194 FEMINIST VIEWS BASED ON UNTRUTHFUL CLAIMS
kephal∑seldom meant “authority over” in ancient Greek and often
meant “source” (with no necessary sense of authority).
It is important to realize the decisive significance of these verses, and
particularly of Ephesians 5:23, for the current controversy about male-
female roles in marriage. If “head” means “person in authority over,”
then there is a unique authority that belongs to the husband in marriage,
and it is parallel to Christ’s authority over the church. If this is the true
meaning of “head” in these verses, then the egalitarian view of marriage
is wrong.^2 But if “head” means “source” here, then two Scripture texts
significant to complementarians have been shown to have no impact on
the controversy.
What is the actual evidence? Is there evidence that kephal∑fre-
quently meant “source” in the ancient world, or that it ever meant
“source”? Is “authority over” an unproven meaning?
In fact, kephal∑is found in over fifty contexts where it refers to peo-
ple who have authority over others of whom they are the “head.”^3 But
it never once takes a meaning “source without authority,” as egalitari-
ans would like to make it mean.^4
Here are several examples where kephal∑is used to say that one per-
son is the “head” of another, and the person who is called head is the
one in authority:^5
Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, ed. Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G.
Reid (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 375-377; Judy L. Brown, Women
Ministers According to Scripture (Springfield, Ill.: Judy L. Brown, 1996), 213-215, 246.
(^2) I realize that some egalitarians claim that Paul’s teaching about marriage applied only to his
time in history, and is not applicable to us today. This position is not affected by disputes over
the meaning of head, but it is very difficult to sustain in light of the parallel with Christ and
the church and in light of Paul’s tying it to the statements about marriage before there was sin
in the world (Eph. 5:31-32, quoting Gen. 2:24).
(^3) I have quoted English translations for the more than fifty examples in Evangelical Feminism
and Biblical Truth (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah, 2004), 544-551, so readers can inspect them for
themselves.
(^4) I have published three extensive studies of the meaning of kephal∑, in which the relevant texts
are analyzed in detail: (1) Wayne Grudem, “Does kephale (‘Head’) Mean ‘Source’ or ‘Authority
Over’ in Greek Literature? A Survey of 2,336 Examples,” Trinity Journal 6 NS (Spring 1985):
38-59; (2) Wayne Grudem, “The Meaning of kephal∑(‘Head’): A Response to Recent Studies,”
Trinity Journal 11 NS (Spring 1990): 3-72; (3) Wayne Grudem, “The Meaning of Kephal∑
(‘Head’): An Analysis of New Evidence, Real and Alleged,” Journal of the Evangelical
Theological Society 44/1 (March 2001): 25-65. The third article is reprinted, with some added
material interacting with Anthony Thiselton, in Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth, 552-
- (The added material on Thiselton’s view is on pages 590-597.)
(^5) These texts are discussed in the first two of my previous articles on kephal∑(mentioned above).