Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Ephesians 5:21-33, Wives and husbands in the household code
Paul opens the household code with submitting to one another, asks wives to submit to their husbands as to the Lord, and asks husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church, washing her and presenting her radiant.
Ephesians 5:21-33, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul begins the household instructions by calling all believers to yield to one another out of respect for Christ. He then asks wives to yield to their husbands as to the Lord, and asks husbands to love their wives with the self-giving love Christ showed the church. He ties marriage to the joining of two into one flesh and says it points to Christ and the church.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-household\/","n":"The household and its head","s":"A household gathered family, slaves, freed slaves and workers under one head, and it was expected to follow that head's religion. When the head turned to a new god, the house often came too.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/betrothal-and-weddings\/","n":"Betrothal and the wedding feast","s":"A betrothal was a binding marriage contract made months before the couple lived together. The wedding that completed it was a week-long feast.","r":""}
From Aristotle on, household codes told the male head of the house how to rule his wife, children and slaves, and minority groups used them to show they upheld Roman family values (Keener and his notes). The verb of 5:22 is borrowed from 5:21, so a wife's submission is one example of the general call (Keener; Carson, Moo and Morris). The cultural backgrounds article on marriage roles says nearly every Mediterranean society expected wives to submit; some contracts made a wife ask leave even to visit her family, Greek men commonly married at thirty, women at eighteen, and wives had more freedom in Macedonia and Rome than in Ephesus, "where Hellenistic culture dominated." Keener writes that "ancient household codes never list love as a husband's duty", and the article ranks Paul with the moderate minority, such as Xenophon and Musonius Rufus. The washing probably recalls the bride's bath (Keener and his notes). What submitting to one another means is disputed: Keener, his notes and Wright and Bird read a mutual submission that took in the head of the house, while the ESV Study Bible reads submission within the order the examples set out.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to Ephesians 5:21-33, and on Ephesians 5:21, 5:22-24, 5:25 and 5:26
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Ephesians 5:21-6:9, 5:22-6:8 and 5:26
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Marriage Roles in Antiquity (Ephesians 5:21-33)
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Ephesians 5:21 and 5:26-27
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 20, Colossians, Philemon, and Ephesians, The Argument of Ephesians, section 7
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 11, Ephesians, The Contribution of Ephesians
