This is an exercise from Greek for the Rest of Us. Mounce wants us to notice the verb forms and punctuation and do a translation of our own. I do this with fear and trembling and don’t pretend to be able to translate anything. In other words, I don’t know what I’m doing.

I admit I also consulted O’Briens commentary but only after I did my own by just looking at a Greek interlinear.

There is a disparity in punctuation in the Greek between the interlinear software I have (ISA) and the Greek NT at www.bibelwissenschaft.de.

Let me know what you think:

εὐχαριστοῦντες πάντοτε ὑπὲρ πάντων ἐν ὀνόματι τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρί.
20 Continually thanking God the Father for all things in the name of our Lord, Jesus the Christ,

Ὑποτασσόμενοι ἀλλήλοις ἐν φόβῳ Χριστοῦ,
21 being subject to each other out of respect for Christ.

αἱ γυναῖκες τοῖς ἰδίοις ἀνδράσιν ὡς τῷ κυρίῳ,
22 Wives, subject yourselves to your own husbands in the same way you do to the Lord.

:20 The word continually may be idiomatic, but I think it accurately conveys what always means. I changed the word order of God the Father within the sentence.

:21 I used the word subject because it seems to be a good literal translation that also conveys the meaning well—to me anyway. Although using it as a verb in the way I did may not make sense to some. I normally like the word fear and don’t like it when translations remove it, but in this instance I think respect fits well.

:22 I stayed consistent in using the word subject.

O’Brien says:

The use of the middle voice of this verb (cf. Col 3:18) emphasizes the voluntary character of the submission.

I know the use of the middle voice is very nuanced so I don’t know if this is up for debate or not. I just have to trust what he says in this instance. So I translated it in a way that makes it clear that it’s voluntary. Using the words your own makes it clear that they are subject to their own husbands, not all males or other wives’ husbands. Most translations say as to the Lord: what does this mean? I’m interpreting it as: being subject to your husband the same way you are subject to the Lord.

There could be a paragraph break after v. 21. Paul says to be subject to one another. Then starting in v. 22 he spells out how we are to be subject to and how to treat one another all the way through 6:9.

Comments welcome!