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The Greek Grammar

19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord: 20 Giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father: 21 Being subject one to another, in the fear of Christ.

The underlined words are the imperative-present-participles. The first is lalountes, appearing in verse 19, which is normally translated as "speaking." The second is adontes, appearing in verse 19, and translated as "singing." The third instance is psallontes, also appearing in verse 19, and translated as "making melody"or "psalming." The fourth instance is eucharistountes, appearing in verse 20, and is translated as "giving thanks." The fifth instance, of course, is hupotassomenoi, appearing in verse 21, and translated as "being subject." As the context clearly shows, these five commands are given to all the Christians of the Church, not specifically to husbands and wives. We can conclude from this grammatical arrangement that verse 21 is directly related to verses 19-20, but only remotely related, if at all, to verses 22-33.(5) Interestingly enough, the Greek manuscripts that contain the phrase "be subject"(6) in Ephesians 5:22 (i.e., "wives be subject to your husbands"), reveal that St. Paul breaks his pattern of using the participle. In verse 22 he switches to the non-participle, hupotassasthe, which is an obvious indication that he is now on another topic and direction.

Not only does the grammar of Ephesians 5:19-21 show us the nature of Christian submission, but so do the specific words St. Paul chooses to express his teaching. Let's look at the verses again:

19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord: 20 Giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father: 21 Being subject one to another, in the fear of Christ.

The underlined words describe the Christian who is constantly mindful of God and continually seeks to give Him worship. He does so, in part, by creating intimate communication with his fellow Christians (cf., James 5:13-14). He "speaks" to them in psalms, hymns and spiritual poems; he "sings" to them by using the God-given gift of "melody." In everything he expresses "thanks" to God. He is never bitter or despondent. It is an atmosphere just saturated with heavenly love. It is an idyllic scene, almost like the ones we see in traditional art of saints walking in heaven with halos and playing music on harps.

That being the case, we certainly wouldn't expect the leading participants in this idyllic atmosphere to be strutting around with an air of authority. There are appropriate times for the exercise of authority, and there are times when one's authority is better off deferred or concealed. In the general atmosphere of Christian worship and comradery, it is best not to assert one's authority, but to humble oneself before the other, knowing that anything we have, whether talent or authority, is from the Lord. A Christian employer needs to know how to get along with his Christian employee, and vice-versa. The hierarchy of the Church needs to know how to get along with their clerics and parishioners. Unlike the world, Christians answer to a higher authority. In so doing they show care and concern for even "least of his brethren" (e.g., Matthew 25:40, 45). Superiors, in order to foster good relations among all Christians, will voluntarily "submit" themselves as servants in an effort to be much more sensitive to their underlings than the world's rulers are to theirs (cf., Matthew 20:25-28), because that is what Christ, their model, showed them when He washed the apostles' feet (John 13:14). The important thing to distinguish in each of these cases, however, is that the legal requirement for subordinates to be subject to superiors is not suddenly whisked out of existence when the superiors voluntarily humble themselves to their underlings "in the fear of Christ."

As noted previously, the Fathers likewise understood Ephesians 5:21 as teaching a general submission among Christian brethren. As Jerome says of the passage:

Let bishops hear this, let priests hear, let every rank of learning get this clear: In the church, leaders are servants. Let them imitate the apostle...The difference between secular rulers and Christian leaders is that the former love to boss their subordinates whereas the latter serve them. We are that much greater if we are considered least of all."(Migne PL 26:530A, C 653-654).

This is also Chrysostom's understanding. We see this as he applies Ephesians 5:21 to masters and slaves, a category of relationship that is not even mentioned among the verses in question (i.e., Ephesians 5:22-33):

'Subjecting yourselves one to another,' he says, 'in the fear of Christ.' For if thou submit thyself for a ruler's sake, or for money's sake, or from respectfulness, much more from the fear of Christ...rather it were better that both masters and slaves be servants to one another...Thus does God will it to be, for he washed his disciples' feet. (Homilies on Ephesians, Homily XIX, NPNF1, 142).

We also see that Chrysostom has used the same example of Christ washing the disciples' feet that we had used earlier. This shows he understands that, when Christ "submits" Himself to the apostles, it is based on the desire to serve and love them, not because He is legally mandated to do so, or that His submissive relationship with the apostles is "mutual." Again, the Fathers consider Ephesians 5:21 as merely a general command to all Christians to have the proper attitude and readiness of service toward each other. But when the Fathers address the specific duties of underlings toward those in authority, they never say that the latter is to be submissive to the former (e.g., masters are never told to be "subject" to their servants; bishops are never told to be subject to their clerics, and husbands are never told to be subject to their wives). Since Scripture was careful to make that distinction, the Fathers never referred to superior/subordinate relationship with the words "mutual submission," for legally speaking, there was no such mutuality or mixing of roles.

