For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Parallel translations
- WEB For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the assembly, being himself the savior of the body.
- BSB For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.
- NKJV For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.
- NASB For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
- NLT For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is head of the church, its savior. Marriage is patterned on Christ's relationship to his people.
Overview
Paul grounds his instruction in the analogy of Christ and the church: the husband's headship mirrors Christ's headship over the assembly. Yet Christ is also 'the savior of the body,' a self-giving headship of love and care, not domination. This sets the tone for the sacrificial love demanded of husbands in verses 25-29.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 1 Cor 11:3–10But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
- Col 1:18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
- Eph 5:25–26Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
- Eph 1:22–23And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
- Eph 4:15But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
- 1 Th 1:10And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
- Rev 5:9And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
- 1 Cor 6:13Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
- Acts 20:28Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
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Christ at the center
Every spiritual blessing is 'in Christ,' the head over all things for the church, in whom Jew and Gentile are made one new man by his blood.
How Ephesians 5:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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