"Why Ephesians 5:22 Does Not Command Wives To Submit To Their Husbands."

This material is a copy of two pages from the Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, published by Zondervan Publishing House.

This is called an "interlinear" because English translation is included between the lines of Greek.

An interlinear is a useful tool for students who are learning to read The New Testament in Greek.

Even if you don't know anything about Greek, you can learn a lot by looking at an interlinear.

The large column on the right contains the Greek version of Ephesians.

Underneath each line, the editors have translated the Greek words into English.

This particular interlinear includes the New International Version (NIV) translation in the left column.

I have included this material as a supplement to my article, "Why Ephesians 5:22 Does Not Command Wives To Submit To Their Husbands."

Verses 5:21 and 5:22 are highlighted in yellow.

If we pay attention only to the interlinear, the English reads:

5:21: "being subject to one another in [the] fear of Christ."

5:22: "The wives to the(ir) own husbands as to the Lord,..."

Compare these words in the interlinear with the NIV translation on the right.

The NIV treats 5:21 as the end of a paragraph. It then starts a new paragraph, and adds the imperative form of "submit" to 5:22.

5:21. "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ."

5:22. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.

There are many other issues and questions about this portion of Ephesians.

The only point I am attempting to make here is that every English translation I have ever seen has added the imperative "submit" to 5:22, even though the verb does not occur in the Greek.

This means that English language Bibles consistently mistranslate the Greek original, and in the process, change the meaning.

The NIV Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, Zondervan Publishing, pages 771-772.

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