Novelty of Egalitarian Interpretations of Ephesians 5:21-22”; and Wayne
Grudem, “The Meaning of ‘Head’ (Kephal∑) in 1 Corinthians 11:3 and
Ephesians 5:23,” which is a reprint with only slight modifications of my arti-
cle, “The Meaning ofkefalhv, (‘head’): An Analysis of New Evidence, Real and
Alleged,” JETS44/1 (March 2001), 25-65.
My two earlier studies on the meaning of kephal∑were “The Meaning of
kephal∑(‘Head’): A Response to Recent Studies,” Trinity Journal11NS (Spring
1990), 3-72; reprinted in Piper and Grudem, eds., Recovering Biblical Manhood
and Womanhood,425-68; and “Does kephal∑(‘head’) Mean ‘Source’ or
‘Authority Over’ in Greek Literature? A Survey of 2,336 Examples,” appendix
in The Role Relationship of Men and Women(rev. edn.), George W. Knight III,
(Chicago: Moody, 1985), 49-80, also printed in Trinity Journal6 NS (Spring
1985), 38-59.- See Hove, Equality in Christ?and his essay “Galatians 3:28,” mentioned in the
note above. - Hove (Equality in Christ) ran forty-five computer searches on Greek literature
near the time of the New Testament. He reports finding sixteen examples of
Greek expressions from the New Testament and other ancient literature that
use the verb “to be” (eimi) plus the number “one” (Greek heis/ mia/ hen) and finds
that the expression is never used to indicate unity among things that are identi-
cal but always among things that are different and have different functions, but
that also share something in common that gives them a kind of unity (72-76). - In fact, egalitarians have a journal called Mutuality,published by the organiza-
tion Christians for Biblical Equality. - When the Southern Baptist Convention was debating its statement on marriage
and the family, I am told that there was a motion from the floor to add “mutual
submission” to the statement. A member of the drafting committee spoke
against the motion and explained how egalitarians have used it to deny any
sense of male authority within marriage. The motion was defeated, and appro-
priately so. If “mutual submission” had been added to the Southern Baptist
statement, in effect it would have torpedoed the whole statement, because it
would have watered it down so much that people from almost any position
could have signed it, and it would have affirmed no unique male authority
within marriage. (These events were reported to me by friends who were
present when the statement was being debated on the floor of the Southern
Baptist Convention in the summer of 1998.) - See Doriani, “Historical Novelty,” in Biblical Foundations for Manhood and
Womanhood. - The Greek text has the adjective idios,meaning “your own.”
- First Corinthians 16:15-16 should also be placed in this category, because it
seems from 1 Clement 42:4, a letter written from Clement of Rome to the
church of Corinth in 95 A.D., that the elders in the church at Corinth came
from the household of Stephanas (note the allusion to 1 Cor. 16:15 with the
expression “first converts” [Greek aparch∑]). Therefore, when Paul tells the
84 BUILDINGSTRONGFAMILIES