What Does 'The Husband Is The Head Of His Wife' Really Mean? Part 2

As I resume the topic under review "husband is the head of His wife" kindly remember that we are viewing it through the lenses of two important camps, namely the Egalitarian and Complementarian camps. Please go back to part one for the definitions.

In part one I mentioned that this discussion would fall under four categories as follows:

Ø the Medical claims argument

Ø the church history argument,

Ø the bible study argument

Ø the Greek Lexicon study argument

In each of the four arguments, egalitarian scholars would seek to prove that the Apostle Paul's use of the word head in the bible as it relates to his wife was not a metaphor for leader or one who wields authority over her. They argue that it meant something else.. To get up to speed with Part two of this blog kindly go back to part one and read the main points. I concluded part one after exploring at some length the Medical Claims argument. I shall now resume from that point by diving into the Church history argument.

Church History Argument

Kathryn Croger an egalitarian scholar, considered one of the founders of the Egalitarian movement and founder of “Christians for Biblical Equality” a website that continually promotes egalitarian views, books and papers, quotes John Chrysostom (someone most egalitarians seem to reference a lot) a church father who knew Greek and she ascribed to him statements that he never really made. When one examines her claims more carefully against what he said it appears that he was weighing in on the side of the complementarians. It turns out she excised some sentences out of the body of the passage she quoted presenting a distorted view of what Chrysostom said. Croger omitted two sentences before the passage she quoted, cut out two other sentences after and included an incomplete mid passage statement ending in dot dot dot. It seems to me, when the entire passage in question is read without omissions, Chrysostom was saying (paraphrased version) husbands are neither more honourable nor better than their wives, they are not to seek for their own glory but should aim to benefit their wives because they hold a leadership and authoritative position in the marriage.

Conclusion on Church History

Church history totally supports a husband’s headship implying authority. Churches were in agreement that the biblical position of elder was only for men, women could be deacons but were not allowed to be elders.

Bible Study Argument

Under the bible study argument egalitarians contend that though Kephale (head) in the head body metaphor may connote authority or a source of provision in the larger contexts of both Ephesians (Eph 1:20 -29, 4:15 – 26} and Colossians, (Col 1:18 -32, 2:9-15, 18-19}, Paul only reinforces the idea of “source of provision for husbands to wives”. A quote from Ronald Pearson and Elizabeth Kay, egalitarian scholars says: “Moreover, he (Paul) calls husbands to love their wives sacrificially as Christ did for the church (Ep 5:25-30)---Again standing Kephale on its head.  As head of his wife, the husband is commanded to love her---not to exercise leadership or authority over her---however benevolent that might be”. The thinking among egalitarians suggests a false dichotomy where it is either one or the other. The husband will either love her and not exercise authority over her, or he will exercise authority over her and not love her. But he cannot do both simultaneously. The two are mutually exclusive. In my understanding, the head metaphor is meant to include authority when Paul is using it in the epistles.

When evaluating the egalitarian view, it appears that complementarians are seen as inherently domineering, abusive and oppressive. When a husband does hold authority, it is innately unloving, overbearing and immoral. Yet Jesus does both, He loves us and exercises authority over us. Power is not inherently evil, and neither is authority. Sadly, we live in an era in which our moral compass has been damaged by a Godless culture.

Conclusion on Bible Study Argument

The biblical calling is for husbands to be the head of their wives lovingly, self sacrificially and leading with a measure of authority. Paul regularly uses head to imply authority both in reference to Christ and husbands. The context is abundantly clear even if it means source, it also means authority.

The Greek Lexicon Study Argument

Lynn Cohick an egalitarian scholar and author of “Discovering Biblical Equality”, says the following; The Greek term used for head is Kephale which typically refers to the physical head resting on the neck. In Hebrew, Latin and English, head can be used metaphorically to indicate “leader”. It is difficult to make the case that it refers to leader in Greek for we have almost no evidence of this. Lexicons in the 19^th  and 20^th centuries suggested source as a possible metaphorical expression but not leader. She gives no references no footnotes for this claim which is very unfortunate and unfair to the common people out there who don’t have the time to verify claims made by scholars with PHDs. Thankfully, Mike Winger, a Podcaster whom I follow very closely because of his meticulous and thorough approach to detail did research on the lexicons. He surveyed tons of them and although there were many that stood out, he singled out BDAG as the best.  BDAG is so called based on the names of the authors.  It is considered the leading Greek – English lexicon of the New Testament. What does it say Kephale means?  BDAG says, “Kephale in the case of living beings is used to denote superior rank. And immediately it cites Ephesians 5:23 and 1 Corinthians 11:3 as the verses that the definition applies to. Of course, those verses talk about male headship in relation to their wives. Other lexicons surveyed were:

       I.            Greek – English Lexicon of the New Testament by Louw Nida

     II.            A Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains - Greek New Testament by James Swanson –

  III.            Exegetical Dictionary Of The New Testament by Horst Balz and Gerhard Schneider

  IV.            Greek English Lexicon Of The Septuagint by J Lus, E Eynikel and K Hauspir

    V.            Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament by T Friberg, Barbara Friberg and Niver F Miller

  VI.            Enhanced Strong's Lexicon by James Strong

All of the above lexicons are unanimous in their treatment of the term “kephale” to mean chief, supreme or authority.

Conclusion On The Greek Lexicons

After examining fifteen lexicons Mike Winger came to the following conclusions; Only three mentioned “Kephale” or head as meaning ‘source’ to imply that woman came out of man. Out of those three, none of them assigned the definition to any New Testament passage. Two out of the three do not offer any specific New Testament meaning at all which means they are not even focused on the New Testament definitions of the word yet this is the reason for our inquiry in the first place. Source seems unlikely to be accurate in all but one lexicon, the LSJ which is lacking in scope.  Even in cases where source implied origin or birthplace, authority is implied as well.

Ultimately an objective analysis of the four arguments in my view reveals the following"

• Common medical thought in the new testament times supports "head" as implying authority or the one that is in control

• Paul's metaphorical and contextual use of head in relation to both Jesus and husbands implied authority very clearly.

• Church history totally supports headship implying authority and quotes from Chrysostom taken out of context do not change that.

• Greek Lexicon study of Kephale supports that it implies authority

  
  

My final thoughts.

Egalitarian claims are littered with inaccuracies. Oftentimes they will stretch and exaggerate text beyond the bible’s intentions. Or they downplay certain crucial passages according to what suits their agenda. Whatever that agenda is, conveying of truth to their audience does not seem to be part of it. On final analysis, it seems to me that their objective is to win an argument at all costs or to sell their books at all costs, even if it entails deceiving the target audience.

 Footnotes                                                                                               

Catherine Kroeger’s article chopping up a quote from Chrysostom. Still on CBE’s website. https://www.cbeinternational.org/reso...