Polygyny 105 - Patriarchy

Tonight's discussion is about patriarchy. There are different definitions of patriarchy, but it generally refers to a social system where men hold positions of dominance and privilege. Feminist theory describes it as a social structure where men as a group dominate women and children. However, as believers, we are interested in what scripture says about patriarchy. The Roman version of patriarchy gave fathers complete control over their families, including the authority to inflict capital punishment. Biblical patriarchy is based on the idea that the head of every man is the Messiah, the head of woman is the man, and the head of Messiah is Elohim. This concept of authority is illustrated by the hierarchy of Yahweh, Yeshua, the father/husband, the wife/mother, and the children. So like I said, tonight's Draws is going to be all about patriarchy. What is patriarchy? What does scripture have to say about patriarchy? How do we implement it in our own lives? Things like that. And like we said earlier, there's all sorts of different terms going around and definitions used for patriarchy. Now before we get into that real quick, I just want to remind everyone that if you go down below, there's a link to the article post for this Draws, and there you can get the on-demand notes, you can get the Draws slides that you see here on the video in front of you, and you can also get the on-demand video as well as the transcript of tonight's teaching. It's all conveniently down there for you, and the description box, whether you're listening on an audio podcast platform or watching on one of our video platforms. Now patriarchy, like I said, there's different definitions for it, and people use it in a variety of different forms, but what is patriarchy? Well if we're to look at the etymology of it and where it came from, if you're a fellow nerd like I am, patriarchy actually comes from the Greek word patriarchis, meaning male chief or head of a family, and that's the basic term for it. Now if you look it up on Wikipedia, they would define patriarchy as being a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. The term patriarchy is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in feminist theory to describe a broader social structure in which men as a group dominate women and children. Notice the distinction there. They made two different sets of claims, the latter one according to the feminist theory. Keep that in mind because we're going to look at some more feminist theory on patriarchy coming up, but for us as believers, we are interested in what scripture states about patriarchy and we're going to get into that in just a moment. Anyway going on, Sylvia Walby writes, I shall define patriarchy as a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress, and exploit women. Is that really patriarchy or is that just a feminist thinking of what patriarchy is? Yeah. You want to see even worse? This comes from Catherine J. Nash, the International Encyclopedia of Human Geography entry on patriarchy, and she writes, patriarchy traditionally defined refers to a system of social relations in which there is gender inequality between socially defined men and women. Now you see all sorts of things wrong with this statement in and of itself. Number one, she starts out with a broad scope of what patriarchy is, being society as a whole, society as a in general, right? She also throws in that little woke term of socially defined men and women. Basically there is no such thing as socially defined men and women, unless you have some kind of mental disorder where you don't know what a woman actually is. There are just men and women. If you're born with external plumbing and you have XY chromosomes, you're a man. If you're born with internal plumbing and you have XX chromosomes, you're a woman. That's enough said. Cannot be changed later on, no matter how you try to redefine words. But enough on that before we get off on a tangent. However, personally, after what I've experienced and after what I've studied, I would define patriarchy as the following. The husband or father is the head of the household and chief authority within the home and responsible for the conduct, training, protection, and leadership of the family. Now, as we go through tonight, you're going to see more and more from scripture what I base this definition on. And this definition of patriarchy surrounds the family unit, not society in general, not any one particular company or enterprise or anything like that, just the family structure. That's the scope we're talking about and exploring tonight. But anyways, as you look through history, there are different types of or forms of patriarchy within different cultures. Just like with slavery, you have different types of slavery and how it was carried out. And you've got what we all know in America as American slavery and how horrid that was. But anyone who's done scripture study knows that that is different. I'm not justifying anything. I'm just saying it's different than the slavery described in scripture. And that's going to be different than slavery as practiced within Islam and Muslim countries. And African countries and Mongolian countries, et cetera, et cetera, right? Same thing with patriarchy. Different cultures have different ways of going about patriarchy. And one form I thought was very interesting was the Roman version of patriarchy. This comes from all the way back from a code of laws known as the Twelve Tables. Way back in the 5th century BCE, all right? And the Twelve Tables was a set of laws inscribed on 12 bronze tablets created in ancient Rome in 451 and 450 BCE. They were the beginning of a new approach to laws which were now passed by government and written down so that all citizens might be treated equally before them. So that's what the