Returning to the theme of relationships among the inhabitants of the Kingdom, Paul turns to...
Returning to the theme of relationships among the inhabitants of the Kingdom, Paul turns to a question that, at first glance, has no fundamental significance: why a woman in the church assembly should cover her head. It would seem that this concerns only a very specific cultural norm of a very specific era, one that in fact had meaning only there and then, where and when that norm was relevant. In the Greco-Roman world of Gospel times, only women of loose conduct went about with uncovered heads, and for a mother of a household to appear in public in such a state was a disgrace.
Of course, it was not this way everywhere and always. But Paul in his letter does not appeal only to a cultural norm. He begins by stating the fact that in Christian marriage there exists a very real hierarchy, at the head of which stands God Himself, followed by the Savior, the husband as head of the family, and finally the wife (v. 3). And for the apostle, the wife's covered head turns out to be nothing other than a sign of recognition of this hierarchy (v. 10). It becomes relevant above all in church life, when the matter concerns prayer and prophecy, which is not surprising: here a Christian manifests himself to the greatest degree precisely as an inhabitant of the Kingdom (vv. 4-6).
It would seem that when the matter concerns prayer or prophecy, where the personal relationship of a particular person with God comes to the foreground, any hierarchy should lose its relevance. But Paul, on the contrary, speaks of its fundamental importance for the Kingdom, including its importance in the context of that ministry which, at first glance, does not presuppose any hierarchy, remaining deeply and exclusively personal (vv. 7-9). This is not surprising if we remember that for the apostle, the Church is above all a community of people living in the Kingdom, and he views the family as a small church. In a community, all the relationships connecting people with one another are significant. Their significance remains even when a person is alone with God.
And if these relationships are hierarchical, then their hierarchy also turns out to be significant for God and important for the Kingdom. Such a hierarchy is no longer something imposed from outside; it becomes an organic part of the community of the Kingdom, forming its structure. Of course, every such structure turns out, to use philosophical language, to be functional rather than ontological, and Paul immediately warns of this (vv. 11-12). It is not connected with some of those who belong to it being worse or better than others by nature or in their spiritual qualities. The issue is only that the family, as a small church, should fulfill its ministry and bear witness to the Kingdom in the best way. Just as the divinity of the Savior is in no way lower than the divinity of the Father, which nevertheless does not abolish a certain hierarchy connected with the ministry of the Messiah entrusted to Him by God, so the wife is not lower than the husband either by nature or by spirit. But the ministry of the family as a small church requires from both of them a definite place in the family hierarchy, a hierarchy without which the members of a Christian family will not be able to become true witnesses of the Kingdom.
11
11:2 I praise you - The greater part of you.
11:3 I would have you know - He does not seem to have given them any order before concerning this. The head of every man - Particularly every believer. Is Christ, and the head ofChrist is God - Christ, as he is Mediator, acts in all things subordinately to his Father. But we can no more infer that they are not of the same divine nature, because God is said to be the head of Christ, than that man and woman are not of the same human nature, because the man is said to be the head of the woman.
11:4 Every man praying or prophesying - Speaking by the immediate power of God. With his head - And face. Covered - Either with a veil or with long hair. Dishonoureth hishead - St. Paul seems to mean, As in these eastern nations veiling the head is a badge of subjection, so a man who prays or prophesies with a veil on his head, reflects a dishonour on Christ, whose representative he is.
11:5 But every woman - Who, under an immediate impulse of the Spirit, (for then only was a woman suffered to speak in the church,) prays or prophesies without a veil on her face, as it were disclaims subjection, and reflects dishonour on man, her head. For it is the same, in effect, as if she cut her hair short, and wore it in the distinguishing form of the men. In those ages, men wore their hair exceeding short, as appears from the ancient statues and pictures.
11:6 Therefore if a woman is not covered - If she will throw off the badge of subjection, let her appear with her hair cut like a man's. But if it be shameful far a woman to appear thus in public, especially in a religious assembly, let her, for the same reason, keep on her veil.
11:7 A man indeed ought not to veil his head, because he is the image of God - In the dominion he bears over the creation, representing the supreme dominion of God, which is his glory. But the woman is only matter of glory to the man, who has a becoming dominion over her. Therefore she ought not to appear, but with her head veiled, as a tacit acknowledgment of it.
11:8 The man is not - In the first production of nature.
11:10 For this cause also a woman ought to be veiled in the public assemblies, because of the angels - Who attend there, and before whom they should be careful not to do anything indecent or irregular.
11:11 Nevertheless in the Lord Jesus, there is neither male nor female - Neither is excluded; neither is preferred before the other in his kingdom.
11:12 And as the woman was at first taken out of the man, so also the man is now, in the ordinary course of nature, by the woman; but all things are of God - The man, the woman, and their dependence on each other.
11:13 Judge of yourselves - For what need of more arguments if so plain a case? Is it decent for a woman to pray to God - The Most High, with that bold and undaunted air which shemust have, when, contrary to universal custom, she appears in public with her head uncovered?
11:14 For a man to have long hair, carefully adjusted, is such a mark of effeminacy as is a disgrace to him.
11:15 Given her - Originally, before the arts of dress were in being.
11:16 We have no such custom here, nor any of the other churches of God - The several churches that were in the apostles' time had different customs in things that were not essential; and that under one and the same apostle, as circumstances, in different places, made it convenient. And in all things merely indifferent the custom of each place was of sufficient weight to determine prudent and peaceable men.Yet even this cannot overrule a scrupulous conscience, which really doubts whether the thing be indifferent or no. But those who are referred to here by the apostle were contentious, not conscientious, persons.