Note 5 at Eph. 5:23: Some people have interpreted this verse to teach that the headship of the husband over the wife is absolute, even in spiritual issues. It has been taught that the man is the high priest of his home and the woman cannot rise above the spiritual condition of her husband. Observation as well as scripture teach us this is wrong. This violates the very heart of the freedom Jesus brought us. In Jesus there is neither male or female (Gal. 3:28) and we are all kings and priests unto the Lord (1 Pet. 2:9).

As explained in note 35 at Ephesians 5:20, page 1132, Paul never anticipated that people would take his instructions here and teach that a lost husband was the spiritual head of a Christian wife. That's crazy. The headship of a man over his wife is in physical matters (see note 6 at this verse). The submission of the wife to her husband taught here in Ephesians 5 is establishing the leadership of the man in carnal (see note 16 at Rom. 8:7, p. 794) matters.

Note 6 at Eph. 5:23: The word "saviour" has become so synonymous with Christ that most people just suppose that this is speaking of Christ being the Savior of the church which is called His body (see notes 3-8 at 1 Cor. 12:14-23, pp. 932-933). However, the word "saviour" is conspicuously not capitalized here, inferring that this is not speaking of Jesus. The only other subject in this sentence is the husband. It would appear that the husband is the saviour of his wife's body.

Some argue that in the Greek language there are not capital and lower case letters; therefore, no debate can be made for the lower case "s" in this verse referring to the husband. Although it is true that capital letters don't exist in Greek, they do in English and it is significant that out of 24 times the Greek word SOTER was translated "Saviour," this is the only verse in the New Testament where the translators didn't capitalize the "s." The Greek language conveys the same thought through context and tense that our English language conveys through the use of capital letters, and the translators put a lower case "s" in this verse for the specific purpose of identifying the husband as the "saviour" of the wife.

The dictionary defines "savior" as "one who saves or preserves." "Save" is defined as "1. to rescue from danger; 2. to preserve or safeguard" (New Am. Her. Dict.). Anyone who rescues, preserves, or safeguards can be called a savior. This word was used in the Old Testament to describe the men who brought deliverance to Israel from the oppression of the enemy (2 Ki. 13:5; Neh. 9:27). The Hebrew word which was translated "deliverer" in reference to Othniel and Ehud (Jud. 3:9, 15) was also translated "Saviour" 13 times in the Old Testament. So, scripture referred to natural men as saviors also.

This passage is referring to the husband as being the savior of the wife. This further establishes the headship of the man over his wife as a physical head and not a spiritual head. The husband is supposed to provide for, defend, and protect the wife in physical matters. He is not the spiritual head of the wife. In Christ, every born-again person, male or female, is in direct relationship with the Father through Jesus and does not have any priest in between on which they are dependent (see note 2 at 1 Cor. 11:3, p. 917).