Twelve Tables are. Now, from what I can find out, the Twelve Tables do not exist in their entirety nowadays. We just have fragments of what was written down on the Twelve Tables. But we do know a lot about them and a lot about what they actually did say, even though we don't have all of it. And in particular to tonight's draws and tonight's subject of patriarchy is Table 4 from the Twelve Tables. And this sets out four different things that I could find. Number one, a deformed child shall be killed at birth. A father has authority over his children's lives. A son becomes free and sold into slavery three times by the father. And a husband can divorce his wife by instructing her to take her belongings and leave. So basically what this is setting out is the Roman version of patriarchy. It doesn't completely describe the extent to which the version went to here in Table 4. But you can kind of start getting a sense from it from that second one right there where it says father has authority over children's lives. This led to a concept within the Roman family structure known as patria potestas. And patria potestas in Roman family law was the power that the male head of a family exercised over his children and his more remote descendants in the male line. This power meant originally not only that he had control over the persons of his children, amounting even to a right to inflict capital punishment, that he alone had any rights in private law. So in Roman patriarchy, the father had so much power and control over his family that he could even enforce capital punishment, not corporal punishment, capital punishment. That means killing those he had authority over. And those he had authority over was his wife. Those Romans were monogamous. That's where this whole monogamy thing that we know of nowadays came from. But Romans were monogamous. So the father had authority over his wife, his children, any slaves that he owned. So they had slavery back in Roman times too. But he had complete control over all these. And there were particular points in history where even if his daughters got married or his sons got married, the head father, whoever the oldest male was in the family, had authority over all of the in-laws as well. His daughter-in-laws or his son-in-laws, things like that. So it really extended more than just the immediate family. However, this kind of waxed over time. Going on to look at historieskills.com, they state this authority was both personal and proprietary, meaning that the father had the right to make decisions that affected the personal lives of his family members as well as their property. One of the most striking aspects of patria potestas was the father's right to make life and death decisions for his family members. In extreme cases, this could include the power to sell children into slavery or even to kill them, although such actions were generally frowned upon and could lead to social ostracization. So at one point, fathers had this power to inflict justice, if you will, on his family members to include even death. But this got to the point within Roman society that was socially frowned upon. Even though it was legally allowed, it was socially frowned upon. So it kind of fell out of practice. However, that still gives you the flavor of what Roman patriarchy was, about the absolute control and authority like a dictatorship that Roman patriarchy was. So that's that flavor. But like I said, for us as believers in Messiah, those who follow and obey Yahweh in Scripture, we want to know more about biblical patriarchy, not any other form of biblical patriarchy. But anyways, where does this idea of biblical patriarchy kind of come from? If you had to pick one verse, like the best verse to show patriarchy, in my personal opinion, it would be 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 3. And I wish you to know that the head of every man is the Messiah, and the head of woman is the man, and the head of Messiah is Elohim. Now, the context of what Paul is writing here to the Corinthians is the issue of authority. And he's relating this illustration of a body, like someone's head, as the authority. So here he says that the authority of every man is the Messiah, and the authority of woman is the man, and the authority of Messiah is Elohim. So one way to look at this, I've always loved this illustration about covering, right? Showing authority and headship. We're at the very top. The top supreme almighty authority is Yahweh himself. He has authority over Yeshua. We saw that in Scripture. We're going to see that more and more as we go along tonight. But Yeshua has authority over man, or the father, or the husband. The father or the husband has authority over the wife or mother, who also has authority over the children. So see how this kind of structure works out? But unfortunately, some people nowadays have a false understanding of how this authority structure actually works. Because they try to insert another level in there that you don't get from Scripture. According to some people, this is how the authority structure works. With some kind of pope, or priest, or preacher in between the father, the man, and Yeshua. And that's incorrect. Because we look back at 1 Corinthians 11 3, and I'll read it one more time. And I wish you to know that the head of every man is the Messiah, and the head of woman is the man, and the head of Messiah is Elohim. So again, you've got the children who are under the authority of the mother and father. You have the mother or wife who is under the authority of the father or husband. You have the man who is under the authority of Yeshua, who is under the authority of Yahweh. And that's the hierarchical structure of authority that we get from Scripture. Now, we know that Yahweh created everything for him. To praise him, to glorify him, to worship