Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Colossians 3:18

αἱ γυναῖκες. On the article and nominative used as the vocative see Blass, Gram. § 33. 4. Moulton, op. cit. pp. 70, 235. Cf. Matthew 11:26; Luke 8:54. This is the typical form of the vocative in Hebrew, the article lending itself with special ease to the Hebrew love of pictorial effect.

ὑποτάσσεσθε, “subject yourselves.” To children and slaves he says ὑπακούετε (Colossians 3:20; Colossians 3:22), i.e. obey single commands, but here he speaks of the general attitude (compare Romans 13:1), consistent with the natural state of things (1 Corinthians 11:3). Compare ὑποτάσσεσθαι of women in 1 Corinthians 14:34; Ephesians 5:24; Titus 2:5; 1 Peter 3:1.

ὡς�, “as is fitting.”

In the N.T. peculiar to this group of Epistles, Ephesians 5:4; Philemon 1:8. In the LXX. it is used figuratively of “coming up to” and pertaining to” either persons (1Ma 10:42; 1Ma 11:35 ter) or a moral notion (Ecclus. Prol. l. 9, τῶν εἰς παιδείαν καὶ σοφίαν�; 2Ma 14:8), and then of coming up to an ideal, i.e. being fit and suitable in the abstract (1Ma 10:40, “and I give every year 15,000 shekels of silver from the king’s revenues, ἀπὸ τῶν τόπων τῶν�”). This last sense alone occurs in the N.T.

Observe that St Paul uses not the present but the imperfect as. in Ephesians 5:4 (ἅ οὐκ�, W.H.). “The past tense perhaps implies an essential à priori obligation” (Lightfoot). Gildersleeve, Gk Synt. § 220, seems to call such an imperfect the “Imperfect of Sudden Appreciation of Real State of Affairs.” In this case the sentence would mean, “Submit yourselves to your husbands, which is, after all, fitting in the Lord.”

ἐν κυρίῳ, Colossians 3:20; Colossians 4:7 = in a life ruled by Christ.

Continues after advertising

BibliaPlus

Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Colossians 3:18

Old Testament

New Testament