1 Corinthians 11:4

Paul begins with praise. The verb epainéō means to commend or applaud, and it is a welcome word in a letter that has already had to deal with divisions, immorality and lawsuits (1 Corinthians 1:10–17, 5:1–13, 6:1–11). He commends them first because they “remember me in all things”. The verb mnáomai means to bear in mind or keep in memory, and it tells us the Corinthians had held on to Paul and to all he taught them while he was with them. “In all things” is warm and broad, and the rest of the chapter shows that some matters still need setting right. Paul affirms what is good before he corrects, which is his pastoral way throughout.

He commends them also because they “keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you”. “Ordinances” translates parádosis, a handing over, and so a precept or tradition passed from one to another. It comes from paradídōmi, to hand over, the verb behind “delivered”. Paul received the teaching, handed it on, and the church kept it. In this same letter he speaks this way of the Lord’s Supper, which he “received of the Lord” and delivered to them (1 Corinthians 11:23–26), and of the gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3–4).

These traditions are the teaching of Christ’s apostle, a steward of the mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1–2). Jesus rebuked those who were “laying aside the commandment of God” to “hold the tradition of men” (Mark 7:8), and the traditions Paul delivered carry God’s commandment to the church. So the New Testament tells believers to hold fast the traditions they were taught (2 Thessalonians 2:15), to “Hold fast the form of sound words” (2 Timothy 1:13), and to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3). Jesus sent his apostles to teach all that he had commanded (Matthew 28:19–20), so keeping what they delivered is keeping the word of Christ himself.

From here Paul takes up two matters of public worship, the covering of the head in these verses and the Lord’s Supper after them (1 Corinthians 11:17–34).

Verse 3 is the foundation for everything that follows. “But I would have you know” joins the connective dé (“but” or “now”) to thélō, to will or wish, and eídō, to know, properly to see. Paul wants this understood before he gives any instruction: “the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.”

The word kephalḗ means the head of the body, and Paul often uses it figuratively. He calls Christ head over all things to the church, which is his body (Ephesians 1:22–23, Colossians 1:18), and there it plainly speaks of authority and leadership. Believers differ on the exact sense in this verse. Some hold that “head” here means authority, so that Christ leads every man, the man leads the woman, and the Father is head of the Son. Others give weight to the sense of source or origin, because Paul goes on to say that the woman was taken out of the man (Genesis 2:18–24). Many hold that Paul means both, and verses 8 and 9 support that, since they ground the order in where the woman came from and why she was made.

The word for man is anḗr, an adult male, and it can also mean a husband. Paul uses it here in place of anthrōpos, the general word for a human being. The word for woman, gynḗ, means a woman or a wife. So the order runs between men and women, and some believers read it chiefly of husbands and wives, as in Ephesians 5:21–33, where the husband is head of the wife as Christ is head of the church, and is told to love her as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.

Paul applies the order to “every man praying or prophesying” and “every woman that prayeth or prophesieth” (verses 4 and 5). Proseúchomai means to pray to God, and prophēteúō means to speak by inspiration for the building up of the church. Both were done aloud in the assembly, and verse 5 takes for granted that women in Corinth were praying and prophesying there, as the men were.

A man who prays or prophesies “having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.” The Greek has no separate verb for “covered” here. It reads, word for word, “having down the head”, with the preposition katá, “down”, for something hanging down over the head like a veil. The verb kataischýnō means to shame or disgrace, to put to the blush. “His head” stands twice in the verse with two meanings. The first is the man’s own head, and the second, after verse 3, is Christ. A man who covers his head as he speaks to God or for God dishonours Christ, whose image and glory he bears (verse 7). Christ himself is “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3), the one who shows the Father openly.

The woman is the reverse. “Every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head.” Akatakályptos means unveiled, uncovered down. She shames her own head, and she shames her head in the sense of verse 3, the man. Paul adds, “that is even all one as if she were shaven.” Xyráō means to shave, with a razor. Among the Greeks and Romans a respectable woman, especially a married one, covered her head or wore her hair bound up in public, and appearing unveiled could mark her as immodest. A shaven head was a deep public disgrace, sometimes a punishment for adultery and sometimes a sign of mourning. For a woman to pray uncovered in the church was, Paul says, as shameful as that.

Verse 6 presses the comparison: “For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn.” Katakalýptō means to cover wholly, to veil. Keírō means to shear, to cut the hair short, and xyráō, to shave it off altogether. Paul says this as a challenge, and its answer follows: “but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.” The word for “shame”, aischrón, means a shameful or unseemly thing. Since everyone agrees that a shorn head disgraces a woman, she should be covered. Believers differ on what the covering was, a veil of cloth or hair bound up on the head, and both fit the words “covered” and “uncovered”.

