The Myth of Mutual Submission

 

From Andy Naselli:

“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph 5:21).

This 11-page chapter (available for free as a PDF) concisely and convincingly explains why the phrase “mutual submission” is unhelpful at best:

Wayne Grudem, “The Myth of Mutual Submission as an Interpretation of Ephesians 5:21,” in Biblical Foundations for Manhood and Womanhood    (ed. Wayne Grudem; Foundations for the Family Series; Wheaton: Crossway, 2002), 221–31.

Outline:

1. Background
2. An Acceptable Sense of Mutual Submission
3. Objections to the Egalitarian Sense of Mutual Submission
   1. The following context specifies the kind of submission Paul has in mind.
   2. The absence of any command for husbands to submit to wives
   3. The meaning of “be subject to” (hypotassō)
   4. The lack of evidence for the egalitarian meaning of hypotassō
   5. The meaning of “one another”
   6. The meaning of Colossians 3:18, Titus 2:5, and 1 Peter 3:1
4. Practical Application

(The entire book is available for free as a PDF.)

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