When "Head" Doesn't Mean "Source"

A blogger I follow closely is John Hobbins.  He posted an intriguing (and controversial) blog post about the meaning of kephalē (κεφαλή, “head”) as used by Paul in 1 Cor. 11 and Eph. 5 on his blog Ancient Hebrew Poetry.  He calls (by citing the NIDB article by Max Turner) for a meaning of “head” instead of “source” which has tended to be the way for contemporary society (whether egalitarian or complementatian or anything in between) to avoid the issue and make Paul say whatever they want to hear him say instead of allowing him to say whatever it is that he actually said.  It is refreshing to read such posts and also a challenge to not make the biblical writers say what we want to hear, but to hear what they say.

Note the comments on his blog where people happily attack this proposal! 🙂  What do you think?

This entry was posted in 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, Head, John Hobbins, Kephale, Paul, Source. Bookmark the permalink.

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