ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Lexicon

G5293 - hypotasso

hypotasso, hypotassō, hupotasso, ὑποτάσσω, G5293, submit, be subject, subjection, submission, to order under

Strong's: G5293 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: hoop-ot-AS-so Part of speech: verb Root: hypo (ὑπό, "under") + tassō (G5021, "to arrange, appoint, set in order"). Literally "to arrange under," to place in an order beneath someone NT occurrences: 32 verses in the Strong's-tagged KJV, with 49 tags (several verses use the verb more than once, as 1 Cor 15:27-28 and Heb 2:8). The KJV word carrying the tag is "subject" 14 times, "yourselves" 7 (as in "submit yourselves"), "put" 6, "under" 5, "subjection" 5, "obedient" 2, and single renderings including "subdued," "subdue" and "subjected" Related verbs: hypakouō (G5219, "to obey," the act of heeding); peithō (G3982, "to persuade, obey from conviction")

Semantic range

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  1. To put in subjection, to subdue (active voice): one party places another under its authority. God puts all things under Christ's feet (Eph 1:22; 1 Cor 15:27); Christ is "able even to subject all things unto himself" (Phil 3:21).
  2. To be subject, to submit oneself (middle and passive voice): a person takes up a place in an order under another. This is the use in the household codes, in the instructions about civil rulers, and in the commands to submit to God.
  3. To be subject in the sense of being controlled or answerable: "the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets" (1 Cor 14:32); "even the demons are subject unto us in thy name" (Luke 10:17); the mind of the flesh "is not subject to the law of God" (Rom 8:7).

The verb is about order, who is placed where in a structure. It does not by itself say anything about the worth, nature or ability of the one placed under.

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Theological force

The verb is used of Jesus

Two uses put the Son of God himself in the subject position:

  • The boy Jesus and his parents. "And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth; and he was subject unto them" (Luke 2:51). The one Luke has just shown confounding the teachers in the temple takes his place under Mary and Joseph. Subjection here is chosen, and it is no comment on who is greater.
  • The Son at the end. "And when all things have been subjected unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subjected to him that did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all" (1 Cor 15:28). The verb appears repeatedly across verses 27-28. It describes the Son handing over the kingdom at the completion of his mission (1 Cor 15:24-28).

The early church read 1 Cor 15:28 as describing the Son's mission and his concord with the Father, not a lesser nature. Chrysostom says Paul adds the clause "showing His great concord with the Father" (Homilies on 1 Corinthians, NPNF1 12, PDF p. 210). Augustine reads it in terms of the human nature the Son took, not a change in the Godhead (On the Trinity, NPNF1 3, PDF p. 10). See Father-Son Authority Asymmetry, Kenosis and Arianism. If submission implied inferiority of nature, Luke 2:51 would make Jesus inferior to Joseph.

Submission to God

  • "Be subject therefore unto God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).
  • "Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?" (Heb 12:9).
  • The opposite: "they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God" (Rom 10:3); "the mind of the flesh... is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be" (Rom 8:7).

Submission to God is the first use in rank. Every other submission in the New Testament is set inside it.

Mutual submission and the household codes

Ephesians 5:21 opens the household code: "subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ." The form is a participle hanging on the command "be filled with the Spirit" (5:18). Submission is presented as one of the marks of a Spirit-filled community, and it runs in every direction.

Ephesians 5:22: "Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord." In the critical Greek text, verse 22 has no verb of its own; it borrows the verb from verse 21. The Received Text behind the KJV supplies one, which is why the Strong's tag appears on "yourselves" in 5:22. Either way, the wives' clause is grammatically an instance of the mutual submission of 5:21.

Ephesians 5:24: "But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything."

Ephesians 5:25: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it." The husband is not told to make his wife submit. He is told to love her to the point of death, on the model of the cross. The verb hypotassō is never addressed to husbands as a command to enforce.

The same pattern runs through the parallel codes: Col 3:18 ("Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord") is followed by "Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them" (3:19); 1 Pet 3:1 is followed by 3:7, where husbands give honor to their wives "as being also joint-heirs of the grace of life."

Chrysostom read Eph 5:21 as a rule for everyone: "Entertain this feeling towards all, as if all were thy masters... This is 'subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ'" (Homily on Ephesians 5, NPNF1 13, PDF p. 118). He also insists the wife's reverence does not touch her standing: "if I charge moreover the wife to fear and reverence her husband, although she is his equal" (on Ephesians 6, NPNF1 13, PDF p. 131).

