For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior 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.
- KJV 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.
- 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.
- 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 man, and the head of Christ is God.
- Col 1:18He is the head of the body, the assembly, 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 assembly, and gave himself up for it;
- Eph 1:22–23He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly,
- Eph 4:15but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ;
- 1 Th 1:10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead — Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
- Rev 5:9They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book, and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood, out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,
- 1 Cor 6:13“Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,” but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
- Acts 20:28Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.