Sue

“How can you know? And what if your wrong- what then?”

I can’t know any more than you can know. I make decisions guided my moral guidelines, not on a gendered line of command. I believe that this is healthier and leads to less harm and more righteousness.

If I am wrong, I have simply modeled that it is best to make a decision based on sound moral judgement, rather than on the basis of gender. Maleness is no more moral than femaleness, so I don’t need to worry about being morally compromised because I am a woman.

Regarding lexicons, I don’t really trust any lexicons. I am just trying to discuss what is in them. The basic component of a lexicon is not the meanings listed, but the evidence or corroborating examples. There are no examples in the Liddell Scott or Woodhouse indicating that kephale meant “authority.” In the BDAG and the TDNT the examples given to denote superior rank are mostly from the NT. That is using something to prove itself so we have to set them aside.

In BDAG, the example listed as Hs. is Shepherd of Hermas, and follows the NT, and could be influenced by Latin, since it was published in Rome, written at the same time in Latin. Caput did mean “head of the household” in Latin, but does not normally mean that in Greek. Kephale, as head of a household, occurs only once in all of Greek literature in Hermas, as cited in BDAG. Is that what you were referring to? It is the very oddity of this expression in Greek, the fact that it is not natural Greek that makes it stand out.

The truth is that to me the scriptures are not always clear. This is acknowledged by Dr. Grudem who believes that they are interpreted by the spirit. Really, who can test the spirit of someone else. For some people it is in their interest to invest superior authority in men, there is so much at stake. For others, it is important that each person has equal moral authority, and takes equal responsibility for their own actions, for the way they care for their own family. I stand with that, that each of us has both equal responsibility before God, and equal authority.