Well said! This bizarre graphic and its implications are addressed from time to time, but I think your treatment of it is as good as I’ve seen.
The sheer heretical lunacy here shows, among other things, the hazard of “proof texts” upon which so much patriarchal dogma rests. You addressed that particularly well in a response here.
Seems odd that the image does not say the husband is the mediator between Christ and the wife. As well, there is no rain in the image. Your two main analytical objections are your insertions. Could the umbrella's symbolize covering, headship, to whom obedience is owed? How would you visually represent Eph 5:23- 6:4? How does Col 3:18-21 relate?
Interesting read! Yes I’ve seen this illustration before. What about Ephesians 5 Verses 21 to 33?
[23] For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. [24] As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.
I'll probably have to write another article to properly answer your question, because that's a big topic. One thought though. Every verse in the Bible agrees with all other verses, so anytime we see something that seems inconsistent or contradictory, we have to look at the context and consider that we've probably misunderstood something somewhere. For example, I've seen people take that verse you quoted and twist it to mean that husbands are literally the saviors of their wives, and that women have to obey husbands (even abusive husbands) as if they're God. Obviously that's whack. So the question then becomes, what is the context of these two verses? What is Ephesians 5 as a whole about? What is God's definition of headship? It's worth looking at the original Greek as well because often these words have color and tone in the original language that doesn't translate over to English. I love how you started with verse 21 though, "Submitting to one another." So, husbands are supposed to submit to wives too, which throws a wrench in the spanners of those who demand hierarchy.
I really love this, Jenn. Great balance of good theology and an incisive (but not mean) revelation of how ridiculous this whole conception is.
Well said! This bizarre graphic and its implications are addressed from time to time, but I think your treatment of it is as good as I’ve seen.
The sheer heretical lunacy here shows, among other things, the hazard of “proof texts” upon which so much patriarchal dogma rests. You addressed that particularly well in a response here.
Seems odd that the image does not say the husband is the mediator between Christ and the wife. As well, there is no rain in the image. Your two main analytical objections are your insertions. Could the umbrella's symbolize covering, headship, to whom obedience is owed? How would you visually represent Eph 5:23- 6:4? How does Col 3:18-21 relate?
Interesting read! Yes I’ve seen this illustration before. What about Ephesians 5 Verses 21 to 33?
[23] For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. [24] As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.
How does that play into what you’re saying?
I'll probably have to write another article to properly answer your question, because that's a big topic. One thought though. Every verse in the Bible agrees with all other verses, so anytime we see something that seems inconsistent or contradictory, we have to look at the context and consider that we've probably misunderstood something somewhere. For example, I've seen people take that verse you quoted and twist it to mean that husbands are literally the saviors of their wives, and that women have to obey husbands (even abusive husbands) as if they're God. Obviously that's whack. So the question then becomes, what is the context of these two verses? What is Ephesians 5 as a whole about? What is God's definition of headship? It's worth looking at the original Greek as well because often these words have color and tone in the original language that doesn't translate over to English. I love how you started with verse 21 though, "Submitting to one another." So, husbands are supposed to submit to wives too, which throws a wrench in the spanners of those who demand hierarchy.
I just remembered, I did write about this here: https://jennmgreenberg.substack.com/p/should-husbands-submit-to-wives