On the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood’s Web site, Grudem challenges egalitarians to provide an example in which hypotasso is being applied “to relationships between persons and where it does not carry the sense of being subject to an authority.”[1] Clement of Rome, who is believed by many to be the Clement mentioned by Paul in Philippians 4:3, is an early witness to the mutual subjection of all believers.
Let us take our body for an example. The head is nothing without the feet, and the feet are nothing without the head; yea, the very smallest members of our body are necessary and useful to the whole body. But all work (lit. all breathe together) harmoniously together, and are under one common rule (lit. use one subjection) for the preservation of the whole body. Let our whole body, then, be preserved in, Christ Jesus; and let every one be subject to his neighbour, according to the special gift (lit. according as he has been placed in his charism) bestowed upon him.[2]
Polycarp was the disciple of John the Apostle, and in his letter love, humility and good works are all part of mutual subjection.
Stand fast, therefore, in these things, and follow the example of the Lord, being firm and unchangeable in the faith, loving the brotherhood, and being attached to one another, joined together in the truth, exhibiting the meekness of the Lord in your intercourse with one another, and despising no one. When you can do good, defer it not, because “alms delivers from death.” Be all of you subject one to another having your conduct blameless among the Gentiles,” that ye may both receive praise for your good works, and the Lord may not be blasphemed through you. But woe to him by whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed! Teach, therefore, sobriety to all, and manifest it also in your own conduct.[3]
The disciple of Polycarp, Irenaues, wrote in his only surviving work, Against Heresies, “Submission to God is eternal rest, so that they who shun the light have a place worthy of their flight; and those who fly from eternal rest, have a habitation in accordance with their fleeing.[4] Also Origen connected submission with salvation in the beginning of the third century.
What, then, is this “putting under” by which all things must be made subject to Christ? I am of opinion that it is this very subjection by which we also wish to be subject to Him, by which the apostles also were subject, and all the saints who have been followers of Christ. For the name “subjection,” by which we are subject to Christ, indicates that the salvation which proceeds from Him belongs to His subjects, agreeably to the declaration of David, “Shall not my soul be subject unto God? From Him cometh my salvation.”[5]
Mutual submission is not taught only in Ephesians 5.21 - it is also found in 1 Peter 5.5-6. Modern English translations do not convey the meaning, for allelon (“one another”) is connected to tapeinophrosune (“humility of mind”) instead of hypotasso as seen in the NIV, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.” But how does one clothe oneself toward another? Not surprisingly, the post-Reformation translations do not follow the Vulgate which connects the humility of mind with “one another” while modern English translations do [1] for the modern church shares its affinity towards a powerful clergy with the patristic church, while the Post-Reformation churches attempted to bring more equality between the clergy and the laity after a millennium of powerful and corrupt bishops by emphasizing the mutual submission of the two.
Clement of Rome agreed with the post-Reformation Bible translators.
For God,” saith [the Scripture], “resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.” Let us cleave, then, to those to whom grace has been given by God. Let us clothe ourselves with concord and humility, ever exercising self-control, standing far off from all whispering and evil-speaking, being justified by our works, and not our words.[2]
Clement appears to translate hypotasso with “cleave,” and he considers clothing oneself with humility to be personal, not “toward one another.” First Peter 5.5-6 makes eminently more sense if hypotasso is connected to allelon (“be subject to another”) and tapeinophrosune to each believer’s relationship towards God (“Be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble”), for the believers are directed to submit to another and to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, so He might exalt them in due time.
[1] Tyndale (1526), Miles Coverdale (1535), The Bishop’s Bible (1568), Geneva Bible (1587), The King James Version (1611) and Wesley’s New Testament (1755) all have “be subject to one another.” The Vulgate translates the text, “Similiter adulescentes subditi estote senioribus omnes autem invicem humilitatem insinuate quia dues superbis resistit humilibus autem dat gratiam.”
[2] The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, Ch. XXX.
[1] Wayne Grudem, “The Myth of Mutual Submission as an Interpretation of Eph 5:21, Biblical Foundations for Manhood and Womanhood, http://www.cbmw.org.
[2] Clement of Rome, The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, Ch. XXXVII-III.
[3] Polycarp, The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians, Ch. X.
[4] Against Heresies, Book IV, Ch. XXXIX.
[5] Origen, Origen de Principiis, Book I, Ch. VI.
No comments:
Post a Comment