant! The Message ... 5 1-2 Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Now here’s what it looks like to be the head when you acknowledge Christ as Lord and seek to live life in the Spirit.”. Thank you for your lovely blog. In first-century Koine Greek, the language of the New Testament, the Greek word … “I’m not sure I can continue…, This Christmas, I’m pondering the grittier, truer side of the nativity narrative through the lens. a. Of course, we fail to see that life in the Spirit is Paul’s main focus if we only read verses 21-33 of Ephesians 5 (or worse, if we begin at verse 22). . Sometimes preachers are guilty of isolating the text in this fashion. It is only in the context of Christ giving himself up for and nourishing the church that the husband is the head, as Christ. I’m complementarian and I agree with what you say under ‘It’s important to point out what Paul does not say about the husband’s headship.’. ( Log Out / Ephesians 5:25(HCSB) Verse Thoughts The Lord Jesus is the federal head of the new creation and the very personification of love – for the Man Christ Jesus was also the eternal Son of God united in one human body – One in Spirit with the Father and yet a true kinsman of humankind – and Christ loved His God and Christ loved His bride – the Church. Ephesians 5:21-33: How Paul Turns Headship on Its Head, ← Shallum’s Daughters: Builders of the Wall, The New Shame: Why Gender Equality Is Still Worth Fighting For →, Revisiting the Woman at the Well in John 4, Awaiting the Refugee King: A Christmas Reflection. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior (Ephesians 5:22-23). 5:32), and cannot be understood completely in human terms. The author does not repeat the verb ‘submit’ when applying v. 21 to either wives or husbands. As ‘head’, husbands are to love, serve, and even submit to their wives. Thanks Terri. For example, some appeal to this text as a kind of handbook for Christian marriages, perhaps as part of a sermon series on godly relationships in the home. Yes, Paul endorsed headship in Ephesians 5:21-33. Ephesians 5:23, NLT: "For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. This situation is demeaning to the woman, and no matter how many times complementarians shout, “women are equal!” it doesn’t matter, because they cancel out equality by making the wife permanently at the mercy of her husband’s good will for their entire married life. . Why Submit? Yet this is never the case when God relates to women in the Bible. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy.“ ~ Colossians 1:15-18(emphasis mine). I have been told head means leader, boss, or on the other hand, source. We see this kind of concern elsewhere, for example in 1 Peter 3 (see this post) and in Titus 2:5 where Paul writes that women are “to be kind and subject to their husbands so that no one will malign the word of God.” Paul is not an egalitarian in the modern sense. Get content on biblical equality straight to your inbox. Instead, his approach is to accept the traditional household arrangements of the ancient world on the surface while subverting them from within. This post originally appeared at patrickfranklin.wordpress.com. Paul indicates this in Ephesians 5:25: Husbands, love your wives. This is not to say that interpreting the New Testament in light of the original Greek isn’t important. Why is this an apt expression of their life in the Spirit? In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. My perspective is that Paul is neither endorsing rigid traditional gender roles or the erasing of gender distinctions we see in modern feminism. Husbands, love your wife, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present to her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In so doing he is not softening his instructions to the men, but intensifying them. And in an ultimate act of love and sacrifice, Jesus became a slave for us, dying a criminal’s death on the cross to save us (Philippians 2:5-11). I’ve been thinking about what it means for the husband to be the “head” of his wife (Eph5:23). Well said! The original NIV employed five sentences to express six separate commands, as depicted in the following diagram: However, the Greek text on which the NIV was based has only one (long) sentence that expresses just two commands: (1) “Do not get drunk”; and (2) “Be filled with the Spirit”. The Greek word Paul uses for "head" in Ephesians 5:23 is kephale, which was commonly used to refer to the physical head on one's shoulders. As a display of his glory (John 13), Jesus stooped to wash the feet of his own disciples. If one looks up all instructions in the Bible that begin “Husbands” and are clearly aimed at husbands, this message is consistent. One metaphorical meaning of head is “leader.” In English, the “head” of a social, political or military organisation is the leader, the top person, the chief, the one in authority. They needed to be instructed to love their wives (5:25-33), to discipline their children with gentleness and godly instruction (6:4), and to treat their slaves with dignity (6:9). he is turning headship on its head. , Thanks, soulsessions! So well said — it’s so important to understand the point, and you only get that in the proper context. Egalitarians seek to take his lead and extend his principles within our own contemporary context, one no longer bound by the household codes of the ancient Greco-Roman world. Paul does not use the word ‘spiritual’ and those that speak of ‘spiritual headship’ typically read modern complemenarian notions back into the text. I don’t know many complementarian marriages where the husband acts like the boss, there’s mutual submission, but neither do they erase the distinction of male and female, so there is a spiritual headship of the husband (vs 25-27). He does not say that the husband is in charge of the family finances. What could be another term instead of head? Paul is concerned that such women were threatening the social order, which would create unnecessary impediments to the hearing of the gospel among the unevangelized. On the other hand, he goes out of his way to subvert common notions of male leadership. For most of human history, it was thought that either the gut or heart led the body, not the head. New International Version. The kind of headship that Paul endorses in Ephesians 5 is strange indeed. In headship, when we have responsibility for someone, we are take care of them, to nurture them, to look out for the growth, to make sure they are protected and secure. But even within the church today it’s a topic Therefore, it was necessary, when telling them how to be godly, to specify the things men *can and *should practice in imitation of God. He is also the one by whom “all things were created”, and this is the point where the metaphor cannot be completely perfect, since men didn’t create anything. I was just trying to point out that figuring this out yourself was a worthwhile accomplishment. Thanks for the comment. “As to the Lord” does not mean that a wife must submit to her husband in exactly the same way that she submits to the Lord. ( Log Out / In any case, my main argument is that – whatever the meaning of headship – the crucial thing to notice is that Paul is subverting the idea . From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” ~ Ephesians 4:15-16(emphasis mine), “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.“~ Ephesians 1:22-23(emphasis mine), “Submit to one another out of reverance for Christ. Husbands and wives are called to live this out in the home, with Jesus himself as their example. The kind of headship that Paul endorses in Ephesians 5 is strange indeed. I should have included this in my last comment, but I am also interested if anyone has really examined the concept of “heart” as being the seat of thought (leadership) in the Hebrew/Greek context. Change ), Are Husbands the “Head of the Household”? Jesus told his disciples that the greatest ones in his kingdom are those who live to serve others. So Paul is encouraging mutual submission in the home, wives to husbands and husbands to wives. But, why does Paul tell wives to submit to their husbands? * « a profound mystery. These are (a) speaking to one another, (b) singing, (c) making music, (d) giving thanks, and (e) submitting to one another. He simply says “wives, to your husbands” and then addresses husbands by telling them to love their wives. I’m glad that we agree about not reading modern ideas into Paul’s comments about headship. The reader may turn to these explanations. I love this whole article – thanks Patrick! by Jocelyn Andersen(page 107). Husbands are to cleanse their wives just like Jesus did the church. What Does It Mean to Be the Head of the Home? I got your meaning, no worries! It is my understanding that the heart was viewed as the thinking part of a person–that which directed him or her (as a person thinks in his heart, so he is). “Spiritual head” is an assumption he has read into the text. Stephanie. This is all very mysterious(Eph. The submission of wives to their husbands is because the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church (5:23). 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
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