Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 16:1 (Winter 2002)
Article: The Cultural Context Of Ephesians 5:18-6:9: Is There A Divinely Ordained Hierarchy In The Life Of The Church And Home That Is Based On Gender Alone?
Author: Gordon D. Fee

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PP 14:1 (Winter 2002) p. 3

The Cultural Context Of Ephesians 5:18-6:9: Is There A Divinely Ordained Hierarchy In The Life Of The Church And Home That Is Based On Gender Alone?

Gordon D. Fee

Gordon Fee is professor of New Testament at Regemt College in Vancouver, BC, Canada. He has written numerous books and commentaries, including Listening to the Spirit in the Text (Eerdmans, 2000). He taught previously at Wheaton College and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. This article was first presented at cbe’s international conference in Dallas last June and has been edited for publication.

I begin this discourse with a disclaimer, since the title suggests far more than one can deliver in a limited amount of space. It suggests far more knowledge about this topic than I actually have—indeed, it is safe to say that there is much more that we don’t know about these things than we actually do. What I hope to do is to offer a few probings into the cultural background of this passage—which has become such a crux for people on both sides of the issue of whether there is a divinely ordained hierarchy in the life of the church and home, based on gender alone.

I. Preliminary Matters

There are some preliminary matters that are important for our understanding of the passage itself.

1. Some assumptions about Ephesians itself and the role of this passage in this letter. Contrary to what is probably the majority opinion in current New Testament scholarship, I think the Ephesian letter is by Paul. Furthermore, I think the letter has to be kept in its historical context as a companion letter with Colossians and Philemon.

The letter was probably not written specifically to the church in Ephesus—some early manuscripts lack a name in 1:1; in 1:15 Paul speaks about only having heard about their faith, and there are no personal words whatsoever. It may have been either the letter to Laodicea that ended up in Ephesus, or—more likely, in my opinion—this was a circular letter to the many churches in the province of Asia that sprang out of what he had to say to the Colossians.

What is important for our purposes is the letter’s clear association with Colossians and, therefore, with Philemon. One of the unfortunate things that happened in the organizing of the Christian canon was the separation of Philemon from Colossians, for both letters would have been read together in Philemon’s house church, with both Philemon and Onesimus present. The point, of course, is that the so-called house rules that occur only in Colossians and Ephesians almost certainly spring from the circumstances that brought One...

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