kephale ?

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Video 6 will cover headship — whether husbands are 'head' of their wives. Egalitarians reject or redefine 'head' (kephale).

Why We Can't Think Biblically About It： Women In Ministry part 1

Preview of next video: husband/wife roles and the meaning of kephale (head)

The Egalitarian ＂Silver Bullet＂ Bible Verse： Women in Ministry part 7

Introduction: The Bible clearly states husbands are the head of their wives

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Egalitarian tactic: redefine 'head' (kephale) to mean something other than authority

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

The debate centers on one specific thing: the meaning of kephale

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

1 Corinthians 11:3 — the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, the head of Christ is God

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Egalitarian claim: kephale means 'source' only, not authority; complementarian claim: it includes authority

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Greek/lexical argument introduced: kephale means 'source' in Greek, not authority — the 'battle of the lexicons'

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Stephen Bedale's 1954 article: the origin of the 'head means source' argument

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Contextual/Bible study argument: Ronald Pierce and Rebecca Merrill Groothuis claim Paul only reinforces 'source/provision,' not authority

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

The either/or fallacy: egalitarians assume kephale means source OR authority, never both

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Ephesians 1:20-23 — Jesus as 'head over all things to the church' is clearly about authority

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Ephesians 4:15-16 — Christ as head from whom the body grows; this passage does focus on provision

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Lynn Cohick claims seeing authority in headship 'violates Paul's intention in metaphor'

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Metaphorical meanings of kephale: literal, headlong, whole person, extremity, prominent part, conclusion, authority

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Paul regularly uses 'head' to imply authority for both Christ and husbands — the context is abundantly clear

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Lexical claims introduced: Lynn Cohick says lexicons in the 19th-20th centuries suggested 'source' but not 'leader'

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

BDAG lexicon (2000): kephale denotes 'superior rank,' cites 1 Cor 11:3 and Eph 5:23; no mention of 'source'

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Word Study Dictionary of the NT (1993): kephale means 'head, chief one to whom others are subordinate'

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Louw-Nida lexicon: kephale means 'one of supreme or preeminent status in view of authority to order or command'

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Lexham Theological Wordbook: kephale refers to 'those who are of high status' — no mention of source

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

DBL Dictionary of Biblical Languages (2001): kephale means 'superior, one of preeminent status'

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Exegetical Dictionary of the NT (1990): kephale refers to 'hierarchy of God, Christ, man, woman' — sovereignty in Eph 5:23

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Greek-English Dictionary of the NT (1993): kephale means 'lord, head of superior rank'

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

LEH Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (2003): kephale means 'leader' — no mention of source

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

NASB Concordance: kephale means 'chief' — no mention of source

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Analytical Lexicon of the Greek NT (2000): kephale means 'first or superior rank' — cites 1 Cor 11:3

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Pocket Lexicon of NT Greek (1917): kephale means 'head, ruler, or lord' — cites 1 Cor 11:3

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Enhanced Strong's Lexicon (1995): kephale means 'supreme, chief, prominent; master, lord' of husbands

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

LSJ lexicon (1996 supplement): lists 'source' as possible meaning (for rivers) and 'noblest part' — does not cite any NT passages

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

TDNT (1964): kephale means 'first, supreme, prominent, outstanding, determinative'; acknowledges source for rivers but includes subjection

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon (1888): supports 'source' literally for rivers but metaphorical meanings don't apply to Paul

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Lexicon survey conclusion: 15 surveyed, only 3 mention source, none assign source to any NT passage

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Many lexicons that don't use the word 'leader' still support authority with terms like chief, subordinate, sovereignty, lord, ruler, master

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Cervin's own conclusion undermines egalitarians: kephale means 'preeminence,' not source — and he connects it to male dominance

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

The LSJ focuses on classical Greek (8th-4th century BC), not biblical Greek — its kephale entry ignores NT examples

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Grudem's critique of the LSJ: 'source' is literal (rivers only), not metaphorical; plural kephale = sources, singular = mouth of river

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Grudem argues the LSJ should be revised and provides extensive Greek examples of kephale meaning authority

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Peter Glare, editor of the LSJ, writes to Grudem agreeing with his conclusions — 'the supposed sense source of course does not exist'

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Glare: kephale translates Hebrew rosh meaning leader/chief; by NT times Septuagint usage was well-established; LSJ has 'inadequacies'

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Glare: 'in most cases the sense of the head as being the controlling agent is the one required'

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

26+ Bible translations translate kephale as 'head' or 'authority' — only The Passion Translation (2017) used 'source,' later corrected

