Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:1-16

Notes in red (if any) are my additions.  

WOMEN OUGHT TO VEIL THEIR HEADS IN CHURCH1 CORINTHIANS
A Summarry of 1 Corinthians 11:1-6 

Passing from their domestic (1 Cor 11:7:1 ff.) and social duties (cf. 1 Cor 8:1 ff.), the Apostle now proceeds to treat of the religious life of the Corinthians. He has learned of certain abuses that have crept into their religious assemblies, the first of which regards the headdress of women. Ladies should not appear in church without a covering for their heads, (a) because of their inferiority to men, as shown by the history of creation (1 Cor 11:2-12), and (b) because nature itself, as well as Apostolic approval, suggests that they should wear veils at the sacred services (1 Cor 11:13-16).

1 Cor 11:1. Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ.

This verse really belongs to the end of the last chapter, and concludes the argument there given.

1 Cor 11:2. Now I praise you, brethren, that in all things you are mindful of me: and keep my ordinances as I have delivered them to you.

I praise you, etc. Although some of the Christians at Corinth had been guilty of faults, the Church on the whole, was deserving of praise fof their faithfulness to the Apostle’s ordinances, i.e., to the doctrines and the liturgical rules and regulations he had given them. He proceeds now to give some further “ordinances” for the correction of abuses that have sprung up among the faithful, on account of which he cannot praise them (verse 17).

Brethren (Vulg., fratres) is according to D E F G, Old Latin, and Peshitto; B, A,  C omit.

1 Cor 11:3. But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

In ancient times women in the East and among the Ionic Greeks were degraded to the condition of slaves. Christianity gradually did away with this state of servitude. Buf it seems that some of the ladies in Corinth were carrying their emancipation too far by declaring their perfect equality with men, and, consequently, by appearing in church to pray and prophesy with uncovered heads. This was contrary to the Word of God (Gen 3:16; 1 Tim 2:12, 13), which requires women to be in subjection, both in society, and in the family.

Wherefore the Apostle, calling the Corinthians’ attention to something on which he, it appears, had not yet instructed them, says, I would have you know, etc., i.e., in the external organization of the Church the order of authority is as follows: God, Christ, man, woman. God is over the Sacred Humanity of Christ whom He raised from the dead, and to whom He gave all power in heaven and in earth (15:24 ff.; Matt 18:18; Acts 20:28); Christ is over man in the government of His Church, and man is over woman in external authority, although woman is equal to man in her internal and individual relation to Christ (verse 5).

Every man may mean only every Christian man (Cornely); or, more probably, every man, Christian or non-Christian, since all mankind, by Christ’s assumption of human nature, has been subjected to the authority of Christ (MacR.).

Woman (γυνή = gunē) here is used in a general sense, embracing both the married and the unmarried.

I do not here wish to wade into the controversy of how to interpret this and related passages. By and large I accept the interpretation given by Manfred Hauke in his scholarly work WOMEN IN THE PRIESTHOOD? He deals with the pauline passages on pages 340-403, and specifically with 1 Cor 11 on pages 347-351, which should also be seen in relation to his examination of 1 Cor 14 on pages 363-390. You may also wish to consult another work-which I have not yet read but which comes highly recommended-THE CATHOLIC PRIESTHOOD AND WOMEN: A GUIDE TO THE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH by Sister Sara Butler. Sister Sara was head of the Catholic Theological Society in 1978 when it came out in favor of women’s ordination, but she has since changed her views. See also these online resources WIVES BE SUBJECT TO YOUR HUSBANDS (by Catholic Answers); SPIRITUAL HEADSHIP (Catholic Answers).

1 Cor 11:4. Every man praying or prophesying with his head covered, disgraceth his head.
1 Cor 11:5. But every woman praying or prophesying with her head not covered, disgraceth her head: for it is all one as if she were shaven.

Every man praying, etc., i.e., every man who attends the public religious assemblies of the Christians, whether leading in the prayers and prophecies, or joining in them disgraceth his head by having it covered, because to appear with a covered head before God was to imitate the Grecian slaves who thus used to come before their masters. It is a disgrace for man to wear the emblem of slavery before his Lord, since Christ has made us all free (Gal 3:28).

On the other hand, the woman who prays or prophesies at the public liturgical assemblies with head not covered, disgraceth her head, because she thereby shows that she is the equal of man and has no earthly superior, and by so acting she loses that modesty which is her charm and her glory. Only women of evil life were accustomed to appear in public among the Greeks with unveiled heads.
As if she were shaven. For a woman to have her head shaven has always and everywhere been considered shameful (Isa 3:17, 24). The Hebrews used to shave the head of a woman accused of adultery (Num 5:18); and Tacitus (Germ, xix) says the Germans cut close the hair of an adulteress.

The Romans shaved the heads of their dancing women, who were mostly harlots, and the Greeks did the same to their female slaves. A woman, therefore, who appeared at the public devotions of the Christians with head uncovered was acting, says St. Paul, like a slave and an adulteress.

