Proposed form of marriage vows
problematical
To replace ‘obey’ with ‘submit to’ in a
proposed change to the wedding vows by a Sydney diocesan panel is to
misunderstand the context of submission in the ancient world of the Bible,
argues New Testament scholar Dorothy Lee.
In a recent
article in The Sydney Morning Herald (‘To live and to
submit: a marriage made in 2012,’ 25/8), the liturgical panel of the Anglican
Diocese of Sydney is reported as proposing a new form of the marriage vows that
would ask brides to “honour and submit to” their husbands, “as the Church
submits to Christ”.
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Bishop Rob
Forsyth has reportedly claimed that “submit” is “a deeply biblical word” which,
he argues, is “more nuanced” than the word “obey”.
I have four
problems with this proposal as, indeed, with the whole issue of wifely
obedience.
In the first
place, if we are to accept such a vow, we will find ourselves in a serious
theological and logical inconsistency. The New Testament contains four lists of
“household codes” that set out the relevant duties of one partner to another in
the context of family relations (Col 2:18-4:1, Eph 5:21-6:9, Tit 2:1-10, 1 Pet
2:18-3:7).
The
husband-wife partnership calls for submission by the wife to her husband. It is
paralleled by the father-child relationship, which calls on children to obey
their parents. The third parallel is the master-slave relationship, which calls
for obedience and submission from slaves to their masters. The slave is even to
accept suffering, if it is needed to show acceptance of the master’s authority.
It is true
that, in the case of the husband-wife and master-slave pairing, there is also a
Christ-dimension: Christ’s love for the church, in the case of husbands, and
Christ’s willingness to suffer, in the case of slaves.
The problem is
that there is an acceptance of slavery implied in these household codes which
none of us today would be happy to endorse. If we accept the codes, exactly as
they are, we need to accept them all. Is Sydney calling on slaves, in those
parts of the world that still have slavery (or something very like it), to
submit to their masters? I would imagine not.
But why pick on
the husband-wife paradigm while discounting the master-slave paradigm, which is
part of the same unit? If one is impossible to interpret literally, then
perhaps the other is also!
Secondly, we
need to allow for the fact that the household codes reflect the culture of the
ancient world and the context in which the early Church found itself. These
codes, originating with Aristotle, demonstrated that, far from being socially
and politically dangerous, Christians were good citizens, following the
accepted values of the day (even with a Christian twist).
The household
codes reflect, in other words, the compromise the church sometimes has to make
in order to proclaim the gospel in socially or politically repressive contexts.
At the same
time, in more foundational ways, the New Testament proclaims a more radical and
counter-cultural status afforded Christian women in the new order of things, in
and through Christ. There is no better statement of this than Galatians 3:28:
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male and female, for you are
all one in Christ Jesus.”
The Easter
stories in the Gospels likewise give women an extraordinary authority to
proclaim the Lord’s resurrection, far beyond the patriarchal norms of the
ancient world. Even the women disciples’ status as witnesses to Jesus’ death,
burial and resurrection challenges the values of the day. Why should we ignore
these explosive, evangelical texts in favour of others that support a more
conventional model of human relationships?
Thirdly, in
theological terms we can’t call something “biblical” just because we happen to
find it in the Bible. We can find all sorts of commands in the Bible – against
usury, skin diseases, and tattoos, along with the death penalty for cursing
parents – which we would not necessarily endorse today. What is truly
“biblical” must be discerned, not by arbitrarily grasping verses here and
there, but by understanding the tenor of biblical texts. We need to interpret
Scripture in its context and discern its theological heart: to interpret
Scripture by Scripture.
It’s not the
submission of wives to husbands that is “biblical” in this sense, but rather
the mutual submission of Christians to one another, in loving knowledge and
service.
Fourthly, I
have yet to hear an argument explaining why husbands need to be the head
of their homes, apart from the rather naïve statement, “because the Bible says
so”. What is it about the nature of men that associates them with leadership
and authority, which is lacking in women?
In the ancient
world, where women were by-and-large uneducated, and society had strict gender
differentiations, it might have made some sense, but in the modern context, it
makes none at all. Both the world and the church have had fine leaders among
women; women who use authority well – sacrificially, wisely, strongly,
responsibly.
The young
Sydney bride, interviewed by The Sydney Morning Herald, who promised to
“submit to” her husband, spoke of the “joy and freedom” of submission. I take
the point. The great truths of the gospel can sustain us, even in the most
unpromising situations.
Saints and
martyrs down the ages – some of them slaves and many of them female – have
endured suffering, privation and imprisonment, and found that Christ’s vibrant
presence has filled them with a paradoxical sense of joy and freedom. But that
doesn’t justify either the privations or the imprisonment.
Revd Dr Dorothy A. Lee is Dean of
Trinity College Theological School and Frank Woods Distinguished Lecturer in
Biblical Studies, MDC University of Divinity.
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