Re: Eph. 5:33

From: Harold R. Holmyard III (hholmyard@ont.com)
Date: Tue May 16 2000 - 17:57:24 EDT


Dear Michael,
     You wrote:

>Sorry, I was unclear. What I meant was while both clauses [of Eph 5:33]
>are absolute imperatives, my inclination would be to interpret ìna to mean
>that the respect (although expected regardless of the husbands behavior)
>would be the normative consequence of his obedience to the command to love
>his wife.

That is what I hoped that you meant. I agree with Carl's comment
technically, that the imperatival ideas are independent. In 1 Pet 3:1 we
see that wives were to be submissive to their husbands even if they were
disobedient to God's word. And in Ephesians, the passage is about
submission (5:21). I understand the wife to be one example of the
submission required in 5:21, children (6:1) and slaves (6:5) being other
examples. On the other hand, the passage as a whole favors your logic. The
wife is to submit to her husband in the fear (FOBWi) of Christ (v. 21), and
as to the Lord (v. 22). Paul then shows how the husband is to be like the
Lord. Actually he shows how the Lord is like a husband. The husband is to
be like Christ; then it is easy for the wife to fear (FOBHTAI: v. 33) him
as she does Christ.
     BAG, s.v. hINA, III, 2, says that hINA with the subjunctive is used as
a periphasis for the imperative. Perhaps in such a case hINA involves some
unexpressed, assumed words like "let her see." "Only also you individually,
let each love his own wife as himself, and the woman, let her see that she
fears the man. This is the way that Lancelot Brenton translated in 2 Macc
1:9, which BAG lists as a parallel instance of this construction. BAG also
lists Mt 20:33; Mk 10:51; 1 Cor 7:29; 16:16; 2 Cor 8:7; Gal 2:10; Rev
14:13. BAG notes that this kind of hINA sometimes occurs with QELW. BAG
suggests adding the word "please" sometimes (Mk 5:23).

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard




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