Head In Ephesians

  1. Head does not mean authority in ancient Greek. Its primary nuance of meaning is literal head, literal source, and metaphorical prominent.
  2. The Hebrew word head (ראש) often refers to leaders, some170 times. But the Greek Septuagint translation only renders this word with the Greek word head (κεφαλη) six times out of 170! The fact that these Greek speakers preferred other words (like ἀρχη “ruler” and ἀρχηγος “leader”) instead of using the Greek word κεφαλη tells us that the word’s most common connotation was not “leader” but something else.
  3. Authority is not a clearly established meaning of κεφαλη in the exhaustive ancient Greek Lexicon by Liddell-Scott-Jones. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament concludes that “in ancient secular [Greek] usage, κεφαλή is not em- ployed for the head of a society.” — HEINRICH SCHLIER, THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF THE NE W TESTAMENT, 674.
    1. Orphic Fragment (168): “Zeus is the head (κεφαλη), Zeus the middle, and from Zeus all things exist.” — “‘Head’ here clearly means ‘source,’ reinforced by the context that emphasized that through Zeus all creation comes into existence.” — PAYNE, MAN AND WOMAN, ONE IN CHRIST, 126-27
  4. The physical head in ancient Greek thought was assumed to be the source of the body’s functions, the source of information, perception, and provision for the entire body.
    1. Source of perception and information: For Hippocrates (of the Hippocratic oath) the “brain” (ἐγκεφαλος) in the “head” (κεφαλος) coordinates and controls all parts of the body. “I hold that the brain is the most powerful organ of the human body, for when it is healthy it is an interpreter to us of the phenomena caused by the air…Eyes, ears, tongue, hands, and feet act in accordance with the discernment of the brain.” — THE SAC RED DISE ASE, 178
    2. Source of provision: “Hippocrates describes the head as the starting point of the four thickest pairs of veins in the body (σωμα). From the head reach to every part of the body and give nourishment (ἡ τροφη) and provide what the body needs… He is not supplanting the heart as the organ that pumps blood to all the parts of the body, but rather stressing that the head controls the supply of blood to all the parts of the body.” — CLINTON ARNOLD, “JESUS CHRIST AS ‘ THE HEAD’ IN COLOSSIANS AND EPHESIANS,” 352.
    3. Source of semen in males: “Semen is secreted, as Plato and Diocles say, from the brain and the spinal marrow, but Praxagoras, Democritus, and Hippocrates say that it is secret- ed from the whole of the body.” — GALEN, MEDICAL DEFINITIONS, 439
    4. Both perception and provision: Galen, a leading physician in the 2nd century A.D. summarized his tradition regarding the head and the brain as the “source” (Grk. ἀρχη) of the nerves (Grk. νευρων), of all sensation and voluntary motion, and of all will and motion.
  5. In Jewish-Greek authors of the Second Temple period, the metaphorical word head was used primarily as an image of preeminent source.
    1. Of a man as progenitor of family: Philo of Alexandria calls Esau the head (κεφαλη) of his clan. “Like the head (κεφαλη) of a living creature, Esau is the progenitor (γεναρχης) of the clans mentioned so far.” (On Mating, 61).
    2. Of something that is the fundamental source of other things: The ten commandments “are the general heads (κεφαλαια), embracing the vast multitude of particular laws, the roots (ῥιζαι), the sources (ἀρχαι), the perpetual fountains (πηγαι) of the laws” (On Mating, 120).
    3. In Life of Adam and Eve (19:3), sexual lust is called “the head (κεφαλη) of every sin,” meaning source and origin.
  6. Paul’s many references to Jesus occur in contexts of his role as source and creator of the things over which he is the head.
    1. Colossians 1:18: “he is before all things, and in him all things are held together; he is the head (κεφαλη) of the body, the church; he is the beginning/source (ἀρχη), the firstborn from among the dead ones.”
    2. Colossians 2:19: Jesus is “the head (κεφαλη) from which the entire body through its joints and bonds is supported and held together and grows the growth of God.”
    3. Ephesians 4:15-16: “the head, that is, Messiah, from whom the entire body…grows.”
    4. 1 Corinthians 11:3: “Messiah is the head of man; man is the head of woman; and God is the head of Messiah.” These three parallel lines are grossly misunderstood if “head” is interpreted to mean “authority,” (especially the last line, which would result in the concept of the “eternal subordination” of the Son to the Father), but they make perfect sense when understood to mean source/origin: Messiah is the origin of humanity (Messiah as Creator, as in 1 Cor 8:4-6); man is the source/origin of woman (as in Genesis 2, alluded to later in the paragraph in 1 Cor 11:11-16); God is the origin of the Messiah (that is, the incarnation of the Son is sent “from” the Father). This is how the line has been understood from an early period — CYRIL OF ALE X ANDRIA , ON RIGHT B ELIEF, 5:131; C HRYSOSTOM, HOMILY ON CORINTHIANS, 12:150 -151.
    5. Ephesians 5:22-33: Paul portrays the husband as the head of the wife primarily in terms of source as his allusion to the Adam and Eve story shows (Eph 5:31-33), where the woman was made out of the man. “Adam is appropriately Eve’s ‘head’ by virtue of being her origin and source, and Eve in turn is his body, by virtue of their unity as one flesh. From here, Paul finds an interpretive correlation between Eve created from Adam and the traditional-cultural relationship between husbands and wives in the Roman world, where the husband is the benefactor and patron of the wife, from whom she derives her identity and the necessities of life.” — CYNTHIA WESTFALL-LONG, “ THIS IS A GRE AT ME TAPHOR! RECI- PROCIT Y IN THE EPHESIANS HOUSEHOLD CODE,” 587.
  7. Head as source in Ephesians:
    1. In Ephesians 1, Paul describes Jesus’ resurrection and exaltation as elevating his status and becoming the head (1:10) of all things in Heaven and Earth. For the spiritual powers and authorities, this means his subjection of and rule over them, so Paul draws upon the imagery of “being seated at God’s right hand…high above [them]” (1:20). Whereas, on Earth, Jesus is the head “of all things in the church, which is his body.” The meaning of Jesus’ headship is described as an organic one, where he is the source (= kephale) of the church’s origin and identity. This is spelled out in the following paragraphs in chapter 2.
    2. In Ephesians 2, Jesus is portrayed as the creator of the new humanity, that is, as its kephale. In 2:1-10, dead humans have been “made alive together” in the Messiah (2:5) and “created in Messiah Jesus” as God’s “workmanship” (2:10). Then in 2:11-22, Jews and Gentiles have been “created into one new human” so that “the two are reconciled by one body” (2:15-16). Once again, the new humanity owes its existence and identity to the Messiah, and it’s this role that Paul metaphorically calls kephale.
    3. In Ephesians 4:11-16, Paul describes how the Messiah has given leaders as gifts to his people, to “build up the body of the Messiah” (4:12). Once again, the Messiah is the creator and sustainer of his people who, as the receiver of such acts, are called “the body.” When the church is faithful to its identity as the new humanity, they will “grow into him, who is the head, that is, the Messiah, from whom the entire body is joined together and united together” (4:15-16). Once again, the Messiah’s headship is defined as being the source from which the body emerges as a unified whole.