him, stuff like that. We also know that women were created for men. Shocking, I know some people out there may be rolling around and head spinning right now. But, let's look at 1 Corinthians 11 8-12. For man is not from woman, but woman from man. For man also was not created for the woman, but woman for the man. Because of this, the woman ought to have authority on her head because of the messengers. However, man is not independent of woman, nor woman independent of man in the master. For as the woman was from the man, even so the man also is through the woman. But all are from Elohim. Now, this is something that's reiterated in the Berthadashah that comes from all the way back in the beginning in the creation account. Genesis chapter 2 verses 21-22. So, Yahweh Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall on the man and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. And the rib which Yahweh Elohim had taken from the man he made into a woman. And he brought her to the man. So, just like 1 Corinthians was telling us, woman was made from the man and woman was made for the man. As a help means, as some translations put it. Also, think about this. The original woman who was the mother of all was taken from a rib of Adam. There's been a lot of ink spilled over why it was a rib and not another body part. But suffice to say it was taken from a rib. How many ribs does a person have? How many ribs does a man have? Does Adam have? So, something to keep in mind. Thinking about this whole polygyny series and plural marriage. But we know from scripture both in the Berthadashah and in the Tanakh, all the way back in the beginning, that woman was created from man and for man. But patriarchy was all the way back in the beginning as well. Check this out. Genesis chapter 3 verses 6 through 7. And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise. And she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made loin coverings for themselves. So, take notice in this passage that first the woman ate. What happened when the woman ate? Nothing. Or at least nothing is recorded as happening, right? The woman ate and potentially status quo keeps on going. However, she then gives the fruit to her husband and he eats. At that point it says, then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they were ashamed. That is patriarchy. That is the husband being responsible for the conduct, the leadership, the training of his family. Even the very first two beings who we go on later to read they were married, even back then patriarchy was established. The man was responsible for his family, even back in the Garden of Eden. Now, from this we also see other things. How do I say this? Well, there's other things connected to this as well. But it's also reiterated in the Brit Hadashah as well. This whole concept of the man being responsible for his family. And this had dire consequences, as we all know, ever since the creation. We'll read in Romans chapter 5 verse 12. For this reason, even as through one man, sin did enter the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. So, here we see that it wasn't Eve's responsibility and fault. It was Adam's. Because Adam was the head of his family. He had the authority there. He should have done the right thing, and he did not. He was responsible, even though he didn't eat first. He was responsible, and because of him, all the sin entered the world. Just through one man did sin enter the world. Now, think about this whole concept, and think back to our Torah portion reading, where we're reading about Korah and his rebellion. Korah, when he was swallowed up by the earth, because of what he did, because of the patriarchy structure that's been inherent even since the beginning. Scripture also says that his wife and his family were swallowed up with him. Did you notice that in tonight's Torah portion? If not, go back and reread it, or re-watch that video. But it doesn't say that his wife did anything. Now, she may have been complicit, maybe not. Who knows? The point is, Korah was responsible for the direction and leading of his family, and his actions had consequences on the rest of his family, because he was the patriarch of his family. Now, again, we also read in the Brit Hadashah, in Romans chapter 5, verses 15 through 17, But the favorable gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man's trespass many died, much more the favor of Elohim, and the gift in favor of the one man, Yeshua Messiah, overflowed to many. And the favorable gift is not as by one having sinned. For indeed the judgment was of one to condemnation, but the favorable gift is of many trespasses unto righteousness. For if by the trespass of the one death did reign through the one, much more those who receive the overflowing favor and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life through the one, Yeshua Messiah. So, again, we get this whole idea that sin, the trespass, came through one man, who was responsible for his family. Now, again, he did not partake of the fruit first, but since he was responsible, once he partook, once he did wrong, once he failed in his patriarchal duties, sin entered the world. One more time, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 21 through 22. For since death is through a man, resurrection of the dead is also through a man. For as all die in Adam, so also all shall be made alive in Messiah. So, again, it's not sin and death through a woman who was the first one to eat. No, it's sin and death through a man who was the patriarch and responsible for his family. He was supposed to do the right thing, but he didn't. Therefore, sin and death came through one man. So, we looked at that diagram, that illustration of the authority structure, but how can we look at it more in depth from Scripture itself? Let's reread one