StrongerBible

kephalē

κεφαλή

GreekG2776“head”

Appears 76 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 5:36Mat 6:17Mat 8:20Mat 10:30Mat 14:8Mat 14:11Mat 21:42Mat 26:7Mat 27:29Mat 27:30Mat 27:37Mat 27:39Mrk 6:24Mrk 6:25Mrk 6:27Mrk 6:28Mrk 12:10Mrk 14:3Mrk 15:19Mrk 15:29Luk 7:38Luk 7:44Luk 7:46Luk 9:58Luk 12:7Luk 21:18Luk 21:28Jhn 13:9Jhn 19:2Jhn 20:7Jhn 20:12Act 18:18Act 21:24Act 27:341Co 11:3 (3×)1Co 11:41Co 11:51Co 12:21Eph 4:15Eph 5:23 (2×)Col 1:18Col 2:10Rev 1:14Rev 4:4Rev 9:7Rev 9:17 (2×)Rev 9:19Rev 12:3 (2×)Rev 13:1 (2×)Rev 13:3
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-gradekeh-fah-LAYnoun

What kephalē means

head: the top part of the body, and by extension the topmost, foremost, or most prominent part of anything, including the leading member of a group

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

At its core this word names the head on a person's or animal's body, the part you anoint, strike, bow, cover, or shake. The New Testament uses it that way constantly, from the hairs of the head being numbered to the crown of thorns to John the Baptist's head carried in on a platter.

Because the head sits at the top and is the most noticeable part of the body, the same word stretches in two natural directions. One is spatial: the head of the corner is the prominent stone at the joining of two walls, the piece the whole structure turns on. The other is relational: a head is the foremost member of a body, a household, or a people, the one the rest look to and are joined to.

These are not separate words but one picture used in different settings, and the shared thread is prominence: the head is the uppermost, most visible, most representative part. What that prominence implies in a given passage varies.

  • Sometimes it clearly carries authority, as when Christ is set as head over all things for the church.
  • Sometimes it clearly carries the idea of source, as when the whole body is said to grow out of the head.
  • Often the surrounding words, not the term itself, tell you which.

A reader who keeps the plain picture in view, the highest and most prominent part on which the rest depends, will follow each use without forcing one fixed English sense onto them all.

Nuances

1athe head as a body part: the top of a person's or creature's body
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
Mat 5:36Mat 6:17Mat 8:20Mat 10:30Mat 14:8Mat 14:11Mat 26:7Mat 27:29Mat 27:30Mat 27:37Mat 27:39Mrk 6:24
1bthe head of the corner: the most prominent stone at the joining of two walls, on which the structure depends
CertaintySettled
Mat 21:42Mrk 12:10Luk 20:17Act 4:111Pe 2:7
1chead over a body: the foremost and preeminent one to whom a body, a household, or a people is joined and on whom it depends
1Co 11:3 (3×)Eph 1:22Eph 4:15Eph 5:23 (2×)Col 1:18Col 2:10Col 2:19

What scholars say about kephalē

Standard lexica treat κεφαλή as one word ranging from the literal head to derived senses of topmost point and preeminent or foremost person. The disputed New Testament question is what the leadership figure in Paul entails, and the older binary of authority versus source has given way to a three-way debate. The traditional authority-over reading was revived by Wayne Grudem's survey of thousands of examples and defended independently by Joseph Fitzmyer from Hellenistic Jewish parallels; the source or origin reading was launched by Stephen Bedale and pressed by Gordon Fee and Philip Payne, resting partly on LSJ's failure to list a leader sense and on the LXX translators' preference for other words to render Hebrew ro'sh as chief; the preeminence or foremost reading, argued by Richard Cervin, Andrew Perriman, and Anthony Thiselton, holds that the base metaphor denotes prominence, with authority and source as contextually triggered entailments rather than fixed lexical meanings. BDAG glosses the figure as superior rank and Louw-Nida as pre-eminent status, phrasings closer to this third view. The passage evidence is itself uneven: Eph 1:22 and Col 2:10 are authority-loaded, Eph 4:15-16 and Col 2:19 are source-loaded, Col 1:18 is preeminence and origin loaded, and 1 Cor 11:3 and Eph 5:23 are genuinely ambiguous, which most now take as evidence that Paul uses the metaphor polysemously. The cornerstone idiom (head of the corner) is widely recognized as a distinct architectural figure drawing on Psalm 118:22.

