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Another Look at KeΦaΛh in 1 Corinthians 11.3

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Extract

The 1 Corinthians passage, in which Paul insists that a woman praying or prophesying in the Christian assembly should have her head covered (11.2–16), has been said to be ‘in its present form hardly one of Paul's happier compositions. The logic is obscure at best and contradictory at worst. The word choice is peculiar; the tone peevish.’ On an earlier occasion I addressed myself to the interpretation of one of the difficult phrases in this passage, and I now turn to another one in v. 3 because some recent discussion of this verse may be obscuring its basic thrust and because some evidence relevant to its meaning has not been considered. It has to do with the sense in which Paul uses κεφαλή in this verse, which reads:

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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

page 503 note 1 Scroggs, R., ‘Paul and the Eschatological Woman’, JAAR 40 (1972) 283303, esp. 297.Google Scholar

page 503 note 2 A Feature of Qumran Angelology and the Angels of I Cor. xi. 10’, NTS 4 (19571958) 4858CrossRefGoogle Scholar; reprinted with a postscript in Murphy-O'Connor, J. (ed.), Paul and Qumran (London: Chapman, 1968) 3147Google Scholar; and in Essays on the Semitic Background of the New Testament (London: Chapman, 1971; Missoula, MT: Scholars, 1974) 187–204.Google Scholar

page 504 note 1 Der erste Korintherbrief (MeyerK 5; 9th ed.; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1910) 271.Google Scholar

page 504 note 2 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 and Paul's Views Regarding Women’, JBL 94 (1975) 94110, esp. 101–8.Google Scholar

page 504 note 3 On Attitudes toward Women in Paul and Paulist Literature: 1 Corinthians 11:3–16 and Its Context’, CBQ 42 (1980) 196215.Google Scholar

page 504 note 4 1 Cor 11:2–16: One Step Further’, JBL 97 (1978) 435–6.Google Scholar

page 504 note 5 The Non-Pauline Character of 1 Corinthians 11:2–16?JBL 96 (1976) 615–21Google Scholar; Sex and Logic in 1 Corinthians 11:2–16CBQ 42 (1980) 482500Google Scholar; Interpolations in 1 Corinthians’, CBQ 48 (1986) 8194. On the question of the unity and authorship of vv. 3–16Google Scholar, see further Thiselton, A.C., ‘Realized Eschatology at Corinth’, NTS 24 (19771978) 510–26, esp. 520–1CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Meier, J. P., ‘On the Veiling of Hermeneutics (1 Cor 11:2–16)’, CBQ 40 (1978) 212–22.Google Scholar

page 505 note 1 ‘Paul and the Eschatological Woman’ (n. 1, p. 503 above) 298. Scroggs (n. 41) ascribes the meaning ‘source’ to Bedale, S. (‘The Meaning of κεφαλή in the Pauline Epistles’, JTS ns 5 [1954] 211–15). Scroggs also attributes this meaning to H. Schlier (TDNT 3. 678), but Schlier's article does not use the word ‘source’: Κεφαλή implies one who stands over another in the sense of being the ground of his being.’CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 505 note 2 ‘Paul and the Eschatological Woman’ (n. 1, p. 503 above) 298–9 n. 41.Google Scholar

page 505 note 3 Paul and the Eschatological Woman: Revisited’, JAAR 42 (1974) 532–7, esp. 534–5 n. 8.Google Scholar

page 505 note 4 Ibid.

page 505 note 5 ‘Sex and Logic’ (n. 5, p. 504 above) 491. He recalls that Weiss, J. (Der erste Korintherbrief [n. 1, p. 504 above] 269),Schlier, H. (TDNT 3. 674)Google Scholar, and Conzelmann, H. (1 Corinthians [Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975] 183 n. 21) had already noted this earlier.Google Scholar