more time, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 3. And I wish you to know that the head of every man is the Messiah, and the head of every woman is the man, and the head of Messiah is Elohim. Reiterate this again, you have the Almighty Authority, Yahweh, who has authority over Yeshua, who has authority over the man, who has authority over his wife, and by extension, who has authority over the children. Okay, this same hierarchical authority structure is reiterated time and time again throughout Scripture. Let's look at some more real quick, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 23. And you belong to Messiah, and Messiah belongs to Elohim, Colossians 118. And he, Yeshua, is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that he might become the one who is first in all. He is the head of the assembly. Not a pope, not a priest, not a preacher, Yeshua. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 22 through 23. And he put all under his feet and gave him to be head over all to the assembly, which is his body, the completeness of him, who fills all in all. So here we have both Yahweh and Yeshua being spoken about. Let's re-read it one more time. And he, Yahweh, put all under his feet, Yeshua, and gave him, Yeshua, to be head over all. So Yahweh is the head of the assembly. Oh no, I'm sorry. Yeshua is the head of the assembly, and Yahweh is head over Yeshua. Ephesians chapter 4, verses 15. But maintaining the truth and love, we grow up in all respects into him, who is the head, Messiah. So again, Messiah, Yeshua, is the head of the assembly. And like we saw earlier, this authority structure passes on down to the family unit itself. Ephesians chapter 5, verses 22 through 24. Wives, subject yourselves to your own husbands, as to the master, because the husband is the head of the wife, as also the Messiah is head of the assembly, and he is savior of the body. But as the assembly is subject to Messiah, so also let the wives be to their own husbands in every respect. Husbands in every respect. And this brings in submission on the wives part. And in fact, a lot of translations here will have the word submit. It'll say, wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands. But as the assembly submits to Messiah. So this is the idea of submission. We're going to be getting into that a little bit more in depth later on. But right now, we're just illustrating the point of authority and headship. Where Yeshua is the authority, the head of the assembly. And the man or the husband is the authority or the head of the family. Now, like we said, this whole authority and patriarchy thing was established way back in the beginning. Even the submission thing, the whole headship thing, all the way back in the Garden of Eden. Genesis chapter 3, verse 16. To the woman, he said, I greatly increase your sorrow and your conception, bring forth children in pain, and your desire is for your husband, and he does rule over you. Can I start getting a big picture of everything that's going on here? This is going to be important later on, because we'll get into some incorrect teachings from a particular teacher online. But the husband has rule over his family. The husband has rule over the wife who has rule over the children. But that's the authority structure that's laid out. That's biblical patriarchy. And no, in biblical patriarchy, the father is the head. The father does not have the right to life and death. Much different than Roman patriarchy. But what about the responsibilities of the husband, the father, the patriarch of the family? Well, biblical patriarchy is not all about being a dictator and just having rule and control and feeling good about yourself. No, that's not it. Let's look at Ephesians 5, 25 to 28 real quick. Husbands, love your wives as Messiah also did love the assembly and gave himself for it in order to set it apart and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word in order to present it to himself a splendid assembly, not having spot or wrinkle or any of the sort, but that it might be set apart and blameless. In this way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. Now, if you remember, in 1 John, we're told that how do we know the love for Elohim? When we love his children and obey his commands. How similar is this? How do we know if we as men love ourselves? If we're loving our wives, we don't love our wives. We're not loving ourselves. And we're to be imitators of Messiah. Here it says, do love your wives just as Messiah also did love the assembly. So as a man, ask yourself, are you loving your wife or your wives? As Messiah did the assembly. Unconditionally. Perseverance. I'm a married man. I know there's ups and downs. There's good times and then there's not so good times. But you've got to endure. You've got to persevere. Messiah does that for us. We are not always perfect. We didn't always do the right thing. But even when we backslide, even when we slip up sometimes. Messiah still loves us. Likewise, we should love our wives like Messiah did the assembly. Does love the assembly. We're going on 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verses 34 to 35. Let your women be silent in the assemblies for they are not allowed to speak. But let them subject themselves as the Torah also says. And if they wish to learn whatever, let them ask their own husbands at home. For it is improper for women to speak in an assembly. Now, once again, there's been a lot of ink spilled over the exegesis of this particular passage. Particularly as it pertains to women and their role in church service and things like that. The thing that really sticks out to me nowadays is this portion I have bolded on the screen in front of you. It says there to let wives ask their own husbands at home. Two things to note real quick. This is