“But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.”

Theology had been largely settled on the relationship between the Father and the Son, in particular the subordination of the second person of the Trinity to the first person. That is, until the rise of feminism in the Western world generally and egalitarianism in the church specifically. To put it simply, the relationship of “the man” and “a woman” (defined by headship) is analogous to the relationship of the God (the Father) and Christ (the Son). Egalitarians do not see a hierarchy of relationship, whereas the traditional (or complementarian) view sees the relationship as being between two persons of equal value and worth, but different in roles. The latter interpret this verse to state that the husband holds the role of “head” over the woman in the sense of authority and leadership, yet the two are equal in dignity and intrinsic value. This draws from the analogy of the Father being the head or authority over the Son, yet both are equally God.

The arguments are complex and far beyond the scope of this essay. We hold that the word “head” when used in a metaphorical (non-literal) way very naturally carries a sense of hierarchical authority, as in a general being the head of the army (a clear example of use of the word “head” in ancient literature). Arguments that egalitarians use to support headship occasionally meaning “source” (as in the husband is the “source” of the woman) fail on a number of counts. In what sense would a general be the “source” of the army? Further, the notion that a man is the source of a woman would only make sense of the first man, from whom a rib was taken to form the woman. Further, the analogous assertion that the Son is sourced in the Father sides with heretics who deny the eternal existence of the Son.

The word “head” in the Greek language is far from proven to commonly or even occasionally be a valid word for “source.” On the contrary, there are many examples of headship in ancient Greek (secular as well as biblical) where “authority” is the clear meaning. To assert that the word here means “source” because of the weight of other biblical passages is to force a meaning onto the word that is not only strained but lacking in scholarly support. One can arrive at that conclusion only if one is predisposed to the idea—it does not arise from the text itself. The following verses fit much better with the role distinctions conveyed here. And those roles are as good as the roles within the Godhead. With this understanding, we consider next the following, admittedly difficult, verses.

Lord, help me see the goodness as well as responsibility in the gender roles.