In Homily 10, Chrysostom again regards Ephesians 5:21 as a general command to all Christians, but maintains that those in subordinate positions (e.g., wives and servants) are to continue showing the proper legal submission:

For if I charge free men to submit themselves one to another in the fear of God - as he said above, 'submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ' - if I charge moreover the wife to fear and reverence her husband, although she is his equal; much more must I so speak to the servant. It is no sign of low birth, rather it is the truest nobility, to understand how to lower ourselves, to be modest and unassuming, and to give way to our neighbor.

Here he says, even though the wife is equal, she is to "fear and reverence" her husband (as does Ephesians 5:33 - "And let the wife fear her husband"). Thus, human "equality" is not to be used as an excuse to withhold one's submission.

Again, in Homily 10, Chrysostom, after referring to the general command for all Christians to submit themselves to one another, clearly defines the separate roles of husband and wife. The wife is to submit, the husband to love, even if one or the other of the spouses fails in their role.

For though that which is due from others may not follow, we ought of course to do our duty. This is an example of what I mean. He says, "submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ." And what then if another submit not himself? Still obey thou the law of God. Just so, I say, is it also here. Let the wife at least, though she be not loved, still reverence notwithstanding, that nothing may lie at her door; and let the husband, though his wife reverence him not, still show her love notwithstanding, that he himself be not wanting in any point. For each has received his own.

An emphasis on remaining in subjection to an authority would be an important one for New Testament Christians to acknowledge, since in their newfound liberty they might fall into the mistaken notion that traditional roles of authority have become obsolete.(7) A servant, for example, may think that because he now enjoys Christian liberty, he is not required to obey his master, at least not in the same way he did previously. Similarly, a wife might think that since she and her husband are now Christians, she is not required to submit to him as she did previously. Not so, says St. Paul. In Colossians 3:22 he tells servants they have no such liberty, but are to continue being subject to their masters ("Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh"). In 1 Timothy 6:1 he tells servants:

Whosoever are servants under the yoke, let them count their masters worthy of all honor; lest the name of the Lord and his doctrine be blasphemed. 2 But they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but serve them the rather, because they are faithful and beloved, who are partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort.

Again, in Titus 2:9 St. Paul tells the bishops: "Exhort servants to be obedient to their masters." St. Peter does the same in 1 Peter 2:18: "Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward." As for the command to wives to continue to be submissive to their husbands, we have addressed those passages earlier (cf., 1 Cor. 11:3; 14:34-35; 1 Tim. 2:11-14; Titus 2:5, 1 Pet. 3:1-6, et al).

The Fathers on Ephesians 5:22

As we have seen, the Fathers did not interpret Ephesians 5:21-22 as teaching a mutual submission between husband and wife. All the exegetes that spoke on the passage separated Ephesians 5:21 from 5:22, and interpreted 5:22 as referring only to a wife submitting to her husband, and did not modify the teaching by reference to "mutual submission." There was not one variant voice. Let's look at a representative sample.

In Homily 10, Chrysostom writes on Ephesians 5:22:

Then after saying, 'The husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is of the Church,' he further adds, 'and He is the Saviour of the body.' For indeed the head is the saving health of the body. He had already laid down beforehand for man and wife, the ground and provision of their love, assigning to each their proper place, to the one that of authority and forethought, to the other that of submission. As then 'the Church,' that is, both husbands and wives, 'is subject unto Christ, so also ye wives submit yourselves to your husbands, as unto God.' For she is the body, not to dictate to the head, but to submit herself and obey."

Chrysostom again speaks on Ephesians 5:22, this time stating that if the wife refuses to submit to her husband she will incur the wrath of God:

Wherefore, saith he, 'Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.'...For if it is their duty to be in subjection 'as unto the Lord,' how saith He that they must depart from them for the Lord's sake? Yet their duty indeed it is, their bounded duty...For he who resists these external authorities, those of governments, I mean, 'withstandeth the ordinance of God (Rom 13:2), much more does she who submits not to her husband. Such was God's will from the beginning." (Homilies on Ephesians, NPNF1, 143-144).

