Ephesians 5.23a-The Husband is Head Over the Wife
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday October 1, 2026
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 5:23a-The Husband is Head Over the Wife
Lesson # 377
Ephesians 5:22 Wives, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it a habit of voluntarily subordinating yourselves to your own husbands as each and every one of you as a corporate unit are voluntarily subordinating yourselves to the Lord 23 because the husband is head over his wife just as the Christ correspondingly is head over the church. He Himself caused the body to be saved. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 5:23 is composed of the following:
(1) hoti causal clause: hoti anēr estin kephalē tēs gynaikos (ὅτι ἀνήρ ἐστιν κεφαλὴ τῆς γυναικὸς), “because the husband is head over his wife” (Lecturer’s translation).
(2) elliptical comparative clause: hōs kai ho Christos kephalē tēs ekklēsias (ὡς καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς κεφαλὴ τῆς ἐκκλησίας), “just the Christ correspondingly is head over the church. (Lecturer’s translation).
(3) Solemn emphatic declarative statement: autos sōtēr tou sōmatos (αὐτὸς σωτὴρ τοῦ σώματος), “He Himself caused the body to be saved” (Lecturer’s translation).
Therefore, we can see that the hoti (ὅτι) causal clause asserts that the husband is head over his wife and the comparative clause asserts that the Christ correspondingly is head over the church while the emphatic elliptical declarative statement solemnly asserts that Jesus Christ Himself caused the body to be saved.
The hoti (ὅτι) causal clause presents the reason for the command in Ephesians 5:22, which required that the wives in the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia must continue to make it their habit of voluntarily subordinating themselves to their own husbands as they are voluntarily subordinating themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, it asserts that the wives in the Christian community must continue to voluntarily subordinate themselves to their husbands “because” their husbands possess authority over them in Christian marriage just as Jesus Christ possesses authority over the Christian community.
The noun kephalē (κεφαλή) appears for the third and final time in this epistle (cf. 1:22; 4:15).
In Ephesians 1:22 and 4:15, the word is employed in a metaphorical or figurative sense and means “head” expressing the fact that Jesus Christ is the sovereign ruler over the church.
Now, here in Ephesians 5:23, the word again means “head.”
However, the referent of this word is the husband in Christian marriage expressing the idea that the husband is the authority over the wife in Christian marriage just as Christ is the head or authority over the church.
This word functions as the predicate nominative, which means that it is making the assertion that the husband is the head over his wife in Christian marriage just like Christ is the head over the church.
The noun gunē (γυνή) functions as a genitive of subordination, which indicates that Christian wives are under the authority or subordinated to their husbands in Christian marriage.
The apostle Paul not only mentions the husband’s headship over his wife in Ephesians 5:23 but he does also in 1 Corinthians 11:3.
1 Corinthians 11:1 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. 2 I praise you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions just as I passed them on to you. 3 But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. (NET)
The headship of Adam was manifested by the fact that immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, the Lord interrogated Adam first and then Eve even though the latter sinned first.
This indicates Adam held primary accountability.
This headship was also manifested by the fact that Adam named the woman just like he did the other living creatures the Lord created.
This naming of his wife and the other living creatures implies his leadership or authority.
Lastly, the headship of Adam was manifested by the fact that the Lord created Eve for the purpose of her being a helpmate for Adam.
We must also remember what Paul taught in Ephesians 5:31-32 that from the beginning of creation, marriage was to be a picture of the relationship between Christ and the church.
Genesis 2:18-25 records for us the first marriage in human history that was arranged by and presided over by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Genesis 2:18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” 19 Out of the ground the LORD God formed (yatsar, “to produce from existing material”) every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all the cattle (behemah, “domestic animals”), and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast (chayyath, “wild animals”) of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. 21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man and brought her to the man. (NASB95)
“Fashioned” is the verb banah, which means, “to build” indicating that the Lord “constructed” the physical body of the woman from the biological life of Adam.
Like Adam, the woman’s soul was modeled after the image of God, which is indicated by the use of the verb `asah in Genesis 1:26.
