What Does 1 Corinthians 11:3 Mean?
But I want you to know that the head of every man is the Anointed One; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of the Anointed One is God.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.THE KEY
One Greek word for “head” binds the man–woman relation into the same three-part chain as Christ’s relation to God.
THE MEANING
This verse sets out an order: Christ is head of every man, man is head of woman, and God is head of Christ. It presents the relation between man and woman as asymmetrical and places it alongside the relation between Christ and God. The same word names all three links, though the verse does not explain whether each relation works in precisely the same way.
THE ROOT
κεφαλή
kephalē
GROWS FROM
κεφαλ-
kephal-
Head; by extension, a chief or foremost point.
The same head-word names all three relations, while its word-family also names the chief point and the act of summing things together. That makes the clauses a connected order, though the word itself does not specify whether each relation means authority, source, or both.
ALSO GROWS
kephalaion: Chief point, sum
κεφάλαιον
This related word names the main point in Hebrews 8:1, showing how the head-family can mark what is foremost in a structure.
anakephalaioō: Sum up, bring together as a whole
ἀνακεφαλαιόω
Used for gathering things together in Ephesians 1:10 and summing them up in Romans 13:9, this branch echoes how one repeated word joins the verse’s three relations.
χριστός
christos
GROWS FROM
χρι
chri
To anoint.
The Greek word means “the anointed one,” not merely a personal name. The first link identifies the head of man by this title, carrying the sense of one set apart for a purpose.
ALSO GROWS
chriō: To anoint
χρίω
The verb gives the title its action: Christ is the one anointed.
chrisma: Anointing
χρῖσμα
This related noun makes the anointing itself visible behind the title used in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses “head” to name the leading point that orders a relationship or a whole.
The stone the builders push away becomes the head of the corner.For the husband is the head of the wife, even as the Anointed One is the head of the assembly, and he is the Deliverer of the body.And he is the head of the body, the assembly; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in all things he might be first.THE THREAD
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as the Anointed One is the head of the assembly, and he is the Deliverer of the body.Ephesians repeats κεφαλή (kephalē, “head”) for both the husband–wife relation and the Christ–church relation. It makes the paired analogy explicit and adds that Christ delivers the body.
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