The thirty-eighth annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS), held in suburban Atlanta, was officially titled “Male and Female in Biblical and Theological Perspective.” But Aida Besançon Spencer, of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, dubbed it “the battle of the lexicons” in her response to discussion of a paper by University of Minnesota classics scholar Catherine Kroeger. Kroeger’s paper was titled “The Classical Concept of ‘Head’ as ‘source’. ”
Gilbert Bilezikian, of Wheaton College (Ill.), and Wayne Grudem, of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, joined Kroeger in debating the meaning of kephal, the Greek word normally translated “head” in such Pauline statements as 1 Corinthians 11:3 (“the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man …”) and Ephesians 5:23 (“For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church …”).
Grudem and other traditional interpreters suggest that in New Testament Greek, kephal carried the connotation of authority, as in ancient Latin and Hebrew where head can mean “boss” or “chief.”
Since not all languages use head as a metaphor for authority, Kroeger, Bilezikian, and other feminist interpreters suggest kephal means “source,” as in English usage where the source of a river may be called its “head.”
Kroeger also documented the ancient view of the head of the human body as the source of bodily moisture, including tears, mucous, and semen. Indeed, semen was thought to be produced in the brain and to run down the spinal column to the genitals. Thus the head was considered to be the source of life.
Kroeger applied this notion of head as “source” to Paul’s assertion that man is the head of woman, commenting that the biblical phrase reinforces the Genesis story of the creation of woman from the substance of man. This contrasts with pagan notions that the gods perpetrated a sneaky trick on man by making woman from inferior material. Kroeger called the teaching that man and woman were made of the same substance “a positive affirmation of heterosexual marriage,” since the low pagan view of women led some ancient philosophers to consider the love of boys to be superior to the love of women.
In his response to Kroeger’s paper, Grudem noted the time lapse between the writing of Paul’s epistles and the comments of Greek-speaking church fathers that Kroeger had quoted to support her understanding of kephal. Grudem also cited a number of Greek dictionaries (lexicons) that do not support Kroeger’s interpretations.
The debate over kephal was further heated by Bilezikian’s presentation, which attacked a previously published paper in which Grudem used a computer to search an exhaustive listing of ancient texts for occurrences of kephal. According to Grudem, his search of 2,336 sources showed 49 instances where kephal referred to a ruler or person of superior rank. Grudem’s sources included nonbiblical writings as well as ancient Greek translations of the Old Testament. Bilezikian examined each of the 49 instances, arguing in each case that kephal meant either source or the physical head of a human being or animal.
Beyond Kephal
Other presentations moved the debate beyond the definition of just one key term:
- Grudem described prophecy in the New Testament as a spontaneous utterance in response to an external spiritual influence. Thus, he said, it was far less normative than Old Testament prophecy and less authoritative than the teaching function exercised by New Testament elders. Such a view of prophecy, said Grudem, allows Christians to read Paul’s commendation of women’s prophesying and condemnation of women’s teaching as a consistent view. Grudem claimed that this view of prophecy should increase women’s role in public worship while limiting authoritative teaching to men.
- Walter Liefeld, of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, said the contemporary ministry at issue may not be the same as that described in the New Testament, since there was no formal “office” of the minister in New Testament times and authority is not actually vested in the minister in many evangelical churches.
- Regent College professor Gordon Fee suggested that 1 Corinthians 14:34–35 (“Let your women keep silence in the churches …”) was not part of Paul’s original text, but was instead a scribe’s marginal comment that was mistakenly incorporated during the copying of some early manuscripts.
- Kroeger presented a description and slides of ancient orgiastic Orphic religious ceremonies in which pagan Corinthian women indulged. Men generally preferred rational and orderly religions, while women opted for worship that involved ecstasy, noisy shouting, cross-dressing, and sexual promiscuity. Kroeger supplied a list of concepts, practices, and accoutrements of ecstatic religion that are referred to in 1 Corinthians, suggesting that perhaps Christian women in the Corinthian church were importing elements from their pre-Christian days.
Balance
Throughout the ETS meeting, Grudem questioned the lack of balance in the selection of plenary speakers. Of those who discussed the biblical view of man and woman, five were nontraditionalists and only one, Grudem, was a traditionalist.
According to Northwestern College professor Walter Dunnett, newly elected ETS president, other traditionalist scholars were invited to speak but did not attend the meeting. “Many, if not most, of the ETS members have grown up with the traditional position,” Dunnett said in an interview. “We felt that for the purpose of the meeting, while that view should be represented, other degrees [of opinion] should be presented for discussion.” In spite of feelings of tension in evidence at the ETS meeting, Dunnett said he does not believe the differences of opinion threaten evangelical unity.
Grudem agreed: “People are divided on this issue, obviously. But it does not seem to be an issue which makes people unable to talk and work together in other areas on the basis of common evangelical faith.”
By David Neff in Atlanta.
