Under the Mission?

The New Testament presents us with many teachings which are difficult to accept.  Among the most difficult in our era pertains to the relationship between husbands and wives. There are four places [Col 3:18, Eph 5:22, Titus 2:5, 1Pet 3:1-6] where the New Testament states that a wife should be in submission to her husband. 

Today I wanted to look at a way folks try to obscure the difficulty of this teaching and why it doesn't work.

A Proposed Etymology:

Some people attempt to eliminate the difficulty of this teaching by appealing to a pseudo etymology. The word submission is broken into two parts; "sub" and "mission". Then it is said the word means to be "under the mission" of another. 

In this instance, a husband's mission is to create a Christian family and love his wife.  Therefore, a wife’s "submission" to her husband means she also desires to build a Christian family and be loved by her husband.

Thus - like magic - one can remove all the scandal and difficulty from the command for wives to submit to their husbands.  It no longer has anything to do with a duty to respect and obey the men they marry.  It's about being in a purely symmetrical partnership with someone who is sworn to love you.

Not What the Word Means:

There are some big problems with that approach.  Let's start with the most obvious.  That is not what the word "submission" or "submit" means in any dictionary.

So right off the bat we should be suspicious because this looks like an attempt to make an inconvenient word not mean what it means. 

Not a Real Etymology:

Second the word “submission” does not break down that way.  If you're doing an etymology, you cannot return half the word to its roots while keeping the other half in same. One would need to return both parts of the word to its Latin roots, not just the prefix.  

In this case, "submit" and "submission" is really a combination of the Latin words "sub" and "mitto", which when put together would mean "send below".  

It's all Greek to Me:

But the biggest problem is that the New Testament was not written in Latin or English, but in Greek.  The word used in these instances is "hupotasso" / "hypotasso", which always means being made subject to a higher authority.  

This word can be further broken down in to hypo/hupo and tasso.  Hypo means "under" and "tasso" is a verb which means to arrange / place / order.  

It is the same word we see used to describe the way we should relate to religious leaders, governing authorities, and even God. [1Pet 5:5, 1Pet 2:13, Heb 12:9]

Conclusion:

The explanation of “submission” meaning “under the mission” can be attractive because it allows a plausible-sounding way to understand passages like Ephesians 5:22 which won’t offend modern sensibilities.  It removes the notion of hierarchy in marriage and the duty of a wife to obey her husband.  It makes it about self-care and autonomy.      

However, there is a difference between explaining the text and explaining it away.