Behind these verses lies Paul’s care for honour in God’s house and for the church’s witness. He has just told the Corinthians to do all to the glory of God and to keep from offending Jews, Greeks or the church of God (1 Corinthians 10:31–33), to take heed lest their liberty become a stumblingblock (1 Corinthians 8:9), and he does all things “for the gospel’s sake” (1 Corinthians 9:23). Elsewhere he urges believers to keep every stumblingblock out of a brother’s way (Romans 14:13) and asks women to adorn themselves “in modest apparel” and with good works (1 Timothy 2:9–10). He sums up the rule for worship later in this letter: “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40).

Verse 7 gives the reason for the man’s uncovered head: “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God.” Gár, “for”, gives the reason for what came before. The verb opheílō means to owe, to be bound, and with ou, “not”, it says what the man is bound to keep from doing. Eikṓn, “image”, is a likeness or representation, and it takes us back to the day God made man in his own image. Dóxa, “glory”, means honour, splendour and dignity. The man shows God’s honour in the world, and to cover his head in worship would hide what God put there.

“But the woman is the glory of the man.” Genesis 1:27 says that God created both male and female in his image, so the woman bears God’s image as truly as the man. Here Paul speaks of glory in relation to the order of creation in Genesis 2. The woman was made from the man and for him, and so she is his honour. Paul is speaking of her origin and her place, and the worth of her person rests where his does, in God. The image of God is seen most fully in Christ, “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15–17), and men and women in Christ are both being renewed in knowledge after the image of their Creator (Colossians 3:10).

Verses 8 and 9 explain why the woman is the glory of the man. “For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.” The preposition ek, “of”, means from or out of. Adam was formed by God from the dust of the ground, and Eve was formed from a rib taken out of Adam as he slept (Genesis 2:21–22). Paul argues from the same order of creation in 1 Timothy 2:11–14, where he writes, “For Adam was first formed, then Eve.”

“Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.” Ktízō means to create or to found, and it names God’s own act of making. The “for” is diá in the sense “for the sake of”. God made the woman because, as he said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” So “for the man” means for his good, as his helper and companion, in a partnership God designed. It gives no licence to treat her as less, and verses 11 and 12 follow at once to make that plain.

The “power” on the woman’s head is a sign that she stands within the order God has set, and believers differ on exactly how. “For this cause” points back to verses 7 to 9. “Ought” is opheílō again, the same verb as in verse 7, so the woman is bound to this as the man is bound to his uncovered head. The word for “power”, exousía, means authority or right, and it can also mean plain power or ability.

• A sign of authority. On this reading the “power” is the covering itself, called by the name of what it stands for. It shows that the woman accepts the headship of verse 3, and wearing it she prays and prophesies with dignity and honour within that order.
• Her own authority. On this reading the exousía is the woman’s own right to pray and prophesy in the assembly, and she exercises it with her head covered, in a way that honours the order Paul has set out.

“Because of the angels” uses diá in the sense “because of”. Ángelos means a messenger, from a verb meaning to bring tidings, and in Scripture it names the spiritual beings who serve God, “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). Paul leaves the reason unstated, and believers have given three answers. Some hold that angels watch the worship of the church and that its order shows them God’s wisdom, since God makes known his manifold wisdom to the principalities and powers in heavenly places by the church (Ephesians 3:10). Some hold that angels are present as guardians of holiness and order in worship, and that disorder offends them. Others hold that the angels themselves submit gladly to God’s authority, so that the church’s order matches theirs. On every reading the gathered church worships in the sight of heaven.

Verses 11 and 12 keep all that Paul has said about headship in its place. “Nevertheless” is plḗn, a word that brings in a qualification: “neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.” Chōrís means without, apart from, independent of. Man and woman belong to each other, and in the Lord, that is in Christ, each depends on the other. The God who said it was not good for the man to be alone made the two to complete each other. In Christ both are heirs of God (Romans 8:17) and members of the one body in which every member is needed (1 Corinthians 12:12–27).

“For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman.” The woman came out of (ek) the man at the beginning, and since then every man has come into the world through (diá) a woman, by being born. The Son of God himself was “made of a woman” (Galatians 4:4). “But all things of God” uses ek once more, the same preposition as “of the man”, and now it names the source of everything. Theós is the word for God. Every man and every woman, the order between them and the life they pass on, comes from him: “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things” (Romans 11:36). All things were made through the eternal Word (John 1:1–3), and by him all things consist.

These verses answer anyone who would take verses 8 and 9 as a ground for pride. The man came first and the woman was made for him, and still each owes life to the other and both owe everything to God.

