“Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.”
The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. — The word opheilō (duty, obligation) establishes marriage as a reciprocal covenant with enforceable claims. This conjugal debt (debitum coniugale) protects both partners from denial and rejection. The parallel structure (husbands...likewise...wives) grants women equal standing in sexual access and satisfaction—countercultural in Greco-Roman context where marital relations were often understood as unidirectional male right. Paul's insistence on mutuality reflects the baptismal unity of Gal 3:28.
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