The Junia Project

Advocating for Women's Equality in the Church and Home

Ephesians 5:21-33: How Paul Turns Headship on Its Head

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Ephesians 5:21-33 is often cited as a proof text to endorse male leadership in the home.

In this text, wives are instructed to submit to their husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Pretty clear, right?

Well, perhaps not. As with the other passages, we need to consider the broader context to discern what’s going on.

The most important thing to notice is that the relationship between husbands and wives is not the main theme that Paul is addressing.

Co-Leadership in Marriage: What about Headship?

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Headship can often become a divisive issue in marriage discussions—especially in religious circles. Various “infallible” headship interpretations and accompanying dialogue could fill a library. Our experience is that people will endlessly argue the original Greek and Hebrew, lexicons, grammar roots, verb tenses, hermeneutical and eschatological anthropomorphisms, and endless jots and tittles until Jesus Christ returns.

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