About the Author

In the Epistle to the Ephesians, we find Saint Paul the Apostle (c. 5 – 64/5 AD) writing to a church which was – unlike many of his other correspondent churches – not in some problematic or chaotic state. Here we find Saint Paul not trying to put out fires and thus taking a more reflective approach. The result is a difference in style between this and other Pauline letters that has led some scholars to follow Desiderius Erasmus and suppose that Saint Paul cannot have been the author. The second half of Ephesians considers moral matters, and in book 5:21 to 33, Saint Paul discusses marriage at some length.

Saint Paul on Christ, the Church, and Marriage

21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the church; 33 however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.