However, the elements used to construct the body of the woman were taken out of body of the man.
Genesis 1:26 Next, God decreed let Us model man in Our image, according to Our likeness. Consequently, they will rule over the fish in the various bodies of water and over the birds in the earth’s atmosphere and over the animal kingdom and over the entire earth and over each and every creeper-crawler, those which crawl upon the earth. 27 Consequently, God created out of nothing the essence of man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him out of nothing. Male and female, He created them out of nothing. (Lecturer’s translation)
The fact that the soul of Adam and the woman were both created out of nothing indicates that the woman was not intellectually inferior to Adam but rather she was his equal and a perfect complement to him.
The woman was not merely an extension of the man but possessed her own individuality since her soul was also created out of nothing in the image of God.
She was unique like Adam and unlike the animals and had the capacity to be a companion to Adam and provide fellowship for him that was not only beneficial to him but also to her.
Together, the man and the woman were unique in God’s creation and were a dynamic couple superior to all of God’s creatures on planet earth and were designed to rule together over the earth.
Notice also, that Adam was created first and then Eve thus constituting a divine order between the sexes meaning that the man was designed to be the authority over the woman even though she was his equal.
Genesis 2:7 and 18-25 make clear Eve was created to be a subordinate to Adam by being his helper in life.
In 1 Corinthians 11:2-12, Paul interprets Genesis 2 for the Corinthian church and speaks at greater length with regards to the created order and that the woman is created subordinate to the man in marriage.
Ephesians 5::22-33 and Colossians 3:18-4:1 both address the subject of authority, namely the husband’s authority over his wife, the parents over their children and slave masters over their slaves.
Authority is the power or right to enforce obedience and is the right to control, command or determine.
God has instituted authority in order to: (1) Protect free will (volition) (2) Protect the human race from self-destruction (3) Give order to life (4) Maintain peace (5) Allow the Gospel to spread and influence people. (6) To support the believer’s witness by their authority orientation in the devil’s world.
There is even authority within the Trinity even though each member is co-equal, co-infinite and co-eternal with each other.
God the Father grants authority to the Son and directs the Holy Spirit.
God the Father has granted all authority in both heaven and on earth to His Son Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:18; John 5:26-27; 1 Cor. 15:25-28).
The resurrection, ascension, triumphal procession and session points to the fact that the incarnate Son of God has been promoted by God the Father as Sovereign Ruler over the following: (1) Creation (Matt. 28:18; Eph. 1:22; Col. 1:15-17; 2:10; 1 Pet. 3:22). (2) Church (1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 17:14; 19:16). (3) Israel (Matt. 1:1; 20:30; Mark 10:47-48; Luke 1:32; 2 Tim. 2:8; Rev. 3:7; 5:5; 22:16). (4) Angels (Eph. 1:22; Col. 1:15-17; 2:10; 1 Pet. 3:22).
Categories of authority: (1) Christ’s Authority (Phlp. 2:8; Jn. 5:26-27; Col. 1:15-17; 2:10; Eph. 1:22) (2) Biblical Authority (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:20-21). (3) Angelic Authority (Eph. 6:12; Col. 1:16). (4) Apostolic Authority (Luke 9:1; 2 Cor. 10:8). (5) Pastoral Authority (Pet. 5:1-3; Heb. 13:17). (6) Spousal Authority (Eph. 5:22; Col. 3:18). (7) Parental Authority (Deut. 21:18-21; Prov. 1:7-9; Eph. 6:1-3; Col. 3:20). (8) Governmental Authority (Rm. 13:1-7; Titus 3:1; 1 Pet. 2:13).
There are four institutions designed by God for the protection of the human race: (1) Volition over the human soul. (2) Husbands over the wife. (3) Parents over the children. (4) Government over the citizens.
There are four divine institutions designed for both believers and unbelievers alike, which sustain and perpetuate the human race: (1) Volition (Gen. 2:15-17) (1) Marriage (Gen. 2:18-24) (3) Family (Gen. 4:1) (4) Nationalism (9:6-7; 11:8-9).
