Cheryl

Kerryn,

Boy I thought I was being thorough, but I forgot to include some of your questions that you posed earlier regarding verse 3.

You asked:

“further regarding v 3: what is interesting to also note is that paul does not explicitly refer to the 3 ‘pairs’ again – only the ‘pair’ of man and woman is used. for example, if v 3 was the ‘basis’ for the entire passage, then surely Paul would have said that man is the glory of ‘Christ’ (not ‘God’) in v 7, to link back to v 3?”

I believe he does refer back to Christ in that Christ is God. Christ is the head or source of man in that He is man’s creator. By starting with Christ and ending the pairs with God, there is an Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the conclusion to all of creation and that is with God. Christ himself is the glory of God as the wife is the glory of her husband. This is indeed a passage about glory and honor not authority and hierarchy as you so aptly had also pointed out.

Your question about verse 12 I will reserve for the time that we get there. If for some reason I forget, please remind me on that post 🙂

You also asked:

“what about Paul’s metaphorical use of ‘kephale’ (head) in Ephesians 1:10, 22; 4;15; 5:23 and Colossians 1:18; 2:10;19? can we assume that Paul is consistent or ‘repeating’ his use of ‘head’ in these other passages?”

Yes, I do think that he is consistent but also adding the head as source as in “source of supply”. In Col 1:18 Christ is the head and is said to be the “beginning”. Beginning clearly represents source. In Col. 2:10 it makes perfect sense to interpret it as the one who is the source of all authority and rule. It is Christ who created all things included all rule and authority and who sustains everything by the word of his power.

In Co. 2:19 the head is the one who supplies nourishment so it fits well with source. In Eph. 1:22, 23 the head is the one who “fills” all things. Again a good definition of what the source or origin does.

Eph. 4:15 we are to grow up into him. This isn’t a metaphor for authority but our source that we get our nourishment from and grow to maturity.

Eph 5:23 the head is the one who gives himself up for his body (wife). All of these things is what the head does as source of supply. He gives himself up to supply her with what she needs to grow and mature. There is so much in this passage that one could do a whole DVD on it 🙂

I think I got all the relevant questions for now. I am sure that you will have many more questions as we go along!

Warmly,
Cheryl