KEYISSUE3: THEEQUALITY ANDDIFFERENCESBETWEEN
MEN ANDWOMENREFLECT THEEQUALITY AND
DIFFERENCES IN THETRINITY

This point is at the heart of the controversy, and it shows why much
more is at stake than the meaning of one or two words or verses in the
Bible. Much more is at stake even than how we live in our marriages.
Here we are talking about the nature of God Himself.
In 1 Corinthians 11:3 Paul writes, “But I want you to understand
that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is her hus-
band, and the head of Christ is God.” In this verse, the word “head”
refers to one who is in a position of authority over the other, as this
Greek word (kephal∑) uniformly does whenever it is used in ancient
literature to say that one person is “head of ” another person or
group.^41 So Paul is here referring to a relationship of authority
between God the Father and God the Son, and he is making a paral-
lel between that relationship in the Trinity and the relationship
between the husband and wife in marriage. This is an important par-
allel because it shows that there can be equality and differences
between persons at the same time. We can illustrate that in the fol-
lowing diagram, where the arrows indicate authority over the person
to whom the arrow points:

The Key Issues in the Manhood-Womanhood Controversy 59

The Father and Son are equal in diety and in value, just as husband and
wife are equal in personhood and in value. Yet the Father has authority over
the Son, as the husband has authority over the wife.

F →S H →W

→

HS

→