Exegesis of Ephesians 5:22-33: Marriage and the Church

Main Idea

Ephesians 5:22-33 likens the relationship of husband and wife to the relationship of Christ and His Church. The first three verses are imperatives directed to wives: they are told to submit to their husbands in the same way that the Church submits to Christ (Eph 5:22-24). Christ is likened to the head of the Church, and wives are told that their husbands are the heads — or superiors — of them. If Christ rules over, guides, and directs His Church, wives are reminded that they should expect no less from their husbands and that they should be subject to the men they marry.

The next eight verses are imperatives directed to husbands. Husbands are commanded to love their wives just as Christ loved His Church (Eph 5:25-28). The husband is reminded that just as the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, so too is the wife part of the body of the family, of which the husband is the head and in which the two are one flesh (Eph 5:29-32). Husbands are reminded that no man scorns his own body or abuses his own flesh, and so there is no reason that he should scorn or abuse his wife, since she is to be considered the same as his own flesh. The mystery of "two in one flesh" is likened to the mystery of the union of Christ and His Church.

The final verse is a summation and reminder to both husbands and wives: husbands must love and wives must respect (Eph 5:33). Just as Jesus commanded men to love their neighbors as they love themselves, husbands are here commanded to love their wives as they love themselves, and the wife is commanded to respect her husband.

One may infer some telling ideas about the nature of man and woman from Ephesians 5:22-33. The most obvious idea is that women require fewer words than men. Indeed, the number of verses directed toward men in the passage is more than double those directed toward women. It appears in Sacred Scripture as though women are able to intuit the reasons implied in the passage much more easily than men, who must have ideas drawn out for them in detail before submitting their intellects to them and fully embracing the reasons upon which they are to base their actions.

Introduction

This paper offers an exegesis of Ephesians 5:22-33 and shows how it illuminates the nature and mystery of man and woman, deepens the beauty, practicality, and mission of their matrimonial relationship, and provides that relationship with a valuable framework and system of accord.

The Epistle to the Ephesians was written by Paul during his imprisonment in Rome in 63 AD and carried to Asia Minor by Tychicus, where it very likely circulated from Ephesus to Colossae to Laodicea "as a sort of circular letter to the various Christian communities in that part of Asia Minor."

Historical and Literary Context

The intended audience of the Epistle to the Ephesians is disputed, but some things are certainly known about the Christians who inhabited Ephesus and the neighboring towns in Asia Minor. St. Paul himself had evangelized Ephesus — which was considered "the chief city of western Asia Minor" — a decade prior to writing the Epistle. The Ephesian Christians had then catechized Laodicea. Therefore, most of the converts had been pagan Gentiles; few had been Jews. This may explain the lack of references to the Hebrew Old Testament.

As for St. Paul, thirteen epistles are attributed to him — if not written directly by him, then at least under his direction. His conversion from a Jewish persecutor of Christians to Christian Apostle is one of the most dramatic conversion stories in all of history. Such drama is infused in his writings, his works, and his travels. A missionary who traveled widely to spread the news of Christ, Paul brought with him his own passionate style and zeal and applied it in several different ways, always striving to reach a particular audience in the way it needed to be reached. Living in a world ruled by Romans, it should be no surprise that authority as depicted in this Epistle is distinctly patriarchal. Patriarchy was very important to the ancient world.

The letter to the Ephesians, written around 63 AD by St. Paul to the Gentile converts in western Asia Minor, is composed in the epistolary narrative tradition and may be divided into two main sections — Doctrinal and Moral — each with three distinct parts. The Doctrinal section comes first, following the initial introduction, and includes the idea that "the Church is One with Christ," that Paul himself has been commissioned by God to preach the Mystery of Redemption, and that Paul is praying for the brethren. The Moral section follows and includes a general explanation of what it means to be Christian, the governance of the Christian home (in which Eph 5:22-33 is found), and the character of Christian Warfare, which is understood as a spiritual war. The focus of this exegesis — Paul's admonition to husbands and wives — contributes to the flow and character of the Epistle by illustrating the "abstract, profound, and systematic" ideas concerning Christ, the Church, and Christian living.

