A Fresh Look at Paul's
Admonitions to Women and Men
By Jonathan Mitchell

Colossians 3:18-19

This essay will focus on the Greek verb "hupotasso," in Col. 3:18, and then "agapao," in 3:19, and will explore the semantic range of these verbs in order to search out the possibilities of the meaning of these admonitions. My expanded translation parenthetically inserts the potential renderings of each verb, and so we will begin with our text:

18. Wives, be habitually aligned to shelter and humbly support (or, as a middle voice: continue sub-joining, attaching, appending, setting or arranging yourselves in order, by means of, or under) those husbands (or: Women, continue subjecting yourselves, along with the adult males), in the same way as there has progressively come again to be a connection in [the] Lord (or: since there has been an arrival back in union with [our] Master and Owner). [cf 1 Cor. 15:27-28]

19. Husbands, be habitually loving and being urged toward unity with those wives (or: Adult males, be constantly showing unambiguous acceptance to, and for, the women, as being folks standing on the same ground with yourselves), and do not become repeatedly sharp toward, or face to face with, them (or: and so, stop being rough, bitter or insensitive to them). [cf Eph. 5:25-33]

In verse 18, the form of "hupotasso" is commonly rendered as being in the passive voice (the subject, i.e., wives or women, being acted upon), and thus the NRSV, e.g., offers us:

"Wives be subject to your husbands."

However, this form of the verb can also be read as a middle voice (the subject acts upon itself), and this shifts the power, or authority, of action from being outside of the woman (whether that authority be God, or a human male) to being within the power and authority of the woman. Ah, the beauty of the functional ambiguity of Koine Greek!

The verb is in the present tense, and thus have I indicated that the action should be habitual or continued. But now to consider the semantic range which is on offer:
a) be aligned to shelter and humbly support. Here, I have conflated three ideas: alignment (from the main verb, "tasso), which is modified by the prefix "hupo," thus adding the picture of being "under," or at a "sub," and thus, potentially "supportive" position, and then the lexical use of the verb which means "to shelter," or "to build a shelter."
b) to sub-join, attach, set, or arrange oneself under, or by means of. In this conflation, the pictures of "sub-joining" or "attaching" are neutral, giving no nuance of hierarchy. Likewise, "set" or "arrange" oneself are not, of themselves, hierarchal. But the prefix "hupo" can suggest a lower social position, as was the case for women, in 1st century Hellenism and Judaism. Yet this preposition also carries the potential meaning of "by." In this latter sense, the males would be the instruments of sub-joining, attaching or arranging the women to, and in, the temple of God.

A second parenthetical offering for the first clause gives the more common rendering of the verb, although in the middle voice, "Women, continue subjecting yourselves." However, here on offer is the indirect object, "the adult males," rendered as an associative dative function, "along with." This puts the males and the females on the same playing field: both are to subject themselves to God, as we read in Jas. 4:10,

"You folks must consequently be made low (humbled; demoted; brought to a low station), in the Lord's sight (= in [Yahweh's, or Christ's] presence), and then He will progressively lift you up (or: continue elevating you)." [cf Ps. 30:11]

Before moving to the next verb under consideration, observe Paul's use of "hupotasso" in 1 Cor. 15:

27. For you see, "He completely arranged, humbly aligned, then appended and put under shelter all humanity (or: subjoins, supportively arranges in subordination, and brings under full control, all things) under His feet (= as supporting forces in His kingdom)." [Ps. 8:6] Now when He would say, "All humanity (or: everything) has been completely aligned and arranged under full, subjected and sheltered control," [it is] evident (clearly visible) that [it is] with the exception of, and outside of, the One subjecting the whole (or: arranging all things and situations in humble, subordinate, attached alignment) in, by, and for (or: to), Him.