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Five conclusions: (1) medical thought supports authority; (2) Paul's context implies authority; (3) church history supports authority; (4) lexical study strongly supports authority; (5) egalitarian claims are often problematic

Male Headship： Is it REALLY Biblical？ Women in Ministry part 8

Traditional view of verse 3: God's divinely given authority structure through headship

All The Head Covering Debates (1 Cor 11)： Women in Ministry part 10

The hairstyle view: Philip Payne's interpretation of 1 Corinthians 11

All The Head Covering Debates (1 Cor 11)： Women in Ministry part 10

Craig Keener's cloth covering egalitarian view

All The Head Covering Debates (1 Cor 11)： Women in Ministry part 10

Keener: kephale means 'source' or if 'authority' then only cultural authority

All The Head Covering Debates (1 Cor 11)： Women in Ministry part 10

Question 3: What does kephale mean? Conclusions from video 8 on male headship

All The Head Covering Debates (1 Cor 11)： Women in Ministry part 10

Push back on kephale as 'source': even if source, it still implies authority; verses 11-12 prove too much

All The Head Covering Debates (1 Cor 11)： Women in Ministry part 10

The kephale question is decisive: if it implies authority, egalitarianism cannot hold for this passage

All The Head Covering Debates (1 Cor 11)： Women in Ministry part 10

Thank you. 🙂 It is my observation that making Christ’s relationship with the body to be solely about authority is also greatly missing the message of salvation. Christ came to bring us life, true lif...

Very good. The diagrams are the clincher. I had never heard the rationale for the virgin birth stated in that manner. It also shows the importance of kephale meaning source. Thanks muchly. Rusty...

Thanks Rusty. Yes I think the diagrams do help to show how important the Greek word for head – kephale – is for expressing the meaning of source. In my mind there can be no other meaning for Adam as h...

Regardless of your view on women in ministry, your view on sin is extremely dangerous. You are basically justifying anyone who sins because they were deceived. It’s the old Flip Wilson “The devil made...

I would like to comment on this discussion. There are two questions I believe we must ask of 1 Cor. 11:1-2. First what is the meaning of kephale (translated “head”) in this metaphorical usage. And se...

Gidday Cheryl Can i pls ask you some qns and make a few observations for you to perhaps comment upon? what do you make of the singular ‘a woman’ in verse 3 and the pluaral ‘every man’? I think that...

Help!  I am in over my ‘kephale’ on this one!  In reading D.A. Carson’s Exegetical Fallacies, he says those who translate kephale as source are mistaken as that meaning only occurs in classical Greek ...

Athena was said to be born from the head/kephale of Zeus, this was a very common theme in art of the time.  The head of a river is also the source of the river as it flows downstream, the Greek would ...

Don, thank you!  Here is the piece from the book in case I have mentioned anything incorrectly:  Let me know what else you ‘see’ in this that my untrained mind misses.  (From D.A. Carson’s Exegetical ...

I’d like to see any comp from the context **alone** of 1 Co 11 pull out ‘authority over’ without making any additions to the text itself. This I’ve never seen. For me the safest way to go is with the ...

Suzanne McCarthy has some excellent material on kephale.  Suzanne is a Greek scholar and trained in several different languages. <http://powerscourt.blogspot.com/2008/01/grudem-and-kephale.html> <ht...

Hello, You should look at the book by Dr. B. called “Beyond Sex Roles” and goes into this teaching, that the context of the Bible supports that Kephale means SOURCE! Christ is the key to understandi...

Much to chew on here, and I thank you very, very much!  Just a reminder that I am egal, but am having this debate with my non-egal spouse.   I have checked all the McCarthy links, thank you Cheryl!…Do...

Michael Terran and Don, those responses do help very much!  Thank you.  What would be the best reference/lexicon to use to show that kephale can mean source or origin in koine Greek?...

kephale is on pdf p.801 of the bw LSJ file, at the link I gave that is awaiting moderation.  It starts at the bottom of the left col....

What would be the best reference/lexicon to use to show that kephale can mean source or origin in koine Greek? As you know things are much easyer to search out in this day an age with computers. Ther...

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 n...

If you check BDAG, a well respected Greek lexicon, you will find that “kephale” never means “source” and has not been accepted as being so though out church history (including and especially when the ...

Lawrence, Apparently you didn’t read my article very carefully because you didn’t answer the fact that the meaning of a word is evident in its context. The context of [1 Cor. 11](logos4:///Bible/1Co ...

Hello Cheryl and Lin (if this is too much of a tangent, pls feel free to delete it cheryl… i am just ‘processing’ my own thoughts!) i have been having a bit of a look at the issue of ‘authority’ thi...