Mark Keown

I was asked at church the other day whether wives should submit to their husbands, based on the English translations of Ephesians 5:22-24. My answer confused the hearer as they thought I was saying no a wife need not obey a husband, when in fact I was saying, yes they should, but all Christians are meant to submit to one another (that is the real command in the passage). Let me explain. In the original Greek, which is the original language of the NT (not English), the command comes in v. 21 as a participle ( hyptassomenoi ), “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” This is what is known in Greek as an imperatival participle, which is a fancy way of saying a participle (an “ing” word, e.g., submitt ing ) that is actually a command. It is placed in the first position which gives it prominence or as older scholars would say "emphasis." The following verse (22) does not have a command in it. It draws on the participle stating (wives to your own husbands as to the ...