28. Now at any time when the whole (or: all things) should at some point be completely supportively-aligned in Him (or: attached and appended to Him; subordinately sheltered and arranged by and for Him), then the Son Himself will also continue being supportively aligned to, fully subjoined for and humbly attached under as an arranged shelter in, the One subjecting, appending and sheltering the whole in Him (or: attaching all things to Him), to the end that God would be all things within the midst of, and in union with, all humans (or: may be everything in all things; or: should exist being All in all; or: can exist being everything, within the midst of everyone). [cf 1 Cor. 3:23; 11:3; Jn. 14:28; Eph. 1:10]

With Col. 3:18a in mind, observe what Paul gives in admonition to the adult males, or husbands, in vs. 19:
a) Husbands, be habitually loving and being urged toward unity with those wives. Here, "agapao" is rendered "be habitually loving," and then on offer is the meaning of "agape" given by Paul Tillich, "the urge toward union or reunion" (cf my translation of Jn. 3:16).
b) Adult males, be constantly showing unambiguous acceptance to, and for, the women, as being folks standing on the same ground with yourselves. This expanded rendering of the same verb also comes from Tillich. Paul is telling the men at Colossae to treat the women as equals in Christ. That is the meaning of "accepting them as being on the same ground" with themselves. They have the same "standing."

This reading of these admonitions to the women and to the men can be seen as an outgrowth of his earlier instructions in Col. 3:

9. Do not keep on (or: Stop) lying unto one another! And so, having stripped off from yourselves (undressed yourselves from; or: And with getting out of and then going away from) the old humanity (the old human; = the old Adam), together with its practices,

10. and then having suddenly clothed yourselves with (or: and with putting on and entering within) the new one (the fresh one which existed only recently), the one being continuously (or: repeatedly; habitually; progressively) renewed (made back up essentially new again -- different in kind and character; [cf Rev. 21:5]) into full, accurate, added, intimate and experiential Knowledge and Insight, which is down from, following the pattern of, corresponding to, and is in the sphere of, the Image (an exactly formed Visible Likeness) of its Creator (from the One framing and founding it from a state of wildness and disorder),

11. wherein (or: in which place, state, or sphere) there is no Greek [figure of the multitudes who are non-Jews, and of those who are cultured and civilized] and Jew [figure of a covenant people of God], circumcision and uncircumcision [figure for religious in-groups and out-groups; there is no longer a covenant people versus non-covenant people], barbarian [foreigner who speaks a different language], Scythian [figure or example of wild, uncivilized groups], slave, freeman, but to the contrary, Christ [is] all, and within all (or: Christ [is] all humanity, and within all mankind; or: Christ [is] everything or all things, and within everything and all things; [note: "all" in this Greek phrase is plural, and functions aseither masculine, signifying "mankind," or as neuter, signifying all creation]).

Also recall his words in Gal. 3:28,

"Within [Him; us], there is not (there does not exist) Jew nor Greek (or: Hellenist); within, there is not (does not exist) slave nor freeman; within, there is not (does not exist) ‘male and female'; for it follows that, you folks all exist being ONE, WITHIN Christ Jesus (or: for you see, all you people are one person, centered in, and in union with, an Anointing from Jesus)."

We are not to live our lives in the realm of God's Kingdom after the manner of the old humanity (Col. 3:9). There is a new arrangement… a new creation. In the body of Christ (2 Cor. 5:17) the old things, such as male dominance, have passed away. Further instruction on this is given in Eph. 5:21,

"while regularly stationing or arranging yourselves under, for one another (or: placing yourselves in humble, aligned assignment with one another; or: being subordinated in taking shelter under one another) so as to support one another, in respect for Christ [cf Phil. 2:3] (or: in union with the reverence which is an Anointing; within Christ's fear; in awe pertaining to, and the source of which is, [the] Anointed One [other MSS: God])."

For those who follow Christ, it is time to align with the teachings of the new covenant, the new arrangement which Christ has brought to us. If we are "abiding in the Vine" (Jn. 15), the old customs should be pruned off.

Jonathan

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