As modern interpreters of Ephesians, we can easily read the text in light of our own social structures and, in particular, our own understanding of socially prescribed roles for wives in our own culture. This, of course, can vary significantly depending on one’s social context. A two-career couple living in Manhattan will live with a different set of cultural expectations and opportunities than a poor couple trying to make ends meet in rural Mississippi. There was similar diversity in the ancient world that corresponded to one’s wealth, social status, and location.

It is also important for us to reassess some of the assumptions about the plight of women that we may bring with us to the text. Many commentators of the past have assumed that women in the Roman world faced a horrible life. Some of the most chauvinistic and harsh attitudes toward women in Greek and Jewish literature are often cited at this juncture in commentaries on Ephesians. The reality is that the plight of women is often overstated, that there was much more diversity in attitudes toward women than is often brought out, that a change was taking place in Roman society in the first century for women’s roles, and that the situation for women in Ephesus and Asia Minor was different than elsewhere in the Mediterranean world.

One of the major differences between then and now is the absence of a middle class in the ancient world. Roman-era Ephesus would have had a rather small wealthy class of high status. This would have included a few Romans of the Equestrian order, some from Decurion order (municipal rulers, local wealthy landowners, and merchants), and free people, who were small landowners, craftsmen, and shop owners. The combined numbers of this social elite would probably have amounted to no more than 10 to 20 percent of the population. The rest of the population would have consisted of the poor and the slaves. The number of slaves in a city like Ephesus could have approached as high as a third of the population. This means that the vast majority of the people were poor or peasant laborers. Some of these (perhaps many) lived in a dependent relationship with wealthier clients.

The culturally prescribed role expectations for wives varied somewhat, depending on one’s social class. Those women who were privileged to be part of the wealthier elite classes found more freedom and opportunity than women who were peasants or slaves. This was especially true in the Roman era and particularly in western Asia Minor.

Ephesians was written to a place and at a time where traditional Greek and Roman roles for women and wives were in a dynamic flux. It is no longer accurate to portray the social-cultural environment as oppressive for women, denying them opportunities for leadership in religious and civic institutions, and extending to them no places of involvement outside of the domestic sphere. Of course, these opportunities would not have been available to most of the peasant and slave populations. But the same opportunities would have been closed to peasant and slave men as well since their primary focus was on survival.

There are a few observations we can make:

(1) There was a variety of ungodly cultural pressures that husbands and wives would have felt in the environment of western Asia Minor. These would have ranged from the traditional roles of the heavy-handed dominance asserted by the paterfamilias and the unquestioning obedience of the wife to the societal trends seen in the new Roman women, who exhibited a defiance of their husbands and the traditional roles.

(2) There is no doubt that women in western Asia Minor were finding more opportunities in the civic and religious life of the communities. Some were finding a new degree of freedom from the restraint, control, and dominance of men in society, politics, religion, and the household.

(3) There were also some fairly radical trends in gender identity, where some men were repudiating their masculinity, appropriating a feminine identity, serving a female goddess, and engaging in sexual relations with both men and women.

(4) In light of this diversity of trends in society, Paul writes to many Christians in Ephesus and western Asia Minor to give biblical and Christological perspective on what it means to live as husband and wife. His readers come from all segments of society—they are slaves, peasants, and probably many from the urban elite.

(5) Paul’s remarks to husbands and wives are counter to every cultural pattern represented in that society. His vision for marriage is not a concession to any cultural pattern, but substantially challenges them all. His plan is rooted in the creation design and profoundly informed by the relationship that Christ has with his church.

For more on this, watch Clinton E. Arnold’s entire video lecture on Ephesians 5:22–33:

https://masterlectures.zondervanacademic.com/ephesians-clinton-e-arnold/videos/ephesians-zecnt-session-15-ephesians-5-22-33