Thursday, January 17, 2008

Grudem and Glare

Gender Blog continues,

Grudem quotes Glare as writing,

kephalē is the word normally used to translate the Hebrew r'osh, and this does seem frequently to denote leader or chief without much reference to its original anatomical sense, and here it seems perverse to deny authority" (italics added).

But, in fact, Grudem himself in RBMW Appendix wrote,

In fact, the most common word for ruler, the one that literally meant ruler, was archon. It is not at all surprising that in contexts where the Hebrew word for head meant ruler, it was frequently translated by archon. All I have claimed is that kephale could also mean ruler or authority in a metaphorical sense of head.

So, how does Grudem assume that kephale means authority? In fact, a mere 5% of the time that rosh meant "leader" it was translated as kephale. That is what I meant when I said that overhwlmingly, the evidence is against the meaning of authority for kephale, and in favour of some other meaning like "progenitor," or "father," most "prominent" or "representative." I am sure that for some the word "father" means "authority" just as the word "mother" means "milk." However, these two are two separate although associated entities.

2 comments:

J. K. Gayle said...

and how does Aristotle use the word?

In his Rhetoric, where (in Book I, ch 5) he begins to develop his observations on "happiness," he writes this:

καὶ του̂τ' ἐστὶν ἐν κεφαλαίῳ εἰπει̂ν ἥ τ' εὐδαιμονία καὶ τὰ μόρια αὐτη̂ς

which can be translated:

"and this is, in a spoken heading, happiness and it's parts"

κεφαλαί the way Aristotle uses it here is "representative" or just an "organizing place holder for a concept [in this case 'happiness']" and not "authority" or "leader" or "chief."

Suzanne McCarthy said...

Thanks. I didn't realise until now that the entire kephale study was bunk.