The major theme of the Epistle resembles that of the Epistle to the Colossians; however, it is deeper, fuller, and more systematic in its approach. The Church is defined as the Mystical Body of Christ, through which Christians (members of the body) receive graces as they flow from God through the Head of the Body, which is Christ. The theme of beginning a new and fresh life in the Mystical Body is also emphasized. The major characters of Ephesians are the recipients of the letter themselves — husbands, wives, slaves, masters, children, and parents — all of whom are called to put on the armor of God, which will serve them well in the battle for their souls. No major events are recorded in Ephesians, but the Epistle touches on the adoption of Christian morality and explicitly addresses the ideas at the foundation of Christian marriage.

Any exegesis of Ephesians 5:22-33 must be rooted in the historical-cultural context of the Epistle itself. It is important, therefore, to divorce neither the passage from the intention of the writer (St. Paul) nor from the whole Epistle in which it is situated — nearly at its heart, in fact. St. Paul's intention should be clear in a general sense (the further instruction and enlightenment of the Gentile converts in Asia Minor) and in a specific sense (the solidification of the faithful through the transmission of a rational, systematic acknowledgment of the Faith in the then-contemporary real world). Just as slavery — which is not lauded "as an institution" but humbly accepted as a fact of contemporary life — is treated by St. Paul following the instruction to husbands and wives, the reality of the relationship between men and women in matrimony is addressed without any pretense of what today might be called political correctness.

Socially speaking, St. Paul simply obliges husbands and wives to recognize their roles, positions, and duties according to both their natures and their respective relationships in the larger Mystical Body, of which they serve as figures.

Content: Paul's Teaching on Marriage

Likewise, just as the doctrinal first half of the Epistle provides the foundation for the moral second half, Eph 5:21 serves as a kind of foundation for the passage that follows. Eph 5:21 provides the appropriate literary context for understanding verses 22-33; it is a single command under which all of the following commands in the passage may be situated: "Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ." The important phrase is "to one another," which emphasizes the fundamental rule of servitude that Christ placed upon His Apostles. St. Paul similarly places it upon all Christians, including husbands and wives, who are clearly expected to serve and be subject to one another — despite the following imperatives explicitly directing wives to be subject to their husbands. Since this imperative precedes the commands issued to wives, it acts as an overall rule: a cautionary guide indicating the direction in which Eph 5:22-33 must be taken.

St. Paul is not licensing men to be tyrannical governors of women, and Eph 5:21 makes that clear. Husbands and wives are to be subject to one another; Eph 5:22-33 shows just how they are to be subject to one another, for they are to be subject in very different ways. Wives are to be subject to husbands by way of respect, and husbands are to be subject to wives by way of love. This admonition clearly points to a difference in the nature and character of men and women: women, it would seem, need love more than respect, while men, on the other hand, require respect more than love.

As Clinton E. Arnold observes, St. Paul's idea of Christian marriage in Eph 5:22-33 is founded upon "a number of assumptions that he had about husbands and wives derived from Scripture and informed by the implications of the new covenant in Christ."

Having observed the fact of the creation of man and woman by God in the image of God (Gen 1:27), St. Paul sets the stage for the idea that men and women should reflect God in His actions. Thus, the idea of sacrifice is written into Eph 5:22-33 by way of extended analogy. Christ sacrifices Himself for the Church; so too must husband and wife be willing to sacrifice themselves for the family. In this sense, the woman must sacrifice her will — or, as St. Paul states, submit her will to her husband — and the man must sacrifice his ego, or self-love, and give love to his wife.

St. Paul cushions this last directive by asserting that "he who loves his own wife loves himself" (Eph 5:29). The man is thus comforted, to a degree, by the thought that he is not losing his ego but rather enhancing it. However, such an explanation need not be accepted unconditionally. The point is that a man ought to be willing to "deny themselves in the grind of daily life, put their wives first, and demonstrate love in tangible ways that may interfere with other conflicting desires of a lesser priority."