Southern Girl, I was thinking of ephesians 5: 20something and 30something, and the counsel on how men should treat their wives and wives should treat their H's, when I said traditional M Vows. Thanks.
Interesting. I had to go look that up. I don't find "cherish and protect" there, myself. What I did find is that wives are supposed to "submit" to their husbands (or obey them)... the Greek word Paul uses is hupotasso, which means
1) to arrange under, to subordinate
2) to subject, put in subjection
3) to subject one's self, obey
4) to submit to one's control
5) to yield to one's admonition or advice
6) to obey, be subject
and husbands are supposed to "love" their wives. The Greeks had many words for the different flavors of love, the one Paul choses is agapao, meaning
1) of persons
a) to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly
2) of things
a) to be well pleased, to be contented at or with a thing
Later that chapter, it is also mentioned that she should "reverence" her husband (Paul uses "phobeo", the root of our word "phobia" and is much closer to fear, imo, but I will defer to Young's.)
1) to put to flight by terrifying (to scare away)
a) to put to flight, to flee
b) to fear, be afraid
1) to be struck with fear, to be seized with alarm
a) of those startled by strange sights or occurrences
b) of those struck with amazement
2) to fear, be afraid of one
3) to fear (i.e. hesitate) to do something (for fear of harm)
c) to reverence, venerate, to treat with deference or reverential obedience
So to sum it up: Wives, obey and reverence your husbands, and husbands, love your wives.