reiterating the entire hierarchical structure where your teacher or your priest or pope or preacher at church does not have authority over the wives. They don't have authority over the men. But this particular passage is reiterating the fact that they do not have authority over their wives, over the wives to teach them. The responsibility of teaching the wives and teaching the family falls to the husband. It says let them ask their own husbands at home if they wish to learn whatever. Well, if they're going to learn something from their husbands, their husbands had better be educated in order to teach and guide and lead his family. Men, read and study your Bible. You may not be called to be a teacher that gets up in front of a pulpit or on a camera for the internet. That may not be your calling. But if you are a husband and a father, you have definitely got the calling to at the very least teach and guide your family. That's one of your responsibilities. We've already seen that one of your responsibilities is to love your wives as Messiah love the assembly. Another responsibility to teach and guide your family. Don't just dump your family off in church somewhere and expect the church to guide them correctly. You need to be learning and studying and reading the scriptures, letting the Spirit of the Holy guide you in your understanding and your knowledge and continue this all the time. When you have a spare moment, when you wake up in the morning, whenever you have free time, read and study your Bible. Listen to teachings like this or from others. Read books and articles. Expand your wisdom so that you're better able to teach and guide your family because that's one of your responsibilities. Titus chapter two, verses six through eight. Likewise, urge the young men to be sensible. Show yourself to them an example of good works in all matters. In teaching, show uncorruptness, seriousness, soundness of speech beyond reproach in order that the opponent is put to shame, having no evil word to say about you. So here in this passage, we can even see that reiteration of the teaching aspect for men. But this goes on to even further beyond the family structure for those of us men who are of the older generation, interacting and being around the younger generation, the younger men and setting a good example for them. Another responsibility for you as a man and as a patriarch, but this time in a wider sense or a wider sense than just your family, anyways. Titus chapter two, verses one through two, but you speak what is fitting for sound teaching. The older men are to be sober, serious, sensible, sound in belief, in love, in endurance. Sound in belief, in love, in endurance. And again, going back to the whole teaching aspect. But also, in addition this time, to be sober and serious, not childish. One of the things that irritates me so much is when I see people who are physically adults, people who are physically aged, but yet their emotional immaturity is still that of a 13-year-old. No. Be sober, be serious, not childish, be sensible. Sound in belief, in love, and in endurance. Again, going back to the whole love aspect, that is a part of being the patriarch that you are supposed to be. So, we'll get into the reason for this in just a moment, but I want to point out that serve and submit are not the same things. What do I mean by that? Well, if we look at the words of our Messiah in Matthew chapter 20, verses 27 through 28. And whoever wishes to be first among you, let him be your servant, even as the son of Adam did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So, we saw the authority structure earlier on. That Yeshua has authority over the assembly. Yeshua has authority over the man, right? But we see also that even in his own words that Yeshua came to serve. So, what does serve mean? Well, if we look at modern definitions, say like from Merriam-Webster, we see that serve means to be a servant, to be of use, to be favorable, opportune, or convenient, to be worthy of reliance or trust, to furnish or supply with something needed or desired. Keep that in mind. Keep that in mind. To answer the needs of. Keep that in mind. To be enough for, to contribute or conduce to, to treat or act toward in a specified way or to provide services that benefit or help. That's what serve means according to Merriam-Webster. We go on to look at vocabulary.com. They have defined as devote part of one's life or efforts to provide, usually but not necessarily food. Serve a purpose, role, or function. Contribute or conduce to. Those are modern definitions of the word. How is it used in the biblical language, specifically Greek? Pretty much the same way, actually. There's very little difference, if any. For instance, we look at the Greek word diakoneo. Anyways, you may have had your mind triggered from another word, diakonos. You ever heard the word diakonos before? That is the word where we get the modern English word of deacon, diakonos. Very similar to this word, diakoneo. Strong's definition defines it as to be an attendant, to wait upon, to act as a Christian deacon, to minister, serve, use the office of a deacon. Greek English lexicon of the New Testament, to serve God in some special way, such as a deacon, to be responsible, to take care of the needs of others, to have responsibility or to help others. From Thayer's Greek lexicon, to be a servant, attendant, domestic, to serve, wait upon, with the date of a person to minister to one, render ministering offices, to be served, ministering unto, to minister, attend to, serve another's interests, things like that. So really going along with the modern definitions that we read from Vocabulary.com and Miriam Webster. This outline of biblical usage that you get from BlueLetterBible.com or .org, anyways it's from the Blue Letter Bible, but it has the outline of