Wikipedia
In the late Byzantine Empire, the term kephalē (, "head") was used to denote local and provincial governors.
It entered use in the second half of the 13th century, and was derived from the colloquial language. Consequently, it never became an established title or rank of the Byzantine imperial hierarchy, but remained a descriptive term. In essence, the kephalē replaced the Komnenian-era doux as the civil and military governor of a territorial administrative unit, known as a katepanikion , but also termed a kephalatikion . In size, these provinces were small compared to the earlier themata, and could range from a few villages surrounding the kephalē's seat (a kastron, "fortress"), to an entire island. This arrangement was also adopted by the Second Bulgarian Empire (as , kefaliya) and Serbian Empire (as , kefalija).
In the 14th century, superior kephalai were appointed (katholikai kephalai, "universal heads") overseeing a group of provinces under their respective [merikai] kephalai ("[partial] heads"). The former were usually kin of the emperor or members of the senior aristocratic clans. By the late 14th century, with the increasing decentralization of the Empire and the creation of appanages in the form of semi-independent despotates, these senior posts vanished.
Kephalē means "head" in Greek.
- Kephale (New Testament)
- Kephale (Byzantine Empire)
kephalē appears some 75 times in the Greek New Testament. It is of considerable interest today because of differences of biblical interpretation between Christian egalitarians and Complementarians as to the intent of the New Testament concerning roles of authority assigned biblically to husbands and wives. A prime example appears in where all Christians are told:
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.and the following three verses say:
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head (kephalē) of the wife as Christ is the head (kephalē) of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything."