“First Corinthians 9:5 (KJV) talks about a man leading a wife. Is that like leading a horse?”
January 2024 – Grace & Truth Magazine
QUESTION: First Corinthians 9:5 in the King James Version talks about a man leading a wife. Is that like leading a horse?
ANSWER: Examining the eighteen translations in my possession, * I find the King James Version, which was completed in 1611, stands alone in reading “lead about a sister, a wife.” When one looks at the way each of the other translations presents this expression, it is plain to see that the apostle Paul’s phrase absolutely did not mean to lead a wife like one would lead a horse!
Translation Phrasing In 1 Corinthians 9:5
King James Version lead about a sister, a wife
Douay–Rheims carry about a woman, a sister
Darby Bible take round a sister [as] wife
American Standard Revised lead about a wife that is a believer
Revised Standard Version to be accompanied by a wife
New American Standard Bible take along a believing wife
New International Version take a believing wife along with us
New King James Version take along a believing wife
New English Bible take a Christian wife about with me
English Standard Version take along a believing wife
Amplified Bible take along with us a Christian sister as wife
J. B. Phillips New Testament travel with a Christian wife
Williams New Testament take a Christian wife about with us
Beck’s American Translation take a Christian wife with us
New Revised Standard Version be accompanied by a believing wife
Contemporary English Version marry one of the Lord’s followers
and to take her along with us
Living Bible bring her along on these trips
Paul was an unmarried man, something unusual among Jewish men at that time. He was comparing Barnabas and himself to the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and very specifically to Cephas (the Aramaic name for Peter), whose mother-in-law was instantly healed when the Lord entered Peter’s house and took her by the hand in Mark 1:29-31. When these others traveled in their service for the Lord, they evidently took their wives with them, something still done by many servants of the Lord today. A godly wife is a wonderful asset to a brother who is serving the Lord Jesus Christ.
Contrary to an idea that has often been expressed, a right relationship between man and woman did not stem from man’s longing but from God’s goodness. In Genesis 1 we read how the persons of the Godhead communed together as to creating man, and we also see God blessing the first couple He created. Chapter 2 gives us details of God’s preparation of the ideal circumstances under which this couple was to live in fellowship with Him.
Notice the word “them” in Genesis 1:26,28 (NKJV): “Let them have dominion … God blessed them, and God said to them.” The divine commentary on the creation account, Ephesians 5:22-33, points out in verse 32 that God had a special purpose for doing what He did in this way. But He had kept this purpose a mystery, hidden from mankind for 4,000 years, until He chose to reveal it here in Ephesians. These two human beings, the man and his God-given wife, were not merely our first parents whom God placed as the head over His creation of the earth; they are a divinely-given type, or picture, of Christ and the Church, the Bride for which He gave His life. Let’s look at this more closely.
“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen. 1:27). Yet unlike what is mentioned in the preceding verses of chapter 1, chapter 2 shows God did not simply say, “Let there be mankind.” Instead, He “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (2:7). After planting a garden in Eden, God placed in it the man He had made, with instructions as to how to guard and keep it.
Then we find God speaking of making this man a helper comparable to him, for He, God, felt it was not good for man to be alone. God did not give Adam an opportunity to feel alone, to long for a partner; very quickly, on the same day God created man, He made the woman as a helper for him –perfectly compatible and suited for him. Putting the man into a deep sleep and taking a rib from him to build woman pictures Christ going into death, giving Himself, His very life, for the Church. We who compose the Church are indeed “members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones” (Eph. 5:30).
The picture in Ephesians 5 continues most beautifully. Having given Himself for the Church – more accurately, the Assembly – at Calvary 2,000 years ago, Christ, at present, is sanctifying and cleansing her with the water of the Word. He is doing this in view of soon presenting her to Himself, a glorious Church having no spot or wrinkle nor any such thing, but holy and without blemish. We trust that this still future event, the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9), will very soon take place in the glory of heaven.
The passage in Ephesians 5 builds very wonderfully and practically upon the glorious truth it unfolds. It speaks first to believing women, exhorting them to submit to their own husbands as to the Lord, for not only is He the Savior of the body, He is also the Head of the Church. The Assembly is subject to Christ; wives, likewise, are to be subject to their own husbands in everything (vv.22-24). This is not always easy, but it is God’s word to wives.
The word to husbands in the next verses is even more difficult. Husbands are told to “love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for her” (v.25). How can any husband ever measure up to what the Lord Jesus has done for each of us? No human being can give his life for the eternal salvation of another, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
In Ephesians, husbands are exhorted to love their own wives as their own bodies. “No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the Church” (Eph. 5:29). Nourishing would include not only providing physical food. Providing all that is needed for a happy, healthy life would come under this heading. Cherishing brings in the vital thought of affection. Love causes a person’s spirit to rejoice. Without it, all giving, all service is empty, worthless. The chapter’s final verse again emphasizes, “Let each one of you in particular … love his own wife as himself” (v.33).
The final verses of Galatians 3 and the whole tenor of Scripture makes plain that each person, whether male or female, is alike important and precious to the Lord. But we have seen that men and woman have different roles given them by God from the beginning of mankind’s history. The woman was made to be the man’s helper. When our first mother failed in regard to this, stepping out of her God-given role, she sinned and caused her husband to sin also. Many passages of Scripture illustrate that God expects the man to lead and direct in a loving, kind, considerate way. He expects the wife to respect her husband and to help him in his needs. God expects them to work together, for the one cannot get along without the other. He tells us in 1 Corinthians 11:8-9: “For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man.” Verses 11-12 go on to say, “Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God.”
From the purely human standpoint, it is in nations or societies where God is acknowledged and where the Bible is honored and obeyed where women are truly respected and appreciated. Where this is not the case, women are considered inferior to men and are oppressed and mistreated. In certain lands under religious law, it takes the testimony of two women to equal that of one man, and women are restricted in many ways. We can be very thankful for what biblical Christianity has done to elevate the stature of women.
However, present-day trends to wipe out any distinctions between the sexes in rebellion against the Word of our Creator-God can only bring confusion and ultimate disaster. How good it is to see the honored position God gives women in the Scripture of Truth! The Bible clearly teaches the interdependence of men and women, both being fully dependent on God and His Word for success and true happiness.
ENDNOTE
* Even though a translation may be listed for comparison, that does not necessarily mean we recommend it.
Answered by Eugene P. Vedder Jr.