For the headship of t'hrist see following article. G. M. Mackie.
HEADSHIP.— i. In the Go.spels.— 1. The word 'head' («0aXi}), as applied to the relation of Christ to His Church, occurs only three times in the Gospels, and there in the passages in the Synoptics (Mt 21« It Mk 12^" || Lk 20") in which, applying the lesson of the parable of the Wicked Husbandmen, Jesus quotes Ps 118-- in the Septuagint version, ' 'The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner ' (ouTot lyevTiSTi ci't Kfipa\T\v yuivlat), where the expres-
HEADSHIP
HEADSHIP
sion Ke4)a\T]v yuvlas is an exact rendering of the Hebrew nj? aA\ The meaning of the passage is clear. The building of which the Psalmist speaks is the theocracy, Israel as the people of God. The corner-stone, a stone fitted into an angle of the building and binding together the walls which meet at that point, and without which the struc- ture must collapse, represents the Messiah, through whom the theocracy finds its realization.
What the Psalmist says about the rejection of the stone on the part of the builders has been explained by some as an allusion to an alleged incident in the building of the Second Temple.
that was the right place for it, and that no other stone would answer half as well. The trial was made, and the issue answered their expectations ' (Plumptre, Biblical Sittdits, quoted by Per- owne, Psalms, in loc).
It is more likely, however, that this story was suggested by Ps 118 than vice versa. Probably what was in the Psalmist's mind was Is 28'^ ' Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious comer-stone.' Ps 118^- was applied by Christ to His relation to the Church as uniting Jew and Gentile, and to His approaching rejection by Israel. Thus quoted and applied, the words of the Psalm speak of the Messiali as of Him ' upon whom depend the maintenance and development of the theocracy, without whom it would fall to pieces, as the corner-stone is the upholder and stay of a building' (Meyer). They speak of Christ as representing the principle of unity, that which constitutes the Church a grand whole. If we compare with this application by our Lord of Ps 1 18" the use made of tlie same figure by St. Peter in the Acts of the Apostles (4") and in his First Epistle (2*-*), where he speaks of the Church as a temple built of living stones, and by St. Paul when he describes Jesus Christ Himself as the chief corner-stone of a holy temple (Eph 2-°), we find the connecting link between the idea of the Headship of Christ as it is expressed in the Gospels and the similar conception of St. Paul in his Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians (compare also 1 Co IP).
St. Peter, while keeping to the architectural figure suggested by the passages quoted from the Psalms and Isaiah, and speaking of Christ as ' head stone of the corner ' (kc^oXi) yavla^), adds the thought of life to that of unity. St. Paul, still further working out the same idea, adopts a diflerent figure, that of the head as the seat of life in the body, that which con- trols and regulates the action of each individual mem- ber (Eph P2- =3 415. IS 523. 2a-3o_ Col 1'8 2"). See § ii.
2. The idea of Headship is suggested in the Gospels in connexion with another figure, in our Lord's similitude of tlie Vine (Jn IS'*-), in which He illustrates and works out in detail the thought that He is the source of life and fruitfulness for the whole Church and for each individual member of the Church, tlie vital principle which unites all in one. As the head no less than the heart is the seat of life in the human body, inas- much as the brain is the centre of the nervous system, and the nerves radiating from the brain and spinal cord are the source of the healthy activity of every part, the beautiful description which St. Paul gives (Col 2'")—' the head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered and knit together, in- creaseth with the increase of God ' — corresponds to what Christ says in His jiarable of tlie Vine of the source of life and fruitfulness, with the thought of the healthy flow of life-giving sap which His words suggest : ' As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are tlie branches : he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit ; for without me (x^pis ifiod—maxg. 'severed from me ') ye can do nothing' (Jn 15^- ^).
3. Again, the thought of Headship is involved in that view of the Church's relation to Christ which our Lord presents in the blessing pronounced on St. Peter at Csesarea Philippi (Mt W^- '»), and in a passage from the same Gospel, in many respects similar, in which He repeats His promise of power to bind and to loose (Mt IS'*"^"). These passages are the more worthy of note in this con- nexion, that they are the only instances in which the Gospels represent Jesus as using the expression ' Church ' (eKK\ri(ria). According to the first, that which constitutes the being and the strength of the Church is her faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus speaks of the com- munity which is founded upon faith in the Christ as 'My church' {/mov ttiv eKK\i]alap), and then pro- mises to invest this Church in the person of her representatives (in this case St. Peter as spokesman of the Twelve) with the power to bind and to loose. The other passage occurs in connexion with our Lord's injunction to make ' the church ' the final court of appeal in cases of disputes among brethren. In it Jesus repeats the promise of power to bind and to loose, and states, in more universal terms than He employs in His promise to St. Peter, what con- stitutes the Churcli, or what entitles any body of believers to the name of ' Church.' That is the presence of ChrLst Himself in the midst of them. ' Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' That which constitutes the Church and invests her with authority and power, that which is the source of lier life and energy, is the presence with her of Christ as her living Head, in whose name and guided by whose Spirit she discharges her spiritual functions.