Where scholars disagree about kephalē

When Paul calls Christ or a husband the head, what the figure primarily means. The older debate opposed authority-over to source-or-origin; more recent work adds a third reading, that the base metaphor is simply preeminence or foremost standing, with authority or source triggered by the surrounding text rather than carried by the word itself.

  • contestedThe base metaphor is prominence or preeminence: the head is the foremost, most visible, most representative part, and whether a given passage also implies authority or source is decided by its context, not by the word. This is now the reading many take as most defensible, and it fits the disputed texts better than any single fixed sense.; Richard S. Cervin, "Does kephale Mean 'Source' or 'Authority Over' in Greek Literature? A Rebuttal," Trinity Journal 10 NS (1989): 85-112; A. C. Perriman, "The Head of a Woman: The Meaning of kephale in 1 Cor. 11:3," Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 45 (1994): 602-622; Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC), Eerdmans, 2000
  • contestedThe figure centers on authority and rule: the head governs the body, so Christ is ruler over the church and a husband holds a leading role. Supporters point to first-century Jewish Greek usage where head names a leader.; Wayne Grudem, "Does kephale ('Head') Mean 'Source' or 'Authority Over' in Greek Literature?," Trinity Journal 6 NS (1985): 38-59; Joseph A. Fitzmyer, "Another Look at kephale in 1 Corinthians 11:3," New Testament Studies 35 (1989): 503-511
  • contestedThe figure centers on source or origin: the head is that from which the body derives its life and growth, so the stress falls on Christ as the church's source rather than on rank. Supporters note that standard classical lexica do not list a leader sense and that the passages picturing the body growing from the head demand it.; Stephen Bedale, "The Meaning of kephale in the Pauline Epistles," Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 5 (1954): 211-215; Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT), rev. ed., Eerdmans, 2014
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, s.v. κεφαλήlexicon
  • LSJ, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. κεφαλήlexicon
  • Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, domain 87.51lexicon
  • H. Schlier, κεφαλή, in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT), vol. 3dictionary
  • Stephen Bedale, "The Meaning of kephale in the Pauline Epistles," Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 5 (1954): 211-215article
  • Wayne Grudem, "Does kephale ('Head') Mean 'Source' or 'Authority Over' in Greek Literature? A Survey of 2,336 Examples," Trinity Journal 6 NS (1985): 38-59article
  • Joseph A. Fitzmyer, "Another Look at kephale in 1 Corinthians 11:3," New Testament Studies 35 (1989): 503-511article
  • Richard S. Cervin, "Does kephale Mean 'Source' or 'Authority Over' in Greek Literature? A Rebuttal," Trinity Journal 10 NS (1989): 85-112article
  • A. C. Perriman, "The Head of a Woman: The Meaning of kephale in 1 Cor. 11:3," Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 45 (1994): 602-622article
  • Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC), Eerdmans, 2000, 800-822commentary
  • Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT), rev. ed., Eerdmans, 2014commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of κεφαλή

accusative f s

κεφαλὴν, κεφαλήν

Mat 6:17, Mat 8:20, Mat 14:8, Mat 21:42, Mat 27:30, Mrk 6:24, Mrk 6:25, Mrk 6:27

genitive f s

κεφαλῆς

Mat 10:30, Mat 26:7, Mat 27:29, Mat 27:37, Mrk 14:3, Luk 7:38, Luk 7:44, Luk 12:7

accusative f p

κεφαλὰς

Mat 27:39, Mrk 15:29, Luk 21:28, Rev 4:4, Rev 9:7, Rev 9:19, Rev 12:3, Rev 12:3

nominative f s

κεφαλὴ, κεφαλή

Mat 14:11, 1Co 11:3, 1Co 11:3, 1Co 11:3, 1Co 12:21, Eph 5:23, Eph 5:23, Col 1:18

dative f s

κεφαλῇ

Mat 5:36, Jhn 19:2, Jhn 20:12, 1Co 11:5

nominative f p

κεφαλαὶ

Rev 9:17, Rev 9:17, Rev 17:9

genitive f p

κεφαλῶν

Rev 13:3