In verse 13 Paul asks the Corinthians to weigh the matter themselves: “Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?” Krínō means to distinguish and decide, to come to a judgment. Prépō means to be fitting, suitable or becoming. Paul trusts them to see the answer, and the question expects them to say that it is unfitting, all the more when she is speaking to God. Scripture asks God’s people to think on whatever is honest, lovely and of good report (Philippians 4:8), and Peter praises the adorning of “a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price” (1 Peter 3:3–4).

Verse 14 asks a second question, and this one expects the answer yes: “Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?” Phýsis means growth, and so the natural make of a thing, its native disposition, and also settled usage. Didáskō means to teach, komáō to wear the hair long, and atimía means dishonour or disgrace. In the world of Corinth short hair was the respectable look for a man, and long hair on a man was thought dishonourable. Israel knew an honourable exception in the Nazirite, who let the locks of his hair grow as a sign of his vow to God (Numbers 6:5).

Believers differ on what “nature” means here. Some hold that it is the order God built into creation, which people can perceive, as Paul says the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the creation of the world (Romans 1:20) and speaks elsewhere of what is “against nature” (Romans 1:26–27). On this reading the distinction God made between men and women shows itself even in how they wear their hair. Others hold that “nature” here means the settled custom of Paul’s world, the sense of what is fitting that the Corinthians had grown up with, so that the lesson was true for them while its outward form belongs to that time and place.

Verse 15 completes the thought: “But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.” “Glory” is dóxa, the same word as in verse 7, and long hair brings a woman honour and beauty. Her hair, kómē, is “given” (dídōmi), a gift from God. The “for” is antí, “instead of” or “in place of”, and the word for covering, peribólaion, means something thrown around a person, a mantle or wrap. It is a different word from katakalýptō, the verb for being “covered” in verse 6. God has given the woman a natural mantle, and the covering she wears when she prays agrees with what he has already given her.

Paul ends with an appeal to the churches: “But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.” Dokéō means to think, suppose or seem, and here it describes anyone who is minded to argue. Philóneikos means fond of strife, quarrelsome. Hēmeîs, “we”, is emphatic and means Paul and those who stand with him. Synḗtheia is a custom, a settled practice. Ekklēsía means an assembly or congregation, and “the churches of God” are the congregations beyond Corinth.

Believers read “no such custom” in two ways. Some hold that the apostles and the churches have no custom of contention, so a quarrelsome spirit has no place among God’s people. Others hold that they have no custom of women praying uncovered, so the Corinthians who wanted it would stand apart from every other church. On either reading Paul settles the matter by setting the one congregation within the whole church of God.

Strife had already wounded Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:10–17), and God is the author of peace, “as in all churches of the saints” (1 Corinthians 14:33). Paul urges believers to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:1–3), to follow after the things which make for peace and build one another up (Romans 14:19), and to avoid foolish questions and contentions (Titus 3:9–11). Christ himself, of whom it was written, “He shall not strive, nor cry” (Matthew 12:19), prayed that his people would be one as he and the Father are one (John 17:20–23).

Believers differ on this question, and both answers come from a faithful reading of the passage.

• A lasting command. Some believers hold that a woman should cover her head when she prays in public worship in every age. Paul grounds the covering in the headship of verse 3, in creation (verses 7 to 9) and in the angels (verse 10), and all of these are the same now as they were in Corinth.
• A lasting truth in a sign of its time. Other believers hold that Paul applies an unchanging truth through a sign that carried its meaning in first-century Corinth. They point to the shame of an unveiled head in that society (verses 5 and 6), to what is “comely” (verse 13), to nature’s teaching (verse 14) and to the custom of the churches (verse 16). On this reading the covering itself belongs to that setting, and the truth it carried is kept today by modesty, good order and honour toward the order God has set. The same reading applies to verse 14, since in many places long hair on a man carries no shame.

Both hold to the order of verse 3, the equal worth and mutual need of verses 11 and 12, worship that honours God, and a peaceable spirit in the church.

This passage speaks much of honour and shame, and Christ stands at the centre of both. He is the head of every man, and he honoured his own head perfectly. He did nothing of himself, sought his Father’s glory, and humbled himself to the cross. There he took the shame that was ours. He “endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2), for “even Christ pleased not himself” (Romans 15:3). His headship is the headship of one who gave himself, and it can be trusted.

The passage also shows us a God of order and peace. He made man and woman distinct, made each for the other, and holds both in his hand, for “all things” are “of God”. When his people gather, they pray and prophesy in his presence and before his angels, and the way they come before him matters to him. Men and women who take their places in that order give honour to Christ, their head, who gave everything to honour the Father.