Sue

Mark,

I have been blogging on this topic also so perhaps you will allow me some questions.

First, it appears that you are saying,

1. This passage is about husbands and wives.
2. The husband is not the source of the wife.

But then you write,

“But I do not think this supports the ‘source’ hypothesis over hierarchy, rather it gives ‘source’ as the basis for the authoritative teaching.”

So I can’t tell if you think that kephale means authority and not source, or source as the basis of authority.

Second, I would have to say that I think the view that this passage is talking primarily about husbands having authority over wives seems to contradict chapter 7 where the basis of sexual relations is mutual and reciprocal relationships of authority. It appears in chapter 7 as if sexual differentiation, that is masculinity and femininity, are the basis of a reciprocal relationship of authority.

How would you explain the shift from chapter 7 where gender entails mutual authority, and chapter 11 where you claim gender entails the authority of husband over wife. It our gender a two tiered affair?

Third, Paul suggests in chapter 7 that it is better not to marry. This implies to me that he does not see marital relations as being central to our understanding of how men and women participate in the church. For Paul it is not a part of his view of femininity that women need to be married and therefore in a submission relationship.

Wouldn’t unmarried women be functionally equivalent to men as they are not under authority?

Fourth, prophecy might perhaps be a greater gift that teaching. A prophet was a position of authority in the Hebrew Bible. It is hard to discern the spiritual difference between prophet and teacher. Old Testament prophets were teachers.

Perhaps I should not put down so many questions at once, but this chapter is difficult and the issues are intertwined.