biblical usage for diakoneo, to be a servant, attendant, domestic, to serve or wait upon, to minister to one, to wait at a table and offer food, to minister, supply food necessities, to minister. So that's what serve is. It means to be a service to someone else, bearing their burdens as another verse in Scripture tells us to do. Helping them out, giving them money, giving them food, giving them time, giving them a shoulder to cry upon, giving them an ear to listen to, being of service to someone else. Yeshua washed the feet of his disciples. He served them in that way. He was a service to them. And he's still a service to us today. But how does that contrast with the word submit? We look at Ephesians chapter 5 verses 22 through 24. And here again it reads, wives, subject or submit yourselves to your own husbands as to the master, because the husband is the head of the wife, as also the Messiah is head of the assembly, and he is savior of the body. But as the assembly is subject or submissive to Messiah, so also let the wives be to their own husbands in every respect. So wives submit to their husbands and the assembly submits to Messiah. But what does submit mean? Well, submit means to, this is from Modern Definitions, Merriam-Webster, to yield to governance or authority, to subject to a condition, treatment, or operation, to yield oneself to the authority or will of another, to permit oneself to be subjected to something, to defer to or consent to abide by the opinion or authority of another. From dictionary.com, to give over or yield to the power or authority of another, to subject to some kind of treatment or influence, to yield oneself to the power or authority of another, to allow oneself to be subjected to some kind of treatment. And this one, yeah, check this one out. This comes from Britannica.com, to stop trying to fight or resist something, to agree to do or accept something that you have been resisting or opposing. That is the Modern Definitions of submit. And it's just like the Greek words that are used back in the Brit Hadashah. Now, especially this one from Britannica.com, to stop trying to fight or resist something, to agree to do or accept something that you have been resisting or opposing. Think about this in our spiritual lives. Before we were saved, before we became believers, we were resisting or opposing Yahweh's ways of doing things. But when we came to the faith, we submitted to Yahweh and his way of doing things. We stopped trying to oppose his ways. We stopped trying to resist his ways. We submitted to his ways. We submitted to Yeshua's ways. And likewise, wives are to submit or stop trying to resist or oppose their husband's authority and decisions. That is submit. And I've always thought of it like this. A strong woman is not someone who is constantly fighting with everyone, especially her husband in this context. A strong woman is someone who has the ability to do so, but instead restrains her own self for the greater good, according to Scripture, and submits to her husband's authority. That is a strong woman. Anyways, the word here in Scripture that we read from is the word hupotasso, strong's definition, to subordinate, to obey, to be under obedience, put under, subdue unto, subject unto, in subjection to, submit self unto. The Greek English lexicon of the New Testament says this word is to bring something under the firm control of someone, to subject to, to bring under control. Another word that derives from that from the Greek English lexicon also renders that word as to submit to the orders or directives of someone, to obey, to submit to obeisance, oh I'm sorry, obedience, submission. Sayer's Greek lexicon renders this word as to arrange under, to subordinate, to subject, put in subjection, to subject oneself, to obey, to submit to one's control, to yield to one's admonition or advice, to obey, obey, be subject. So, submit means to be obedient, to obey, to willingly be under the authority and decision making of someone or something else. But again, the outline of biblical usage from Blue Letter Bible has submit as to arrange under, to subordinate, to subject, put in subjection, to subject oneself, willingly, obey, to submit to one's control, to yield to one's admonition or advice, to obey, to be subject. Now, check out this last phrase they've got here in the outline of biblical usage. They say that this word was a Greek military term meaning to arrange troop divisions in a military fashion under the command of a leader. Okay, that kind of makes sense because military, the lower ranks need to submit to the decisions and authority of the higher ranks. This makes sense. But they go on to say in non-military use, it was a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden. Voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, and assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden. That is submission. So, serve is not obeying someone or obeying the leadership and decisions and teachings of someone. That's not serve. That's submission. Serve is looking to and providing for the needs of others. Treating others well, whether that be through food, through finances, through just being a listening and caring person. That is serve. But submit means to obey under the obedience and teachings of another person. Just like we at the assembly are under the authority and teachings and guidance of Yeshua, so wives are under the authority and decisions that husbands make and teaching of husbands. That's submit. This whole thing comes from an incorrect teaching that I found online from someone who is a Messianic teacher on the internet. But anyways, in one place on the internet, he wrote that, so Yeshua did submit to the church by freely becoming a servant in his earthly ministry, especially in his work on the cross for us. I'm going to point out