“The participle of Ephesians 5:21 is the last of a series of four, as shown above, and clearly belongs to what precedes it. This verse also supplies the verb “to submit” for this hard saying, without which Ephesians 5:22 would be grammatically incomplete and without meaning. The verse in Greek reads literally: “Wives, to your husbands as to the Lord.” The verb “to submit” is absent and can only be read into the sentence because of the intimate connection between the two verses. Ephesians 5:21 is therefore transitional, both belonging to what precedes and setting the agenda for what follows. Thus the kind of radical self-submission to one another which evidences the fullness of the Spirit is now explored in terms of its implications for husbands and wives. That is, what does this self-submission,modeled in Jesus, look like in marriage? [HSOBX: at Eph 5]

“First, Paul begins this three-part structure in a very unusual way. As the climax of his exhortations describing a Spirit-filled life (Eph 5:18–21), Paul calls on all believers to submit to one another (Eph 5:21). It is true that the following context delineates different ways to submit according to differing societal roles; but the very idea of “mutual submission” strained the common sense of the term “submission”: householders were sometimes called to be sensitive to their wives, children and slaves, but they were never told to submit to them. That Paul envisions the same sort of mutual submission to cover the slave and master relationship is clear from his exhortation in Ephesians 6:9: after explaining how and why slaves should submit (Eph 6:5–8), he calls on masters to “do the same things to them,” an idea which, if pressed literally, goes beyond virtually all other extant writers from antiquity. [NT:DictPL: s.v. “Man and Woman”]

“Second, the duties are listed as reciprocal duties. Whereas most household codes simply addressed the head of the household, instructing him how to govern other members of his household, Paul first addresses wives, children and slaves. Far from instructing the paterfamilias how to govern his wife, children and slaves, he omits any injunction to govern and merely calls on him to love his wife (undoubtedly a common practice, but rarely prescribed), be restrained in disciplining his children and to regard slaves as equals before God. This is hardly the language of the common household code, although some ancient philosophers also exhorted moderation and fair treatment of subordinates. The wife, children and slaves are to regulate their own submission voluntarily. [NT:DictPL: s.v. “Man and Woman”; notice how different this is from the codes—the women are addressed in the codes, instead of just the men]

“Writers sometimes closed a book or section with a concluding summary; Paul here summarizes the point of 5:21–32: the wife should respect her husband, and the husband should love his wife. Although ancient moralists expected wives to respect their husbands (and Jewish teachers also expected the reverse), moralists usually also emphasized the wife's “obedience”; Paul's exhortation to wives here would thus strike most ancient readers as quite weak. [BBC: Eph.]

“All ancient moralists insisted that wives should “submit” to their husbands, but few would have stopped short of using the term “obey,” as Paul does here [BBC: Col.]

“A final argument [of Paul's] for the validity of a radically new self-submission of wife to husband is now given: “As the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything” (Eph 5:24). What is the nature of the church's submission to Christ? It is freely assumed in humble response to his self-giving, sacrificial servanthood and his continuing empowering and nurturing presence. The church's submission to Christ has nothing to do with external control or coercion. For the life and ministry of Jesus demonstrates uncompromisingly his rejection of “power over others” as valid in the new creation which he is inaugurating (Lk 22:24–27). Christ stands in relation to the church, his bride, not as one who uses his power to control and demand, but rather to invite and serve. [HSOBX: Eph.]

“Third, Paul does not describe the duties that are attached to submission. An ancient reader could therefore have been tempted to read a wife's submission as meaning all that it could mean in that culture—which, as we have noted above, involves considerably more subordination than any modern Christian interpreters would apply to women today. (Applying the text in this way would return women to rarely being able to attend college, to disallowing them voting privileges, etc.) However, Paul does define the content of the wife's submission once, in quite a strategic place: at the concluding summary of his advice to married couples. The wife is to “respect” (phobeomai, Eph 5:33) her husband. Although the term usually translated “submission” (hypotasso) could be used in the weaker sense of “respect,” household codes demanded far more of wives than mere respect; Paul's view of women's subordination even in this social situation could not be much weaker than it is.” [NT:DictPL: s.v. “Man and Woman”]

"Here at Colossians 3:18, as Schweizer (164) claims, it denotes the subjection of oneself, as Christ subjected himself to the Father (1 Cor 15:28). The demand for mutual submission among Christians (Eph 5:21) shows that “be subordinate” bears a close relation to Christian“humility”)  [WBC: Col]

“Although it was assumed that husbands should love their wives, ancient household codes never list love as a husband's duty; such codes told husbands only to make their wives submit. Although Paul upholds the ancient ideal of wifely submission for his culture, he qualifies it by placing it in the context of mutual submission: husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church, by willingly laying down their lives for them. At the same time that he relates Christianity to the standards of his culture, he subverts his culture's values by going far beyond them. Both husbands and wives must submit and love (5:2, 21). [BBC: Eph]

“Although the ancient instructions to husbands normally stressed how he should rule his wife, Paul stresses instead that he should love her [BBC: Col.]