Submission within the church

  • "Likewise, ye younger, be subject unto the elder. Yea, all of you gird yourselves with humility, to serve one another" (1 Pet 5:5). In the KJV's underlying text the verb appears twice in this verse, the second time for "all of you be subject one to another."
  • "That ye also be in subjection unto such, and to every one that helpeth in the work and laboreth" (1 Cor 16:16).

Submission to civil authority

  • "Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God" (Rom 13:1). The verse plays on the root: the powers are tetagmenai, "ordained," from tassō (G5021), and every soul is to be hypotassesthō, "ordered under." God sets the order; the Christian takes a place within it. See Romans 13.1-7.
  • "Wherefore ye must needs be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience' sake" (Rom 13:5).
  • "Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake" (1 Pet 2:13). The motive is "for the Lord's sake."

The limit of submission

Submission to human authority is never absolute. When rulers command what God forbids, the apostles answer: "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). The verb in Acts 5:29 is not hypotassō, but the principle governs every use of it: human orders sit under God's order. Daniel (Daniel 6) and his friends (Daniel 3) refuse royal commands while remaining respectful subjects. The household codes are bounded the same way: wives submit "as is fitting in the Lord" (Col 3:18), which cannot include sin.

Order, not worth

Three features of the verb's use point the same way:

  • It is mostly voluntary. The hortatory uses are middle or passive in form, "subject yourselves." The person submitting is addressed and asked to choose it.
  • It is used of equals and of the greater. The Son submits (Luke 2:51; 1 Cor 15:28); all believers submit to one another (Eph 5:21; 1 Pet 5:5).
  • It describes a role in a structure. The root tassō is the language of arranging and appointing. The question the verb answers is "where in the order?" not "of what value?"

Jesus redefines authority itself in the same direction: "whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister" (Matt 20:26; cf. Mark 10:42-45).

Notable verses

The Son

God

Household and church

Civil order

  • Romans 13:1, "Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers"
  • Romans 13:5, "for conscience' sake"
  • 1 Peter 2:13, "for the Lord's sake"
  • Titus 3:1
  • Limit: Acts 5:29, "We must obey God rather than men"

Creation and the powers

  • Romans 8:20, creation "subjected to vanity, not of its own will"
  • Luke 10:17, "even the demons are subject unto us in thy name"
  • Hebrews 2:5, 2:8, all things subjected under the Son of man (from Ps 8:6)

Patristic note

  • Chrysostom on mutual submission: "Entertain this feeling towards all, as if all were thy masters" (NPNF1 13, PDF p. 118), and on the wife: "although she is his equal" (NPNF1 13, PDF p. 131).
  • Chrysostom on 1 Cor 15:28: the clause is added "showing His great concord with the Father" (NPNF1 12, PDF p. 210).
  • Cyril of Jerusalem rejects the reading that 1 Cor 15:28 means the Son will be absorbed into the Father: "Such a word is blasphemous" (Catechetical Lectures, NPNF2 7, PDF p. 77).
  • Augustine treats the verse at length in On the Trinity, reading the Son's subjection in terms of the human nature he took, while the Godhead remains "unchangeable, and consubstantial, and co-eternal" (NPNF1 3, PDF p. 10).

Apologetic significance

  • Against "submission means women are inferior." The same verb is used of Jesus toward his parents and of the Son toward the Father. If submission implied lesser worth, it would imply that of Christ. The household codes order roles while calling the wife a joint-heir (1 Pet 3:7) and the husband to self-sacrifice (Eph 5:25). See Misogyny in the Bible Objection Defeater.
  • Against "1 Cor 15:28 proves the Son is a lesser being." The verb describes an order in the Son's mission. See Jesus Has a God Therefore Not God Objection Defeater and Trinity Common Objections.
  • Against "Romans 13 requires obedience to tyrants." The text grounds civil order in God's ordaining, which also limits it; Acts 5:29 marks the boundary.
  • Against the opposite error. The verb cannot be dissolved into "mutual niceness" either. It names real ordering, and the codes address particular relationships with particular instructions. Honest use keeps both truths: equal worth and ordered roles, both under Christ.

Verses in this codex

See also