two things wrong with this first statement. The number one, Yeshua did not submit to the authority of the church. The church submits to the authority of Yeshua. The church does not tell Yeshua what to do. Yeshua tells the church what to do. And number two, he's conflating his terms here. He's conflating both submit and servant in the same statement. I'm sorry. Yeah, submit and servant in the same statement. And they're not the same thing as we clearly just saw. Well, this same teacher goes on in an article on his website. This article is about mutual submission. It's an oxymoron in and of itself. But in this article, he's stating that men and women, husbands and wives, are to be mutually submitted to each other, which is false. That's not the biblical teaching. As we just clearly saw, we are to serve one another. As a husband, you are to serve your wife, yes. You are to serve others, people you don't even know. But you're not to submit to them. You're not to submit to some complete stranger on the street that you don't even know. As a husband, you are not to submit to the decision making and authority of your wife. Because you have authority over your wife. Your wife submits to you. You submit to Yeshua and Yeshua submits to Yahweh. That's how the authority structure goes. Serving has nothing to do with authority structure. Serving has to do with the attending of others' needs. That's serving. Submission is completely different. But anyways, this particular teacher in his article on mutual submission, at the end of his articles, sums it up by saying, mutual loving service toward one another. Again, conflating the terms serve and submit. Mutual service? Yeah, that's scriptural. Mutually serving one another. Mutual submission? That's not scriptural. Because there's a clear, laid out understanding of the hierarchy and authority from scripture. And that correct understanding is, like we said, serve one another. So, mutual service to one another, that's fine. But in submission and authority, the way the Bible lays it out, is that children are to submit and be under the authority of their parents, their father and their mother. The wife is to submit and be under the authority of her husband. The husband, or man, is to submit and be under the authority of Yeshua. And Yeshua submits and is under the authority of Yahweh. So, that is the structure of patriarchy from the Almighty on down to the family unit. That's biblical patriarchy. So, in summary, there is a clear authority structure as laid out in scripture. We went through some of those verses tonight. Tried not to make it as long as last time. But there's more that goes into this. Again, read and study your scriptures. You'll find much more than what was laid out tonight. And again, for more information, go look at the notes that we have on our website. Click on the article for this teaching. Yahweh is the head or authority of Yeshua. Who is the head or authority of man. Who is the head or authority of his wife or wives. But a man does not have authority over other men's wives. Let's clear that up real quick in case there was any confusion. I do not have authority over your wife. You have authority over your wife as the husband. But I do not. I only have authority over my wife and my family. Make sense? Serve does not mean the same thing as submit. We are to mutually serve one another. But mutual submission is contrary to scripture. Husbands and fathers are to lead, teach, provide, protect, and love their wives and their families. Wives are to submit to the authority, decisions, and leadership of their husband. And patriarchy is the family system that is laid out in scripture. And that's just the God honest truth. There are so many ways that society and the world has of telling people how they should go about their marriage and their family. They say, oh, it should be 50-50. I'm sure you've heard that phrase before, right? That's false. If you're only going about it halfway all the time. If the husband's only doing 50% of what he's supposed to do. And the wife's only supposed to do is doing 50% of what she's supposed to do. Then at most, you're only going to get half of what you should be doing or should have. No, instead, it should be 100-100. Where the husband or the father is doing 100% of everything that he is supposed to be doing. The wife is supposed to be doing 100% of everything that she is supposed to be doing. We saw tonight that the husband 100% is supposed to be teaching, guiding, making decisions, and loving his wife and his family. The wife, getting into a lot of female duties from scripture. Anyways, what we saw tonight is the wife is to 100% submit to the authority, teaching, and decisions of her husband. Also, think about it like this. We saw tonight also that Yeshua is the head of the body, head of the assembly. Well, a body, as you can plainly see, has one head. Multiple fingers, multiple hands and arms, multiple legs, multiple feet, multiple bones, all of this. But there's one head that controls the body. And that is the illustration that we get. There's one head over the family, that's the father. There's one head over the assembly, that's Yeshua. And there's one head over all, even Yeshua, and that is Yahweh. So hopefully you got something out of this tonight. Hopefully you learned something that you didn't know before or made you think in a way that you had never thought of before. If you did, let us know down in the comments below. We'd love to hear feedback on all of our teachings. But specifically in this one, what you got out of tonight's teaching. While you're down there leaving that comment, make sure to hit that like button. Hit that subscribe button and ring the bell. And also hit the share button and share it around with someone that you may know. 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