1 Cor 11:2-16 ~ Mind your heads!

It’s been a couple of weeks since we dealt with this section, but here’s some answers to a couple of good questions.

Personal info has been removed, so we can focus on the questions themselves.

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You asked a couple of questions.

First, What do we do about 1 Cor 11:7?! “For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.”

It’s interesting that Paul DOESN’T say, “woman is the image and glory of man”. Presumably, Paul considers that man and woman are in the image of God (from Gen 1). However, I don’t know why he included “image” at all (perhaps the idea is like that in Gen 1: ‘God created man in his own image… male and female he created them’ – ie. you can express it either way). It would have seemed simpler and clearer if he had left the word out. However, the language of ‘glory’, here, would seem to mean something along the lines of “intended to bring honour to”. This is consistent with the Gen 2 picture of the wife as the helper, and also with such imagery as 1 Thess 2:19-20 “What is our crown of boasting…is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.”

I know more could be said, but that’s enough to keep the conversation going!

Second, you asked:

you talked about the order between husbands and wives not being a matter of superiority, and compared it to Christ’s relationship to God. I’m just wondering how verses 8 and 9 fit in with that – Paul seems to be making an effort to show the husband’s superiority…? And it would be wrong to say that Christ was made from God, or for Him.

So my question is: if he’s not saying that husbands are superior, what’s Paul actually trying to say in these verses?

Verses 8 and 9 relate closely to verse 7 (notice the ‘for’). Paul’s point in verses 8 and 9 seems to be that of ‘order’. We hear ‘created for’ and find it hard to think in terms beyond superiority, but Genesis 2 makes the point (eg. around Gen 2:20) that woman is to be the helper, to enable the man to fulfil his God-given task. And as Paul goes on (1 Cor 11:11-12), they NEED each other. If ‘woman/wife’ is to complement the man, so that together they can fulfil God’s intended plans (according to the order he has established), then the question of superiority is a moot question – it’s just not in view or relevant.

The image of vv9-10 (‘created for’) seems to revolve around a slightly different axis to that of verse 3, which is about headship – they are not necessarily connected, and so there’s no suggestion that Christ was created from or for God – that category just isn’t biblical.

I hope that this makes some sense – I think that Paul is NOT at pains in vv8-9 to show the husband’s superiority, but when we hear the language we can assume he is.

In case I’m not making all that much sense, you may want to have a look at a small section of ‘Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood’, which is available for free online, pages 123-126 (in printed book it’s pages 131-136). The link is:

http://www.desiringgod.org/media/pdf/books_bbmw/bbmw.pdf

I hope this helps somewhat, and feel very free to keep the conversation going. It is, as you say, important!

Your brother in Christ,

Ben.