The Husband in the Bible: His Role and Responsibilities

Marriage is always between two people of different genders. God created this special relationship between a man and a woman with a specific purpose. In order to fulfill this purpose in our marriages, we need to know our respective roles. In this article, we will look at what the Bible says about the husband.

The husband as part of the image of God

Whenever we want to look at the basic principles of marriage, we should look at the Garden of Eden. The Almighty laid down all the important principles right at the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), so that all other texts can only be interpreted against the background of the description in Genesis.

The first verse in which we encounter the term male is right in the first chapter of the Bible:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:27, KJV)

At first glance, we see that man was created in the image of the Almighty. But we also see that he is only one part of that image. The other part is woman, who completes the divine picture.

As we saw in the discussion of the marriage covenant in the Bible, man and woman are called to live as one in the marriage covenant (Genesis 2:24). Through this unity, God wants to make His nature and His gospel visible in the world.

In order for us as men to realize this mission, we should know what constitutes a husband according to the Bible.

The Hebrew word for male

What does the Hebrew word for male tell us about the role of that gender? Let’s take another look at the verse above.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:27, KJV —bolded by author)

In this passage, the word man is translated from the Hebrew זָכָר (zakhar). In other places, however, we find the same word with a different meaning. There it means to remember or commemorate. Here is an example:

And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; (Genesis 8:1; KJV —bolded by author)

The concept of the masculine in Hebrew is directly related to the idea of remembering or commemorating. What does this tell us about the role of the husband in the Bible?

The importance of remembrance

First, we note that it was Adam, the man, to whom God gave the prohibition concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The consequence of disobeying the prohibition was death.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:16–17, KJV)

Had Adam reminded his wife of this prohibition, they might have both escaped with their lives. But the first husband in the Bible did not see this possibility.

But remembering goes a little further. After all, it is the man who builds a father’s house. And only the father’s house is remembered in the gender registers. A woman will always be part of a man’s house — either her father’s or her husband’s one.

This leads to even more responsibilities and principles for biblical husbands.

The man as head of the home

In the context of the creation story, we see that the man’s role is to provide life and blessing in the home. The prerequisite for this is obedience to God’s commandments.

In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. (Deuteronomy 30:16, KJV)

So, according to the Bible, the husband is a kind of gatekeeper for the marriage, keeping death out and life in. How does he do this? By living and teaching God’s word in his home.

But a man has also been given special authority by God. For as a gatekeeper, he is given the authority to annul any vow or obligation that goes into effect in his family (Numbers 30). He has this authority over his children as well as over his wife.

However, this authority in no way provides the basis for the man to rule as a dictatorship in his family. Rather, it is a prerequisite for a husband and father to be able to avert harm to his family and marriage when necessary.

The biblical model for a husband

In all of this, however, we have a great example to follow. Jesus, in His role as Bridegroom, showed us how we, as husbands, should treat our wives.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; (Ephesians 5:25, KJV).

Whenever we deviate from this model of devotion, we are on the wrong track. A biblical husband behaves like Jesus. He loves his wife, is patient, compassionate, and caring. He supports her and, whenever possible, protects her from harm.

This article was first published on Medium.com