Does the Bible really say that the man is the “head” of the house?
In my second year of university, I went to a huge Christian youth conference in the states. I had a room mate who was from a fundamentalist Christian family. One night we got talking about relationships and she told me, “of course, the man is the head of the household.” I was shocked that such a regressive idea could be held by an educated person. It really was a completely foreign idea to me. I had been raised in the church and had never heard a sermon about the “headship” of men. This was not part of my faith.
“That’s crazy,” I said, “no one needs to be ‘the head’ in a marriage. Marriage is a partnership.” My room mate insisted, saying that someone had to be “the boss” and make the decisions. I thought of my mom and dad and how they always made decisions together. I thought of how my mom had a “good head on her shoulders” and how my dad, clearly, always, valued her perspective and her ideas. “Well, wouldn’t two heads be better than one?!” I said. My room mate would have none of it.
That was the last time I really had to think about “headship” until I started working with Christian women impacted by abuse. Then I found that women were coming to me saying that their church leadership and their husbands were insisting that men were “the head of the house.” I thought I better look closely at the Bible and try to understand what was being said in the few places were this is mentioned. Many theologians have tackled this issue. This is just a brief summary of what I found.
In Ephesians 5:22 for example, it reads, For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Saviour…”
This text draws a parallel between the “headship” of a husband, in relationship with his wife, and the relationship between Christ and the Church. Often this concept of headship is used to argue superiority and controlling authority over women. The assumption is made that “head” means “boss”. However, the Greek word for “head” is kephale, a word that is also used to describe the life source of a river. In scripture Christ models relationships which are life giving and empowering to the Church. Christ loved selflessly and this is the type of love relationship this passage teaches for marriage partners.
The reality for women, in ancient times, was that they were quite powerless. They lived an entirely patriarchal reality. If we interpret kephale as “life source”, men in ancient times were being encouraged to empower their wives to be built up in love and to be the people God intended them to be.
As Catherine Clark-Kroegar, a highly respected theologian wrote, “How illuminating to conceive of the husband as empowering the wife to build herself up in love so that she may grow into the person that God meant her to be.”
Thank you.
So if it means “lifesource”, to me that is telling me that all it meant by “head” was that the husband and father should be the provider for the family. “Lifesource” as in working to provide food and shelter and clothing to the wife and the family. That is good. Nothing wrong with that.
Unfortunately, many men who read this, think it means that God gave the go head for men to be tyrants and have power over women. That would be unloving and since God is love, there is no way that God wants women to be treated badly or degraded by men or anyone. Men and women are both humans. They are equals.
The scripture starts out by saying the Christ is the head of man. Does that mean Christ is not the head or life source of woman.
This is amazingly revelatory news to me. Makes so much sense. I’ve struggled with that concept for years, not understanding it’s meaning. Christianity is the only religion that confirms both male and female are equal. And even then, it’s been misunderstood and taught incorrectly. No wonder women’s lib was so loud. Women were struggling to regain equality. Ugh. Wish the world or the church would listen to these words.
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