Now, I will turn to what William Luck says about the relationship between Exodus 21:15 and 21:26-27 concerning the physical abuse of husbands by wives. See part one or the link to Luck's article below [1] for the particulars of what he says about physical abuse within marriage based on gender—including that wives are like servants to their husbands and husbands are like masters to their wives. Just because he does not dismiss female-male abuse altogether does not mean he is correct on other aspects of the subject, both logically and Biblically.
Assuming that a husband is somewhat analogous to the master of a slave/servant in a non-mutual sense, with his wife being somewhat analogous to a servant, he brings up the striking of a master by their slave and how it allegedly might deserve a more severe penalty than the other way around. As with all other attacks, if it is not done for valid self-defense, legitimate corporal/capital punishment, or certain kinds of warfare, this assault would be wicked, though Exodus 21 does not specifically address this circumstance. It is true that Exodus 21:15 prescribes execution for attacking one's father or mother, as Luck says. This is an illicit way to treat someone who is in one sense an authority figure. But he extrapolates from execution being the Biblical punishment for attacking one's parents to suggest something that does not follow logically: that striking other figures in authority over oneself, including a husband (by his wife), deserves death.
Despite the independent illogicality of a complementarian hierarchy and the plain Biblical rejection of one-sided submission/service in marriage (such as in Genesis 2:24 and 1 Corinthians 7:2-5), Luck insists on a sort of complementarian subservience of wives to husbands. And not only does he misinterpret how Exodus 21:26-27 highlights rigid equality of men and women as victims of abuse so that if one gender can go free for spousal abuse, so can the other without a differing reason why, but Exodus 21:15 itself only provides an additional confirmation that the Bible teaches gender is irrelevant to the moral severity of committing a wrong against another person.
Exodus 21:15—"'Anyone who attacks their father or mother must be put to death.'"
Rather than in any way state or imply that a husband is more severely wronged by a wife who assaults him than would be the case the other way around due to his nonexistent "leader" status, the verse about striking one's father or mother contrarily reinforces the Biblicality of total gender equality in committing a sin or being victimized by it. Striking one's father and striking one's mother are equally severe and accordingly deserve the same penalty. Other authorities are not dealt with in this verse. Unless you were born to them, an employer or ruler did not literally bring you into the world. Special reverence is owed to one's own parents, both mother and father alike (Exodus 20:12, 21:17, Leviticus 19:3, 20:9, etc.), that is not owed to other authority figures—even legitimate ones. Then there is the fact that the Bible presents husbands and wives as equals, not as arbitrarily or unilaterally subservient to each other.
Either way, there is nothing logically or Biblically worse about a wife physically abusing her husband than a husband physically abusing his wife in the same way, or vice versa. William severely misunderstands both logic and the prescriptions of Exodus 21. Exodus 21:26-27 indirectly addresses one of multiple valid grounds for divorce with no inconsistency in application to husbands and wives, and with no variation in the reason why each is allowed to leave over physical abuse (just like with other forms of abuse as directly addressed or allowed for in verses like Exodus 21:10-11, Deuteronomy 23:15-16, 24:1-4, 1 Corinthians 5:9-11, and 7:15).
It makes no difference on any level what genitalia someone has! That a male or female slave must be released by their master or mistress if the latter physically abuses them has clear parallels to the marriage relationship: if a husband or wife physically or otherwise abuses their spouse, they must be prepared to let the victim exit the marriage as justice requires. And for the abuser or anyone outside the marriage, to pressure or force the departing spouse to stay married contradicts the ramifications of the fleeing slave's right and the obligation of others towards them according to Deuteronomy 23:15-16.
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