It is to be noted that St. Paul is insisting here on women’s heads being covered; he is not now considering whether it is right or wrong for them to prophesy. Later on (14:34) he will utter his disapproval of women’s performing such functions.

1 Cor 11:6. For if a woman be not covered, let her be shorn. But if it be a shame to a woman to be shorn or made bald, let her cover her head.

If a woman will cast aside the covering for her head, which is required by divine ordinance, let that also be taken away which nature has provided (St. Chrys.), namely, her hair, and thus she will be subjected to the ignominy of a slave and an adulteress, as explained in the preceding verse.

1 Cor 11:7. The man indeed ought not to cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man.

The Apostle now appeals to the story of creation to show that woman is inferior to man, and so ought to be subordinated to him. Man should not cover his head in the public religious assemblies of the faithful because that is a sign of subjection and inferiority; whereas he is by divine ordinance the glory of God and lord of the earth, having been created immediately in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:27; 2:7). But woman ought to observe the contrary practice, since she was created only indirectly, that is, through man, to God’s image and likeness, and is consequently subject to man (Gen 2:18 and the glory of man. All this, of course, regards only the exterior and physical condition of woman. Her spiritual part is not unlike that of man’s; she has an intellect and a will, and is capable of grace and glory.

1 Cor 11:8. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man.
1 Cor 11:9. For the man was not created for the woman, but the woman for the man.

That woman is the glory of man, as man is the glory of God, is clear from the fact that woman was derived from man in her creation, and made for man (Gen 2:18, 21-23).

1 Cor 11:10. Therefore ought the woman to have a power over her head, because of the angels.

Since woman, by the law of her creation, is inferior to man, and ought consequently to be subject to him, she should have a power over her head, i.e., she should have a veil or covering on her head at public prayer, as a sign of the power and authority which man has over her.

Because of the angels, i.e., women at the public Christian devotions ought to wear a veil in token of their modesty and submission, and also on account of the ministering angels who are present at the sacred functions of the faithful (4:9; Eph 3:10; Heb 1:14), and who would be deeply grieved if women did not observe the modesty and appearance of submission which God desires of them (Gen 48:16; Tob 12:12; 2 Macc 3:25; Matt 18:10; Luke 1:19; Apoc 8:13). Erasmus paraphrases this passage as follows: “If a woman has arrived at that pitch of shamelessness that she does not fear the eyes of men, let her at least cover her head on account of the angels who are present at your assemblies.”

Another explanation, that by “angels” are meant the priests (Ambrosiaster) is very improbable. The opinion of Tertullian that there is question here of demons who might lust after the unveiled women, or incite men to do so, is to be rejected.

1 Cor 11:11. But yet neither is the man without the woman, nor the woman without the man, in the Lord.
1 Cor 11:12. For as the woman is of the man, so also is the man by the woman: but all things of God.

The Apostle corrects a possible wrong inference from what he has just been saying about woman’s inferiority and subjection to man. It must not be concluded from this that in the Lord, i.e., among Christians, woman is in a state of servitude with regard to man, as was the case too often among the pagans. Christianity has so vindicated the dignity of woman that ordinarily she and man are mutually dependent, each needing the help of the other, and both sharing in the same means of grace and personal sanctification which Christ has bequeathed to His Church.

For as the woman is of the man, etc. There is a certain natural equality and dependence between man and woman; for whereas the latter in her creation was made from man, being drawn from Adam’s rib, the former in the propagation of the human species is born of woman.

All things, i.e., all that I have said about man and woman are according to the ordinance of God.

1 Cor 11:13. You yourselves judge : doth it become a woman, to pray unto God uncovered?
1 Cor 11:14. Doth not even nature itself teach you, that a man indeed, if he nourish his hair, it is a shame unto him?
1 Cor 11:15. But if a woman nourish her hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering.

At the time St. Paul wrote, it was the custom, among civilized peoples, for men to wear their hair short, and for women, on the contrary, to have long hair. Anything opposed to this was looked upon as a disgrace and a shame. The Apostle, therefore, now appeals to this universal practice, which seems to have had its origin in the natural fitness of things, and he asks the Christians to judge for themselves if it is not unbecoming in a woman to pray at the public devotions without some extra covering for her head, since at all other times she is supposed to wear her hair long as a covering provided for
her by nature.

If a woman nourish her hair, etc. “The true glory of every creature of God is to fulfil the law of its being. Whatever helps woman to discharge the duties of modesty and submissiveness assigned to her by God is a glory to her” (Lias).

1 Cor 11:16. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor the church of God.

If any man seem, etc., i.e., if there is anyone at Corinth who is not convinced by what has been said against women appearing in church with uncovered head, we (ἡμεῖς = hēmeis), i.e., St. Paul and the other Apostles, have one final answer to give him, which is that the Apostles and the various Churches founded by them do not recognize any such custom as would tolerate women to assist at the public religious assemblies of the faithful
without a veil.

Church (Vulg., ecclesia) should be “churches” (ecclesiæ), to correspond with the Greek.