Ambrosiaster (the writings attributed to Ambrose), concurs with the other Fathers:

As the church takes its beginning from Christ and therefore is subject to him, so too does woman take hers from the man and is subject to him." (CSEL 81.3:117-118).

Ignatius of Antioch says the same:

...and one Church which the holy apostles established from one end of the earth to the other by the blood of Christ, and by their own sweat and toil; it behoves you also, therefore, as 'a peculiar people, and a holy nation,' to perform all things with harmony in Christ. Wives, be ye subject to your husbands in the fear of God; and ye virgins, to Christ in purity, not counting marriage an abomination, but desiring that which is better, not for the reproach of wedlock, but for the sake of meditating on the law" (To the Philadelphians, Ch 4).

Scriptures Identical to Ephesians 5:22

Not only do none of the Fathers use Ephesians 5:21 as a qualifying verse for interpreting Ephesians 5:22, not surprisingly, neither does Scripture. We see this in the two other passages that use identical language concerning wives being in subjection to their husbands.

Colossians 3:17-19:

All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as it behooves in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter towards them.

First, we notice the same formula that appears in Ephesians 5:22-33, that is: wives are to submit, husbands are to love. Second, and more importantly, we notice that the command for the wives to submit to their husbands is not preceded by a statement saying "being subject to one another," or any hint of "mutual subjection." Thus, Colossians 3:17-19 assures us that the biblical command "wives be subject to your husbands" stands alone when interpreted. It is not dependent or connected to a "mutual subjection" introduction. This is especially true since the clause "being subject to one another" does not appear anywhere else in the New Testament! Its exclusiveness is further confirmation that it applies to the confined context of Ephesians 5:19-21, not to Ephesians 5:22-33, or any other New Testament passage.

1 Peter 3:1

The same format is evident in 1 Peter 3:1 ("In like manner also, let wives be subject to their husbands..."). Here the identical command to be submissive appears, and, once again, there is no preface regarding "being subject to one another." Rather, the preceding verse says: "For you were as sheep going astray, but you are now converted to the shepherd and bishop of your souls." Obviously, there is no recourse to "mutual submission" to understand the meaning of a wife's submission to her husband. In fact, the adverb "in like manner" (Greek: homoios) refers to a wholly different kind of preface - one that bases the wife's subjection to her husband on the fact that Christians submit to Christ, the "shepherd and bishop" of their souls. The comparison shows that as Christ is in authority over Christians, so the husband is in authority over his wife, and neither are understood as reciprocal. Moreover, Christ's authority is based on His titulary role as "shepherd" (Greek: poimena = pastor, e.g., Eph. 4:11) and a "bishop" (Greek: episkopon, e.g., 1 Tim. 3:2). Thus, when Peter says "in like manner," this indicates that "husband" is also a titulary role for the man, and the basis upon which he rules over his wife.

That there is no mistaking what St. Peter means is confirmed by the remaining context. First, the rest of verse 1 reveals that the wife's subjection to her husband is such an important feature of their relationship that it will be instrumental in converting the non-Christian husband to the Faith ("that, if any believe not the word, they may be won without the word, by the conversation of the wives"). Obviously, an assertive or domineering wife would not be conducive to his conversion.

Second, St. Peter elaborates on what kind of subjection the wife is to give to her husband. He declares:

2 Considering your chaste conversation with fear. 3 Whose adorning, let it not be the outward plaiting of the hair, or the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel: 4 But the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptibility of a quiet and a meek spirit which is rich in the sight of God. 5 For after this manner heretofore, the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands: 6 As Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters you are, doing well and not fearing any disturbance.

Thus, even in the cosmopolitan world of Greek and Roman culture that many of these first century Christian women found themselves, Peter proscribes any worldly adornment. The truly submissive woman is one who has a meek and quiet spirit, fearing God above all. It is certainly not the picture of women we see today who feel not the slightest compunction asserting themselves ahead of men in all areas of authority.

Third, as in all the Pauline passages we have seen on this topic, this Petrine passage gives no suggestion that the husband is to be in "mutual submission" to his wife. Rather, he is told to give "honor" (Greek: timé = honor, respect, recognition, value) to his wife, understanding that of the two, she is the "weaker vessel."

7 Ye husbands, likewise dwelling with them according to knowledge, giving honor to the female as to the weaker vessel and as to the co-heirs of the grace of life: that your prayers be not hindered.

How could John Paul II have missed all this?

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