The True Meaning of Headship: Part Three
David Kotter
January 17, 2008
This post is the third in a series (Part One, Part Two) addressing this interesting question posed in the blogosphere:
Why do some people say that there is no evidence kephale can mean 'source' or 'origin?'
Here's the reference from the lexicon, and a link to the same entry, here.
d. in pl., source of a river (Hdt. 4.91) (butsg., mouth, oida Gela potamou kephalêi epikeimenon astu Call.Aet.Oxy.2080.48 ): generally, source, origin, Zeus k. (v.l. arkhê), Zeus messa, Dios d' ek panta teleitai tetuktai codd.) Orph.Fr.21a; starting-point, k. khronou Placit. 2.32.2 (kronou codd.), Lyd.Mens.3.4; k. mênos ib.12.
Background
First, some background for those who may be newcomers to the gender debate, and to encourage you that it is worth your time to read to the end of this unusually long post:
The definition shown in the blogosphere question above has been clipped from the Greek-English Lexicon originally edited by H. G. Liddell, Robert Scott, and revised by Henry Stuart Jones (ninth edition: Oxford: Calarendon, 1968, pg. 945). (This outstanding lexicon is generally called "Liddell-Scott" by scholars and is now available online.) But consulting a lexicon (dictionary) by itself is not sufficient to determine the meaning of a word.
When trying understand the meaning of a word such as kephalē, it is common to begin with a Greek-English lexicon and then to examine the word in its literary context. The lexicon provides the possible meanings for a given word, but context and usage are the primary indication of an author's meaning.
For example, a lexicon will tell us that the English word "post" can have about two dozen different meanings, including "an upright timber," "to mail a letter," and "a military base or position" (not to mention more modern meanings, such as "to put a blog entry on the web" or "the area on a basketball court under the hoop"). Such definitions help us rule out what a word likely does not mean in common usage. From the dictionary we infer that the word "post" is unlikely to mean "tune a piano" or "eat a tuna fish."
The literary context is what provides the clues as to the authorial intent of the meaning of a specific word. In a sentence like, "I stubbed my toe on a post" we would never expect that the author was referring to a blog entry or mailing a letter (especially since the word in question is being used as a noun instead of a verb). The author might be referring to an injury occurring on a military base or basketball court, but it seems unlikely. The precise meaning would be even more clear if the prior sentence referred to a person walking toward a farmer's fence on a misty evening.
In the same way Greek word kephalē can also have several different meanings that must be determined from context. When referring to a person, this word most commonly means "head" and carries connotation of authority or oversight. When referring to things (such as plants, plots of land, or pottery vessels) it often means "an extremity" such as "the head of a column" or "a head of garlic." When kephalē is used with respect to a river, it is used in the singular to refer to the "mouth" of the river and in the plural form to refer to the "source" of the river.
Using this process, we can interpret the meaning of kephalē in a verse such as "for the husband is the head (Greek kephalē) of the wife as Christ is the head of the church" (Ephesians 5:23). Since this word refers to a person so it most likely indicates "on in authority over." Since it is not used in the plural form, we can rule out the meaning "source." Since it is singular, it could potentially mean "mouth" but it is unlikely because "Christ is the mouth of the church" does not seem theologically consistent with the rest of the Bible.
At this point it is appropriate to hear from the third scholar in this blog series P.G.W. Glare, who served as the editor of the Liddell-Scott lexicon in Oxford, England and is therefore eminently qualified to comment on the definition of this word.
P.G.W. Glare
Glare denies that the word "head" ever had the meaning "source" in ancient Greek literature.
Regarding kephalē, Glare says, "The entry under this word in LSJ is not very satisfactory." But he adds, "I was unable to revise the longer articles in LSJ when I was preparing the latest Supplement, since I did not have the financial resources to carry out a full-scale revision."
With regard to win Grudem's study of kephalē, he writes, "I am in broad agreement with your conclusions." He adds, speaking of the usage in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament), "kephalē is the word normally used to translate the Hebrew r'osh, and this does seem frequently to denote leader or chief without much reference to its original anatomical sense, and here it seems perverse to deny authority" (italics added).
Then Glare adds the following comment: "The supposed sense ‘source' of course does not exist and it was at least unwise of Liddell and Scott to mention the word. At the most they should have said ‘applied to the source of a river in respect of its position in its (the river's) course'" (bold added). Coming from someone who, because of his position, can rightfully be called the preeminent Greek lexicographer in the world, this is a significant statement. Glare adds that "in most cases the sense of the head as being the controlling agent is the one required" when dealing with similes or comparisons.
Finally, with respect to Grudem's 1990 article, he adds, "I shall file it in the hope that one day we will be able to embark on a more thorough revision of the lexicon."
Conlusion
By Wayne Grudem
Where does this leave us with regard to the dispute over kephalē in the ancient world? Up to this time, Liddell-Scott was the only lexicon that even mentioned the possibility of the meaning "source" for kephalē. All the other lexicons for the New Testament gave meanings such as "leader, ruler, person in authority" and made no mention of the meaning "source" (see Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich-Danker, p. 430; Louw-Nida, 1:739; the older lexicons by Thayer, p. 345, and Craemer, p. 354; also TDNT, 3:363-372; the sixth German edition of Walter Bauer, Griechisch-deutsches Wrterbuch [1988], p. 874-875; and most recently A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint edited by J. Lust, E. Eynikel, and K. Hauspie [Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1996], p. 254.)
But now the editor of the only lexicon that mentioned the meaning "source" in any connection says that the supposed sense "source" for kephalē "of course, does not exist," and says that it was "at least unwise" for Liddell and Scott to mention the word source. (If it was "at least unwise," we may conclude that it was perhaps more than unwise.) Moreover, he agrees that the meaning "leader or chief " is clearly attested for kephalē.
This letter therefore seems to indicate that there is no "battle of the lexicons" over the meaning of kephalē, but that the authors and editors of all the lexicons for ancient Greek now agree (1) that the meaning "leader, chief, person in authority" clearly exists for kephalē, and (2) that the meaning "source" simply does not exist.