“Having radically challenged the nature of the culturally expected and demanded submission of the wife to the husband, Paul now goes on (Eph 5:25–32) to show what self-submission by the husband to the wife looks like in practice. The husband's self-submission (Eph 5:21) is to express itself in the kind of radical self-giving love that Christ demonstrated when “he gave himself up for” the life of the church (Eph 5:25). Husbands were of course expected to have erotic regard for their wives. But within a culture in which women were often not more than doormats on which male supremacy could wipe its feet, and in a religious setting where Jewish males thanked God daily that he had not made them a Gentile, a slave or a woman—in such a context erotic regard for the wife more often than not became a means of self-gratification and control over the wife. That position of superiority is daringly challenged by Paul's call upon husbands to love (agape) their wives, that is, to be there for them and with them in self-giving, nurturing, serving love. For that is the way Christ loved the church, and husbands, like their wives, are to be imitators of Christ (Eph 5:2).  [HSOBX: Ephesians]

"Like the English word “head” and the Greek word kephale, the Hebrew word rosh has first of all the literal meaning “head of man or beast.” But like English and Greek, it also has numerous figurative meanings. In an exhaustive study of how the Septuagint translators rendered the Hebrew word rosh, the following data emerged. In the more than 200 times when it refers to a physical head, the translators almost always used kephale. About 180 times, rosh clearly has the figurative meaning of “leader” or “chief” or “authority figure” of a group. There is thus a close similarity between the English “head” and the Hebrew rosh; figuratively, both frequently designate an authority figure....When the translators, however, sought the appropriate Greek word to render this figurative meaning, they used not kephale but archon (and its derivatives) in the great majority of cases (138 times). Archon means “ruler,” “commander,” “leader.” Its derivatives include meanings such as “authority,” “chief,” “captain,” “prince,” “chief of tribe,” “head of family.” Most of the remaining occurrences of rosh (when it designates an authority figure) are translated by several other specific Greek words (such as hegeomai, “to have dominion over”). In only eight out of 180 cases was kephale used to translate rosh when it designated the leader or ruler of a group. It is very possible that one of the figurative meanings of kephale (namely, “top” or “crown”) allowed the translator to use it in describing a prominent individual. It may also be that in these few cases one of the Septuagint translators simply used the literal equivalent for rosh, namely kephale (since both mean “head”). This is in fact what happens all too frequently in any translation when it is too literal. The exact equivalent may, in fact, distort the meaning conveyed by the original in its own context....It is clear from this data that the Greek translators were keenly aware that kephale did not normally have a metaphorical meaning equivalent to that of rosh. This linguistic evidence, which suggests that the idea of “authority over” was not native to the Greek kephale, has led numerous scholars to see behind Paul's use of “head” either the meaning “source, origin” or “top, crown, completion.”...Another factor to take into consideration is that nowhere else in the New Testament is kephale used to designate a figure of authority. If that had been a prominent meaning, it could have served well in numerous places in the Gospels where the head or master of a household appears; yet it is never used to convey this meaning (see, for example, Mt 10:25; 13:52; Lk 13:25; 14:21)....If the readers of Paul's Greek did not hear our “headship” concept in the word kephale, but rather the idea of “source, origin,” what did it convey to them, and how did that meaning in 11:3 lay the foundation for Paul's admonitions about appropriate hair length and decorum in public worship? Cyril of Alexandria, an important Greek-speaking leader of the church in the fourth century, commenting on this text wrote: “Thus we say that the kephale of every man is Christ, because he was excellently made through him. And the kephale of woman is man, because she was taken from his flesh. Likewise, the kephale of Christ is God, because he is from him according to nature....It would therefore seem best to translate 1 Corinthians 11:3 as “I want you to understand that Christ is the source of man's being; the man is the source of woman's being; and God is the source of Christ's being"  [HSOBX: 1 Cor 11.3 ‘headship]

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 the supremacy. [Col 1.18; this seems closer to the 'crown' or 'capstone'(?), but the head/body image (i.e. of union, growth-source) is definitely different from a head/group image (i.e., authority).]

