Ephesians 5:22

Αἱ γυναῖκες, τοῖς ἰδίοις ἀνδράσιν [ὑποτάσσεσθε]: Wives, be in subjection to your own husbands. The great Christian law of mutual subjection or submissive consideration is now to be unfolded in its bearing on three particular relations which lie at the foundation of man's social life those of husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants. The relation of husbands and wives, as the most fundamental, is taken up before the others, and the Christian duty of the wives is set forth first. The reading is somewhat uncertain. The TR inserts ὑποτάσσεσθε, with [597] [598], most cursives, Syr., Chrys., etc. A few manuscripts ([599] [600]) place the ὑποτάσσεσθε after the γυναῖκες. In some important authorities ([601] [602] [603] 17, Boh., Goth., Vulg., Arm., etc.) we find ὑποτασσέσθωσαν; which is accepted by LTr and given a place in the margin by WH. The clause is given without any verb by [604], Clem., and Jer., which last states that the verb was not found in his Greek codices. This shortest form is adopted by WH in their text. The verb is easily supplied from the preceding ὑποτασσόμενοι, and such constructions are quite in Paul's style. The ἰδίοις (which is omitted in the parallel passage in Colossians 3:18) is here, as often if not always in the NT, something more than a simple possessive. It conveys the idea of what is special, and gives a certain note of emphasis or intensity, = husbands who as such are peculiarly and exclusively theirs; see 1 Peter 3:1, and cf. Ell. in loc.; Blass, Gram. of N. T. Greek, p. 169. ὡς τῷ Κυρίῳ : as to the Lord. That is, to Christ; not to the husband as lord and master. If the husband's supremacy had been in view, it would have been expressed by τοῖς κυρίοις. The ὡς denotes more than similarly, and more than “just as they are submissive to Christ so should they be to their husbands”. The next sentence, and the whole statement of the relation between husband and wife in the following verse in terms of the relation between Christ and the Church, suggest that the point of the ὡς is that the wife is to regard the obedience she has to render to her husband as an obedience rendered to Christ, the Christian husband being head of the wife and representing to her Christ the Head of the whole Christian body.

[597] Codex Mosquensis (sæc. ix.), edited by Matthæi in 1782.

[598] Codex Angelicus (sæc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.

[599] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[600] Codex Boernerianus (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthæi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis (δ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.

[601] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[602] Codex Alexandrinus (sæc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).

[603] Codex Porphyrianus (sæc. ix.), at St. Petersburg, collated by Tischendorf. Its text is deficient for chap. Ephesians 2:13-16.

[604] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.