Section 151
177Cf. J. Foster, “St. Paul and Women,” ExT 62 (1950-51), 376-78; G. B. Caird, “Paul and Women’s Liberty,” BJRL 54 (1971-72), 268-81; R. Scroggs, “Paul and the Eschatological Woman,” JAAR 40 (1972), 283-303; “Paul and the Eschatological Woman: Revisited,” JAAR 42 (1974), 532-37; W. A. Meeks, “The Image of the Androgyne”; P. K. Jewett, Man as Male and Female (Grand Rapids, 1975); S. B. Clark, Man and Woman in Christ (Ann Arbor, 1980).
178The phrase ἐν ϰυϱίῳ occurs four times in Colossians (cf. v. 20; 4:7, 17); it appears some forty times in the Pauline corpus. For its application to domestic relationships cf. 1 Cor. 7:22, 39; Eph. 6:1; Philem. 16. It sums up the relationship existing among fellow-members of Christ—a relationship which does not supersede earthly relationships but subsumes them and lifts them on to a higher plane. Cf. C. F. D. Moule, The Origin of Christology (Cambridge, 1977), pp. 54-63.
179The argument for the subordination (ὑποτάσσεσθαɩ) of wives to husbands is elaborated in Eph. 5:23-24 (see p. 384 with n. 82). Cf. p. 68 with n. 135.
180But this sense of “love” does not arise from the bare fact that ἀγαπάω is the verb used: ἀγαπάω can be used of an unworthy or self-regarding love (cf. John 3:19; 2 Tim. 4:10; 2 Pet. 2:15; 1 John 2:15). It is the context that gives fuller meaning to the verb.
181Gk. ϰαὶ μὴ πɩϰϱαίνεσθε πϱὸς αὐτάς. Plutarch uses a compound of this verb in his essay On the Control of Anger (457a), where he condemns those who “behave harshly to women” (πϱὸς γύναɩα δɩαπɩϰϱαίνονταɩ). For the general thought cf. TB Baba Meṣi’a 59a: “Rab said, ‘One should always be on his guard against wronging his wife, for since her tears are frequent she is quickly hurt.’“