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. [Col 2.9,10 NRSV...note that the NIV/NASB makes the literal 'head of' into 'head over' without any textual warrant. Christ, as the one who holds all together , is also now the 'source' of all power/authority in the cosmos too...This text is commonly used as a prooftext for kephale=authority, but I suspect that this might be another case of 'source', since elsewhere Christ is said to 'fill all things', cf. Eph 4.30. So, although kephale can mean 'authority', in Paul it very often does not. Translators in Eph 1.10 likewise change the 'in Christ' to 'under Christ'. Eph 1.23 does have an 'over' so it might be closer to some kind of authority there--although one should note the 'filling' terminology in the passage as well.].

"W. Grudem views arche as conveying the sense of “rule or dominion” when used synonymously with kephale, but this concept did not find wide acceptance among the ancients. Irenaeus equates head with “source” when he writes of the “head and source of his own being” (kephaleun men kai archeun teus idias ousias; PG 7.496. See also Tertullian Marc. 5.8). Hippolytus emphasized the productivity of this bodily member when he designated the head as the characteristic substance from which all people were made (PG 16.iii.3138). Philo declared, “As though the head of a living creature, Esau is the progenitor of all these members” (Philo Congr. 61). Kephale was considered by Photius to be a synonym for procreator or progenitor (Photius Comm. 1 Cor 11:3. ed. Staab 567.1). The concept of head (kephale) as “source,” “beginning” or “point of departure” is readily apparent in the Pauline corpus. Kephale is used in apposition to arche in Colossians 1:18. (As an aside, one should recall that the head is the part of the body which is usually born first, a feature that may shed light on Christ as the firstborn of the dead, and the firstborn of all creation [Col 1:15, 18].)

"While there was debate as to whether the head, breast or stomach was the dwelling place of mind and soul, philosophers viewed the head as the organ from which there issued forth that which was important or distinctive of humans—most notably speech. The head resembled a spring, from which power flowed forth to other bodily organs (Philo Fug. 182; Aristotle Prob. 10 867a). It was placed nearest to the heavens, drawing from thence its power and distributing the life force to every member of the body (Philo Det. Pot. Ins. 85; Praem. Poen. 125). This concept of the head as source of supply to the whole body is well attested among medical writers and is twice echoed by Paul (Eph 4:15–16; Col 2:19). In Colossians 2:10 Christ is presented as the head (“source”) of the originative power and ability needed for the believer’s fulfillment as he himself embodies the fullness of the Godhead  [NT:DictPL: s.v. "Head"]

"Although Peter upholds societal norms for the purpose of the church's witness in society, his sympathy here is clearly with the woman, as it was with the slaves in 2:18–25. He continues to advocate submission to authority for the sake of witness and silencing charges that Christianity is subversive; husbands were always in the position of authority in that culture....Like Judaism and other non-Roman religions, Christianity spread faster among wives than husbands; husbands had more to lose socially from conversion to an unpopular minority religion. But wives were expected to obey their husbands in Greco-Roman antiquity, and this obedience included allegiance to their husbands’ religions. Cults that forbade their participation in Roman religious rites, including prohibiting worship of a family's household gods, were viewed with disdain, and Jewish or Christian women who refused to worship these gods could be charged with atheism. Thus by his advice Peter seeks to reduce marital tensions and causes of hostility toward Christianity and Christians. Silence was considered a great virtue for women in antiquity." [BBC: in loc]

"But what is the context in 1 Peter? The passage is addressed to upper-class Christian women with unbelieving husbands (a far more common situation in that culture than that of Christian husbands with unbelieving wives). These women are advised to be subject to their husbands, for it is their virtuous behavior that will convert them, not their arguments for Christianity or their fancy dress (the fact that fancy dress was possible points to their being upper-class women; peasant women typically had one decent set of clothing and virtually no expensive jewelry). Such submission was also the mark of “the holy women,” that is, the Old Testament women, of whom Sarah is the chief. This submission will mark these Christian women out as being themselves holy (Sarah's children)." [HSOBX: in loc]

