γεννητής

Summary

γεννητής ("procreator, begetter") appears in Photius of Constantinople's commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:3, where the church father offers "source of life" as one possible meaning of kephalē ("head"), using gennētēs alongside proboleus. That even a 9th-century church father understood kephalē as potentially meaning "life-source/origin" undermines the complementarian claim that kephalē self-evidently means "authority" in the patristic tradition.

It comes from gennaō (to beget, to give birth). In the WIM context it appears specifically in the patristic commentary of Photius of Constantinople (9th century), who in his commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:3 offers two interpretive options for the meaning of kephalē ("head"): (1) the "source of life" reading, which he describes with the terms gennētēs (procreator/begetter) and proboleus (progenitor/originator); and (2) "authority." Article 334 (Andrew Bartlett's analysis) notes that Grudem misread this text, failing to recognize that Photius was presenting two separate interpretive options rather than endorsing one. The existence of gennētēs as a patristic gloss on kephalē supports the egalitarian "source" interpretation of head: if even a church father understood kephalē as potentially meaning "life-source/origin," then the complementarian restriction of kephalē to "authority" is not self-evidently the only patristic reading. Related: proboleus.