“Where words are many, sin is not absent; but he who holds his tongue is wise.”
This is, I admit, a strange quote to choose as an opening for a post about submission. But I want to keep it in mind as I write. I am conscious that I am young; that my theology is developing; that I’ve already embarrassed myself enough in the past by trying to “educate” others with my great wisdom. So, my wish is that you would take my thoughts as reflecting where I am now in my journey to understand the Scripture—not as a rant against any who might disagree with me or an attempt to conjure up some kind of conspiracy theory.
Now, with those disclaimers in place, I want to go to Ephesians 5: 21-22. In most of your Bibles, you will find a heading “Husbands and Wives” dividing verse 21 and 22. And verse 22, of course, is usually translated like this: “Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord.” The Greek there is not difficult or ambiguous. The way most English translations render it is good enough. Well, except for one thing. There is no verb “submit” in the Greek "wives {submit} to your husbands. " This is not a matter (like the ending of Mark) where scholars debate whether or not the word is actually in the original texts. Everyone is in perfect agreement that the word “submit” is not in verse 22. Translated literally, the Greek says, “Wives to their own husbands as to the Lord.”
So, how does the word “submit” which is not in the Greek get into our English Bibles in verse 22? Well, it has to be supplied from verse 21, which is usually translated as “Everyone submit to each other out of reverence for Christ.” (The translation of verse 21 is actually a little trickier than verse 22 because the verb “submit” is in a verbal noun form called a “participle” that is a bit difficult to render in English.)
So, if you have followed this discussion so far, it should be clear that (1) verse 22 has no verb in Greek. (2) The verb must be supplied from verse 21. Thus, it is fair to say that verses 21-22 are grammatically connected and only form a whole thought together. They are not separate sentences in Greek. Again, this is not a technical matter or an issue of scholarly debate. They are quite clearly connected. So, I have to ask myself, why do most English translations separate them and insert a heading in between them?
Those are really two questions. First, why translate them as two separate sentences? One answer is that verse 21 is a summary or conclusion of all that is said in the previous section. I think that is true. I’m not claiming that verse 21 is only linked with verse 22 and not with the preceding material. It is linked to both, of course. Because the word “submit” is a participle, verse 21 is not really a complete sentence and the exact way it links grammatically to the preceding main verb is one of the difficulties of translating Greek, especially with Paul’s tendency to write long and complex sentences. And most modern translators do regularly break up Paul’s sentences into smaller “bites,” including so-called “literal” translations like the ESV. So, perhaps the translators simply broke 21 from 22 because they want to avoid long sentences. But, you tell me, is “Submitting to one another out of the fear of Christ, wives to their own husbands as to the Lord,” too long for you to read? I’m fine with it.
Second, why divide the text there with a header? Some would say that the discussion of husband and wives begins in verse 22. And I agree that is where husband/wife relations are first mentioned. So there is some grounds for dividing the text there, if we were simply looking at the topic being “husbands and wives.” But, I wonder, what if the topic is not really “husbands and wives” but “submission” or “mutual relations”? Since 21 and 22 are grammatically united, perhaps their thoughts are also meant to be united. If one simply must insert headings into the texts, then why not divide between verse 19 and 20? Or, even better, why insert headers into the text at all when they may be misleading?
And, frankly, why not translate the Greek text the way it is written? Something like this might be better: “Submitting to one another out of the fear of Christ, wives to their own husbands as to the Lord.” Why give the (I’m tempted to say false) impression, that verse 22 stands alone? Even the ESV, which claims to be a very “literal” translation of the Greek, does exactly what I have mentioned. It divides 21 and 22 with a header, and inserts the word “submit” into verse 22. I understand the need to sometimes divide sentences and insert words for the sake of greater clarity in translation, but I don’t think that a literal translation would be unclear here. Do you?
Some of you might be asking why I am making a big issue out of this. Am I trying to deny that the Scriptures teach that wives should submit to their husbands? Not at all. But I am concerned that we read these verses in context. And the context clearly links 21 and 22. I don’t think either one should be discussed independently of the other. They should be kept together, and translated into English in a unit, just as they are in Greek.
To put it another way, my concern is that we not discount the link between verse 21 and 22. When I studied this passage in seminary, many of the conservative commentators I read seemed to easily brush by verse 21 and hammer hard on verse 22. I have had little contact (whether in person or in books) with more liberal commentators. Perhaps they want to major heavily on verse 21 and brush over verse 22. Neither approach is good.
I think we need to take both very seriously, and not see them as contradictory or competing. Nor should we allow one to “neutralize” the truth of the other. I think both are true and the only way we can understand the practical outworking of submission—whether mutual submission or the submission of a wife to a husband—is through prayerful obedience to God’s word in the situation God has placed us.
Now, what do you think? Does it make any difference to you to know that the word “submit” is not in verse 22? What do you think about dividing 21 and 22 with a header? Finally, are these thoughts helpful to you or confusing?
Related Tags: New Testament, submission, women, translation, theology, Bible, Christianity