"His attention is therefore focused on Sarah and her behavior, not on who Abraham was or how he treated her. His argument is from the greater to the lesser: if Sarah “obeyed” Abraham and called him “Lord,” the Christian wives in Asia should at least treat their husbands with deference and respect...Peter passes up the opportunity to capitalize on the great influence Sarah is said to have had on Abraham in certain Hellenistic Jewish traditions. To Philo, Sarah represents “paramount virtue”; in advising Abraham to beget children from Hagar the slave woman, she was pointing allegorically to the “preliminary studies” (grammar, geometry, and music) as the path to philosophy and true wisdom (Philo, Leg. All. 3.244–45; cf. Philo, Cong. 71–82). Abraham, in fact, “obeys” the voice of Sarah according to Gen 16:3, LXX, as Philo is careful to emphasize in Philo, Cong. 68 (cf. Chef 9). [WBC:, in loc]]
 

"Is Peter teaching that women should refer to their husbands as if the women were the slaves and the men were their owners? Isn't the expression “master” offensive and demeaning to the woman? And what does not giving way to fear have to do with such a situation? Is Peter setting women up for second-class status and abuse?..The passage in 1 Peter is referring to Genesis 18:12, in which Sarah laughs and says to herself, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure [of having a child]?” The point is that Sarah (perhaps even in her thoughts) refers to her husband as “my lord” (not “my master”), showing a proper respect toward him. The irony is that in the context, while appearing to respect Abraham, she is laughing at the words of Yahweh himself; Peter, however, like most New Testament authors, is not concerned with the context, only with the single use of the term." [HSOBX: in loc]

"Like others who respectfully addressed those of higher social status (Gen 33:13–14), ancient Israelite women may have regularly called their husbands “sir” (some cite Hos 2:16); in Genesis 18:12 and especially later Jewish tradition (T. Abr. 5-6A; 4, 6B) Sarah grants Abraham this title. Yet Isaac also grants a form of this title to Sarah (T. Abr. 3A, using the feminine form), and Abraham also grants it to guests (Gen 18:3–5; T. Abr. 2A; cf. T. Abr. 15, 18A; 8, 10, 12B). Use of the title did not necessarily accompany submissive behavior (Jos. and As. 4:5/7, 12/16), although Peter clearly does invite such behavior. At issue is not a transcultural example of patriarchal dominance but an appropriate example of respect." [NT:DictLNT: s.v., "Woman and Man"]

"In 1 Peter 3:1 Peter is doing three things. First, he is presenting an evangelistic strategy. People are won to Christ not by words alone and certainly not by rebellion, but by living to the fullest pagan virtue (when it is consistent with Christian virtue), so that the non-Christian will see that the effect of Christ in one's life is to make one able to live the ideals that pagans could write about but rarely live...Second,he is noting that the normal Christian position is the way of submission. No New Testament writer has a problem with submission, for it is what Jesus practiced, as Peter points out in 1 Peter 2:23. Liberation in the New Testament comes from the powerful giving up power, the wealthy sharing their wealth, not by the oppressed demanding their rights or the poor their share of the pie. The effect of the Spirit is seen in the act of giving up, not that of demanding. Thus Sarah's action shows an attitude consistent with New Testament virtue. This was especially important, given the role possibilities for women in that day...Third, he is following the pattern Paul described in 1 Corinthians 5:12–13 (and illustrates in 1 Cor 7:12–16), that Christians should not try to impose their standards on non-Christians. After all, such people do not have the power of the Spirit to follow Christian standards. Thus this passage does not address the behavior of the unbelieving husband, only that of the wife. She alone can show Christian virtue. She can hope that her husband will in fact come to faith and, filled with the Spirit, in turn begin to treat her as an equal, as instructed in 1 Peter 3:7." [HSOBX: in loc.]

"Though he is not addressing the institutions of slavery or patriarchal marriage structures themselves, Peter recognizes the unjust use of such structures (1 Pet 2:19) and encourages believers in unjust situations to act strategically within them for the long-range interests of the gospel (cf. Balch 1984)." [NT:DictLNT: s.v., "Woman and Man"]

"Peter's advice is practical, not harsh as it might sound in our culture. Although philosophers’ household codes often stressed that the wife should “fear” her husband as well as submit to him, Peter disagrees (v. 6; cf. 3:13–14). Husbands could legally “throw out” babies, resort to prostitutes and make life miserable for their wives, although sleeping with other women of the aristocratic class or beating their wives was prohibited. (In a mid-second-century account, a Christian divorced her husband for his repeated infidelity, so he betrayed her to the authorities as a Christian.) Christian wives were limited in their options, but Peter wants them to pursue peace without being intimidated." [BBC: in loc]