How Did We Get Here?

In the March 4^th post, we dipped our toes into the interpretation of kephale (head), and whether the translation is ‘source’ or ‘authority’. In that post, I mentioned that I would be undertaking research into how female roles in the home and at church developed within Christianity. I still haven’t begun that research, but I feel like the research is pursuing me. While reading or listening to others discuss unrelated topics, a connection with female roles comes up. So, not ignoring the prompts, I’d like to spend a few minutes today looking at two other related words: submit and help. Each word is related to the topic of roles, and our direction has either been guided by our interpretation, or our presuppositions have steered our interpretation.

As I mentioned on March 4^th, this question won’t be settled for me until I spend more time in research. Meanwhile, I’ll taking this opportunity to tease and inspire curiosity in others.

Submit

In Ephesians 5:22, the oldest original language manuscripts omit the word submit. It’s implication in verse 22 is validated from verse 21, where male and female Christians are encouraged to ‘submit to one another’. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible provides two possible contexts for the meaning of submit. One set of meanings are listed within a “military” context. There, submit is defined as subordinate to command, and other similar words and phrases. The other set of meanings are listed as “in non-military use”. There, submit is defined as “a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, completing, assuming a responsibility, and carrying a burden”.

In 1855, Dr. James Strong, a Methodist theologian, began his work, analyzing the 1611 King James Version’s translation of the oldest manuscripts available at that time. His concordance, which remains widely used, was published in 1890. For thirty-five years, Strong researched the words of the Old and New Testaments, along with other documents to gather contextual meaning of these, and other Bible words, at the time they were written. Strong’s documentation is at least 136 years old. My point is that anyone who has used Strong’s Concordance would’ve had access to the two contexts of submit.

Help

In Genesis 2:18, God noticed something about creation that wasn’t good. The man was alone, so God said He would make a helper for the man. Ancient Hebrew understanding of this word is different than contemporary English usage. We think of a helper as one who assists, or one to whom tasks can be delegated; a subordinate. In Hebrew, the word can mean assist, but more frequently it means rescue, aid, protect, or be an ally. The difference is the perceived position of the one being helped. If I am in trouble, help communicates a feeling of deliverance or rescue. So, what is the Genesis context? God is solving a problem – He’s making something good out of something that is not good, as He’s done since the first words of the Bible. That sounds like a rescue, doesn’t it? In fact, as this word for help is used throughout the Hebrew Bible, the most common use is of God as our helper. Should anyone seriously translate help, in those contexts, as an inferior, or a subordinate?

The most effective way to understand the meaning of a word in an ancient context is to see how the word is used in other texts.

How Did We Get Here?

How have we not seen this for millennia? If head can mean source, and submit can mean cooperating and carrying a burden, and help can mean rescue or deliver, how did we align our conclusions around a military or authoritarian context?

Did our presupposed paradigms shape our interpretation, or did our interpretation drive our paradigms? Are we bringing bias into translation? Yes, including me.

I won’t wade into Aristotle, and his pervasive influence on Western thought, but I believe it shapes societal thinking. How can anyone who’s had access to this information for more than 100 years, ignore the possibility of mistranslation? What about those who have seen it, and couldn’t or wouldn’t, but didn’t, share it with students or parishioners?

At some point we have to ask ourselves, are we searching for truth or defending a position? Are we pulling from the text, or putting into the text?

An Alternative Reading

Using the information above, and its bias toward which meanings to use, I would like to propose translations that will display these verses in a different light. Before I’m stoned for blasphemy, I am fully aware that I am not a scholar, and clear that my interpretations are not infallible. My purpose in re-translating these verses is to just give us something to think about. May God grant me objectivity in translating, and may He help, in one way or another, the truth of His intended message to be understood and spread.

I’ll be using the ESV, and highlighting any words I change in the text.

1 Corinthians 11:3

But I want you to understand that the source of every man is Christ, the source of a wife is her husband, and the source of Christ is God.

Ephesians 5:21-24

Cooperate with, seek the interest of, and carry the burdens for one another out of reverence for Christ. And, wives, to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the source of the wife even as Christ is the source of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church cooperates with, seeks the interest of, and carries a burden for Christ, so also wives, in everything, should for their husbands.

Genesis 2:18

Then Yahweh said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an aid, a rescuer, an ally, and a protector, fit for him.”

Summary

If I’m remotely close to an accurate rendering of these texts, it wouldn’t be too harsh to say we’ve gotten off track. How’d we get here?