Editor’s Reflections -- By: William David Spencer
Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 24:2 (Spring 2010)
Article: Editor’s Reflections
Author: William David Spencer
PP 24:2 (Spring 2010) p. 2
Editor’s Reflections
Ones identity and self-definition are dependent to a great degree on well-placed trust. That societal, familial, political, or religious forces that define us are not always trustworthy is the catastrophic reality that can lead to tragic effects. Some of these are subtle. Some of them are blatant. Some of them are even violent.
As I edit Priscilla Papers, I continually turn up influences on women’s self-identification coming from Christian scholarship. One example was pointed out in Philip Barton Paynes excellent “Wild Hair and Gender Equality in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16” (Priscilla Papers 20, no. 3 [Summer 2006]). This careful article reminded us that the authoritative Greek-English lexicon by Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott (which draws from authors as early as the eighth century B.C. [Eumelus] through the fifteenth century a.d. [Apostolius, Macarius])1 defines the Greek word kephale (“head”) as “source,” but not as “authority”2 Sure enough, when I double-checked this claim, I noticed Liddell and Scott define kephale as “source of a river ... mouth .. . generally, source, origin . . . starting point”3 That made me curious to check out the fairly recent updating of Arndt and Gingrich’s revision of Walter Bauer’s standard lexicon. There, I discovered an opposite definition. The new BAGD, as it is called, presents explanations of kephale not found in Liddell and Scott, such as “to denote superior rank . . . the symbol of the father.” What is disturbing is the proof for these statements is nearly solely the precise New Testament documents in question: “1 Cor 11:3b; Eph 5.23 ... Eph 4:15; 5:23b ... Eph 1.22 . . . Col 2:10 ... 1 Cor 11.3cab.” In other words, BAGD employs a circular route to definition. One turns to the lexicon for light on the meaning of “head” in these verses and is told they themselves are the proof that it means “a being of high status.” The few supplemental references included are to post-biblical writers like Irenaeus, “Zosimus of Ashkelon [500 a.d.],” “in gnostic speculation.” BAGD seems completely certain, however, that the meaning of kephale is “not source.” Its proof? A 1989 article in New Testament Studies (“35, ‘89, 503-11”)
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