page 506 note 1 ‘Sex and Logic’ (n. 5, p. 504 above) 492.Google Scholar

page 506 note 2 In his commentary on 1 Corinthians in the forthcoming New Jerome Biblical Commentary (ed. Brown, R. E., Fitzmyer, J. A., and Murphy, R. E.; Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1990) art. 49, #53Google Scholar, Murphy-O'Connor goes so far as to write: ‘Gk kephalē never connotes authority or superiority (pace Bedale, S., JTS 5 [1954] 211–15)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.’ See further his article, 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 Once Again’, CBQ 50 (1988) 265–74, esp. 269–70Google Scholar. Cf. Delobel, J., ‘1 Cor 11:2–16: Toward a Coherent Explanation’, L'Apotre Paul: Personalité, style et conception du ministère (BETL 73; ed. Vanhoye, A.; Louvain: Leuven University/Peeters, 1986) 369–89.Google Scholar Other commentators who have used ‘source’ as the meaning of κεϕαλή in 1 Cor 11. 3 are Barrett, C. K., A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians (HNTC; New York: Harper & Row, 1968) 248Google Scholar; Bruce, F. F., 1 and 2 Corinthians (NCBC; London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1971) 103.Google Scholar

page 507 note 1 See further Bedale, S., ‘The Meaning’ (n. 1, p. 505 above) 212.Google Scholar

page 507 note 2 See Brown, F., Driver, S. R., and Briggs, C. A., A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament… (Oxford: Clarendon, 1952) 911Google Scholar. Cf. Wildberger, H., Jesaja (BKAT 10; 2nd ed.; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener-V., 1980) 264, 266, 282–4: ‘Haupt.’Google ScholarKaiser, O., Der Prophet Jesaia: Kapitel 1–12 (ATD 17; Göttingen; Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1970) 74.Google Scholar

page 508 note 1 This is the reading of ms. A; but ms. R uses έν άρχ ταο λαο, which also appears in 20.9.Google Scholar

page 509 note 1 See further De vita Mosis 2.16 #82; 2. 51 #290.Google Scholar

page 510 note 1 See further De praem. et poenis 20 #125: ‘For as in a living body the head is the first and best part and the tail the last and meanest… so too he means that the virtuous one (τ⋯ν σπουθαον), whether a single man or a people, will be the head of the human race (κεφαλήν…το άνθωπείου γένους) and all the others like parts of a body deriving their life from the powers in the head and at the top.’ In this instance, one may debate whether κεϕαλή has the sense of ‘source’.Google Scholar

page 510 note 2 The better reading here is ό ξριστός (found in mss. 46, , A, Bc, C, D2, Ψ, and the Koine text-tradition). It creates a problem about which is the subject and predicate of the clause; since κεϕαλή is anarthrous in the two following clauses, and therefore to be taken as the predicate, I prefer to take παντός άνδρός ή κεϕλή as the predicate in this clause too. The meaning of ό Ξριστός is also problematical and would call for a more developed discussion than is possible hereGoogle Scholar. Murphy-O'Connor, J. (JBL 95 [1976] 617) maintains that it cannot be the risen Lord, but must be understood as the community of believers, as in 1 Cor 12.12. It might make some sense to say that Christ in that sense is the κεϕαλή of every Christian, but it is baffling how Christ in that sense can be said to be παντός ένδρός ή κεϕαλή. The problem is still the same if one says that ό Ξριστός is to be understood of the risen Lord. My own inclination is to think of the preexistent ChristGoogle Scholar. See further Weiss, J., Der erste Korintherbrief (n. 1, p. 504 above), 270. Moreover, the collective sense of ό Ξριστός seems out of place in the lineup of singulars, ένήρ, γυνή, and θεός.Google Scholar

page 511 note 1 Renehan, R. (Greek Lexicographical Notes: A Critical Supplement to the Greek-English Lexicon of Liddell-Scott-Jones [Hypomnemata 45; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1975] 120) has additional material for the metaphorical use of κεϕαλή, but he does not mention this sub-category or give any of the evidence adduced in this article.Google Scholar

page 511 note 2 ‘The Meaning’ (n. 1, p. 505 above) 212.Google Scholar

page 511 note 3 After I had composed the foregoing article and submitted it to the editor, I learned through the kind cooperation of Harrington, D. J., S.J., editor of NTA, that the topic had been discussed by another New Testament interpreterGoogle Scholar. See Grudem, W., ‘Does κεϕαλή (“Head”), Mean “Source” or “Authority” in Greek Literature? A Survey of 2,336 Examples’, Trinity Journal 6 (1985) 3859. Grudem is in dialogue with other modern writers than those whom I have cited in the body of the article. Though both of us cite some of the same texts, some of my examples are in addition to those that he cites explicitly. He has, however, discovered many others that would supplement my list. Grudem supplies also a telling critique of the arguments of S. Bedale.Google Scholar