I am not writing these series of posts in a vacuum. I don’t even own a vacuum. What I mean is that I have been married for 17 years and would really like for my “head” to stay attached to my body and don’t enjoy sleeping outdoors. In other words, my wife can and will be reading everything that I am saying about marriage and headship. She could even post her own comments about me, but thank goodness I can just not approve them and then no one will ever see them. Not that I would ever do that, and of course my wife and I agree on everything in life, like for example the beauty of country music.
There are several other passages of Paul in which he uses the concept of headship, but none give us more fits than 1 Corinthians 11. In a digression on woman’s head coverings in church, Paul gives such wonderful zingers such as 11:10, “That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.” Umm, thanks for that Paul… In addition to comparing Jesus and the church to husband and wife in Ephesians, Paul also compares Jesus’ relationship to God with the husband and wife relationship. 11:3 says, “I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” Not only does headship apply to Jesus and the church, but also Jesus and God!
With our two main options for the figurative meaning of “headship”, we must apply both to these comparisons to see if they fit contextually. Is Jesus in authority over the church? Yes, of course. Is Jesus the source of encouragement and nourishing of the church? Again, yes. Is God in authority over Jesus? Not so easy an answer, but you can read my post on subordination in the Trinity and see that my answer is that at the very least we have incarnational subordination of Jesus under God’s authority. Is God the source of encouragement for Jesus? Yes, we know that there is perfect unity of thought and love within the Father/Son relationship. I want to repeat here however, that just because Jesus is under the Father’s authority, it does not carry any connotation that the Father is better or more valuable than the Son. It is simply a differentiation of the roles that they have. God never abuses (or abused) that authority, and they still worked in perfect unity together as evidenced in Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel of John 5:18-47.
Paul does use “headship” in talking of Jesus in several passages that do not pertain to husband/wife relationships. Our next goal is to decide whether these uses seem to denote “authority” or “source”. In Ephesians 1:22-23, Paul says, “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” When you look at the preceding verses, it would appear that Paul is talking about the authority of Christ. In Colossians 1:18 and 2:10, both uses of headship mean authority. However, in Colossians 2:19, Paul says, “and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.” Paul uses “head” here to talk about the life that flows from Jesus to the believers, and in Ephesians 4:15 it also seems to carry the “source” aspect.
Since the uses for “head” to mean “source” and “authority” are both used by the same author in the same books, I find it hard to conclude that he means one to the exclusion of the other. Rather, it is more logical to conclude, that Paul uses “headship” to mean BOTH “source” and “authority”. Jesus is both the source of nourishing for the church, but He is also the authority over the church. If we combine this with our study on the guidance for wives to submit to their husbands, it becomes more difficult to remove the sense of authority of the husband in marriage. Though this same concept of headship is not used by other authors of the New Testament, we can observe that the use of “head” in Revelation carries the meaning of authority in describing the various characters. Also, Peter echoes Paul’s words on wives being subject to their husbands in 1 Peter 3:1.
The discussion is not over though, we have not analyzed the options I gave in discussing how to apply Paul’s commands on submission (progressive revelation or mutual submission). They would apply in the same way to the concept of headship. In the next post, we will discuss these, and also talk about how the conclusions impact people’s views on women in leadership. Let us not forget how far the church has come in the treatment of women, and we need to continue to pray and labor to see these freedoms come to those women still in bondage and suffering in their cultures. I know that many of us have these images in our minds as we discuss marriage and headship, and no matter our views, we should be united in the humane treatment of all genders.
The Bible Nerd 