Abstract
This study examines how John Chrysostom, a popular homilist of the 4th century AD, interprets the haustafeln ('household codes ') for husbands and wives in Ephesians 5:22-33. It is found in Chrysostom's Homiliae in Epistulam ad Ephesios 20. The homily is examined and it is found that Chrysostom uses three rhetorical techniques to clarify the dynamics between husbands and wives according to Ephesians 5:22 - 33. Firstly he incorporates a rhetoric of naturalization (the submission of the wife to the husband is 'natural' as from creation); secondly, he uses a military and political metaphor; and thirdly, he discusses the dynamics between husbands and wives in terms of a rhetoric of the body. It is shown that Chrysostom especially wants to promote his own version of popular Christianity by domesticating monastic Christianity in terms of the household.
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