Head of the House:

Is There Hierarchy in the Trinity?

The answer to this question is very important to the conversation of headship. If we believe that there is hierarchy in the Trinity, then being made in his image would imply that God intended there to be hierarchy between women and men.

In 318 CE, a presbyter named Arius claimed that Jesus was not God at all—only God the Father could be considered uncreated. This became so divisive within the church that in 325 CE, a council was formed in Nicaea to mitigate the heresy. In their final analysis, the Nicene Creed made it clear that Jesus is both divine and equal with God the Father.

“Jesus is “very God of very God”; he is not made or created or a product of the true God. Jesus is the true God … eternally ... and the Father is not “more God” than the Son. God is God, in trinity”.[i]

This creed categorically ruled out the idea of there being any hierarchy in Triune God. As a result, the trinity cannot be used to promote gender hierarchy. According to the Nicene Creed, the Trinity can only be seen as a relationship of equals in the bond of love. [ii]

Sadly, some Biblical teachers today have regressed back to the Arian claim that Triune God is hierarchical—that God the Father is head, with Jesus and Holy Spirit as his subordinates.[iii] Along with that idea, they assert that males are to be head, with females as their subordinates. This theology, however, is problematic. First as we have noted, it does not align with the Nicene Creed, which is fundamental to the faith.

Second, as we have discovered, God is above gender. When he created the adam (man and woman), he created them in his image. They were made together and in the image of God, with the intention that they also be ‘seen as a relationship of equals in the bond of love’.

Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’, for she was taken out of man” … and they become one flesh. (Genesis 2:22-24)

If God is above gender (since he created it), then the idea of hierarchy cannot come from gender. God never intended the male or the female to be head over the other but to rule as one, just as Triune God rules all things together as one.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:28 italics mine)

1. Keynote: (Elevator speech)

Triune God is one without hierarchy. When he created woman and man in his image, it was his intent that they would likewise be one without hierarchy. When he then commanded them to fill and rule the earth together, his intention was that they would rule over all things together without hierarchy, just as Triune God rules over all things without hierarchy. After the fall, sin distorted the oneness and equality God intended for woman and man. It is time to get back to the oneness God originally intended and that Jesus prayed for in John 17:22.

2. Keywords:

Women; gender equality; headship; gender balance; leadership; theology of women; gender reconciliation

[i] Dr. Justin Holcomb. 2018. The Nicene Creed: Where it came from and why it still matters. Zondervan Academic, https://zondervanacademic.co/blog/the-nicene-creed-where-it-came-from-and-why-it-still-matters. (accessed November 29, 2021).

[ii] Charles Read. 2021. Gender, Power, and the Trinity, workshop, as part of CBE Online Conference, “Men, Women, and God: Theology and its Impact,” September 10-11, 2021.

[iii] Ibid.