Most modern scholars understand ἀνιέντες τὴν ἀπειλήν in Eph 6:9 as a command for slave masters to “give up threatening” (BDAG). Some argue further that a prohibition of threats entails a prohibition of violence, and thus Eph 6:9 severs “the thread that held the institution of slavery together” (Frank Thielman). However, modern commentators have given little attention to the reception of Eph 6:9 in the Greek patristic literature. The fifth-century theologian Theodore of Mopsuestia explicitly argued that the verb ἀνίημι means to relax, not remove, and thus the choice of this verb in Eph 6:9 indicates that Paul “does not forbid chastising slaves if they stubbornly persist in sins.” Furthermore, on closer examination, the three passages cited by BDAG as evidence for the gloss “give up” instead support Theodore’s interpretation of the verb as “relax.” The popular interpretation of Eph 6:9 as a command to “stop threatening” slaves (NRSV) thus requires further scrutiny. This paper fills a lacuna in the scholarship on the Ephesian Haustafel by providing a rigorous examination of the phrase ἀνιέντες τὴν ἀπειλήν. The paper explores both the use of the verb ἀνίημι in the extant Greek literature and the earliest attested interpretations of Eph 6:9. The paper concludes that, while Eph 6:9 is more ambiguous than modern commentators have acknowledged, “give up threatening” remains a viable interpretation. The verb ἀνίημι is used in some contexts to mean “give up” (e.g., Josephus, War 2.450), and the fourth-century theologian Basil of Caesarea evidently understood the verb this way in Eph 6:9.