Origin, Headship, Authority, and Sanctification in Paul

The issue of male/female source/origin (and authority) is touched upon by Paul in 1^st Corinthians. He references in 11:11-12 the interdependence of men and women based upon their supposed interconnected origin. Paul previously references this interconnection in 7:4 when he teaches that husbands and wives have authority over each other’s bodies. This link of origin is Paul’s basis for his egalitarian approach to male-female (or female-male) relationships. Both man and wife are to have authority over the other, both are to submit to the other (Ephesians 5:21).

In both 1 Corinthians 11 and Ephesians 5, Paul references the concept of headship. Despite the common interpretation of this referring directly to “authority”, the actual understanding of head (kephale; κεφαλή) in these passages should be understood as “source” or “origin” (as in head of a river). God is the source of Christ, Christ is the source of the Church, man is the source of the woman, and woman is the source of the man. However, it is because of this mutual origin that women and men are both mutually submissive and mutually authoritarian over each other. (This reminds me of some of the paradoxes of Jesus: the least shall be great [Luke 9:8]; leaders are to be servants [Luke 22:25-26])

One of the purposes of this connection of source and subjectivity and mutual love is process of sanctification. Sanctification is the process of becoming more Christ-like, more God-like, and less sinful. Paul references the link between Christ and the Church and Man and Woman in Ephesians 5, noting that the commonality of bodies (vv. 30-31) is the source of sanctification (vv. 26-27).

Going back to 1 Corinthians 7, having established that husbands and wives have authority over each other (v. 4) and having just previously stated that male and female bodies come together as one (6:16), Paul states husbands and wives sanctify each other and then sanctify their children.

Therefore, God is the source by which Christ is sanctified because they are one (John 10:30), Christ is the source by which the Church is sanctified because they are one, and husbands and wives are the source by which each other are sanctified because they are one.