And above all these things, put on love, which the bond of unity that has been brought to the goal. And let the peace of Messiah rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Messiah dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing each other, in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God. And all you do in word of work, do all in the name of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah, giving thanks to Him through God the Father.Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is proper in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be embittered against them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord.
Fathers, do not stir up your children, lest they become disheartened. Slaves, in all things obey those who are your lords according to the flesh, not in eye-service as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord rather than men; knowing that from the Lord you will receive as due the recompense of the inheritance. It is the Lord Messiah Whom you serve. For he who acts wrongly will bear what he did wrongly, and that without respect of persons.
I'm afraid that this passage, like the similar passage in Ephesians gets too much attention for the wrong reasons. This is largely because people choose to focus on Pauls instructions to wives to the exclusion of all else. As a reslt, people fail to see that Paul's primary concern isn't with behavior, but with motivation. This is easily understood when you see that for Paul actions flow from motivation. Hence, he first gives general instructions about why Christians should do things and only then addresses specific items of behavior.
It is quite clear, I think, that Paul's primary focus in this passage is that of love. He makes it clear that Christians should love each other and, more importantly, love God. Then, he goes on to say that if you do love God and each other, that you will behave in certain ways. Yes, wive are to submit to their husbands, but husbands are to treat their wives in such a way that such submission should never cause a problem. Children and slaves are also instructed, in their own ways, to be obedient. But fathers and masters are instructed to act kindly.
In Christian relationships, where everyone is fulfilling their obligations, the types of submission Paul discusses would not be a burden. Of course we all know that not every one fulfills their obligations. However, the failure of one party does not release us from our duties. Our social contract is not with each other, but with the Father.
1Messianic Renewed Covenant translation
Women don't like being told what to do, and the submission command is just that. It has nothing to do with the man, and women continually point to the men as either a) telling the women to submit (never seen a man do that) or b) not behaving in a manner worthy of their submission for excuses why they shouldn't follow the command. Plus it's 'dumb' and 'weak'. To that I say 'just try it, sister', submission to your husband is not for the weak.
God sure knew what he was doing when he told the women to submit, he didn't tell them to do what comes naturally, he knew this behavior would have to be commanded.
And, tell me about the Messianic Renewed Covenant translation
/a woman, and wife
Posted by: LT | Tuesday, May 04, 2004 at 10:04 AM
LT, I'll let your commentson women stand as they are. I suspect it's easier to take coming from you than me anyway.
Here is a brief description of the Messianic Renewed Covenant translation. It is literal translation of the New Testament done by Messianic Jews. I just found it a few weeks ago and haven't used it much. The reading is a little stilted in places, but it seems to be a decent translation.
I particularly like reading translations done by Messianic Jews because they have a very different perspective than most translators. As a result some group blindspots are easier to pick up on. That's not to say that the Jewish translators don't have blindspots; it's just that they have different blindspots.
Posted by: Jeffrey Collins | Tuesday, May 04, 2004 at 06:00 PM
Interesting! Can you go into more detail about what differences make the text more/less understandable to you? What 'blindspots' did you see that you hadn't noticed before in the 'Christian gentile' interpretation?
/doesn't know Greek
Posted by: LT | Wednesday, May 05, 2004 at 08:07 AM
For instance, most New Testament translations use the word "law" when referring to the Mosaic code. This is a technically accurate word, but doesn't fully convey the force of what the authors of the epistles were getting at.
Messianic translations tend to use the word Torah instead. Not being Jewish, i can't fully grasp the impact Torah has, but it's easier for me to grasp.
As for understandability, I've just found that in a few places the sentence structure isn't quite as easy to follow as in some translations. But that's hardly a surprise as the MRC is intended as a literal translation. Literal translations tend carry over a lot of the grammatical tendencies of the original language.
Posted by: Jeffrey Collins | Wednesday, May 05, 2004 at 08:31 PM