The Living Church

Year Article Type Limit by Author

The Living ChurchOctober 8, 2000A Subject Misunderstood by Leona M. Irsch221(15) p. 16

"Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord" (NRSV, Ephesians 5:22) has caused difficulties for women in many parts of the Christian church.


A few weeks ago, when Ephesians 5:21-33 was read in a Sunday service, the lector said, "The Word of the Lord." I thought, "Not the word of the Lord as you just read it!"

This passage has caused difficulties for women in many parts of the Christian church. Ephesians 5:22 reads, "Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord" (NRSV).

The problem with this passage is that the Greek does not read this way. There is no verb in verse 22. Ephesians loves long Greek sentences that go on and on, and this is one of them. To make sense, 5:22 has to be joined to 5:21, which has a participle: "Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ" (NRSV). Then verse 22 would logically be added with a comma: "Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ, wives, to your husbands, as to the Lord." The context of the subjection of wives is mutual submission, wives to husbands and husbands to wives.

"Ah," you might say, "that is not what the venerable King James Version says." That is true, and is probably the reason the NRSV reads as it does. There are two manuscripts we have now that the translators of the King James Version did not have. They are among the oldest and best manuscripts of this part of the Bible, P46 and B. P46 is a papyrus manuscript which dates from about 200. It is one of the oldest manuscripts we have. B is Codex Vaticanus, which is one of the best manuscripts we have, dating from about the fourth century. Neither of these manuscripts has a verb in verse 22. There are other manuscripts that do have a verb, but they are all newer, so the best biblical scholarship in the world has taken the verb out of verse 22 in the Greek.

But what about the next verse, which continues this long sentence, "For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church" (NRSV)? "Headship" has to be in the context of mutual submission, because that is part of this sentence. To make only the wife submissive is not faithful to the Greek text.

Besides, I find myself comparing these words about the headship of the husband with what Paul says in Galatians 3:28, which says there is no inequality before God in the church: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (NRSV).

Jesus reinforces equality in relationships among disciples in Mark 10:42-43: "You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant" (NRSV).

In its mutual subjection of husband and wife, this passage has been misunderstood for centuries. It does not support the rule of men over women any more than it supports the rule of women over men. It urges mutual submission to each other out of reverence for Christ.

My argument is that this passage needs to be challenged strongly. It will disappear on Sunday when we start using the Revised Common Lectionary, but whenever it is read, it should be challenged. It has hurt women long enough.

Our guest columnist is the Rev. Leona M. Irsch, a priest of the Diocese of Western New York who lives in Buffalo.


Did You Know... Bishop Andrew Fairfield of North Dakota commuted 14 miles each way by bicycle daily between Lakewood, Colo. and the General Convention in Denver.Quote of the Week The Rev. Canon James Rasnick, rector of Holy Trinity, Palm Beach, Fla., on leadership: "Clergy all want a leader who can make a decision ... but it better be the decision they want."