1 Corinthians 11
11:2 1 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered [them] to you. (1) The fifth treatise of this epistle concerning the right ordering of public assemblies, containing three points, that is of the comely apparel of men and women, of the order of the Lords supper, and of the right use of spiritual gifts. But going about to reprehend certain things, he begins nonetheless with a general praise of them, calling those particular laws of comeliness and honesty, which belong to the ecclesiastical policy, traditions: which afterward they called cannons.
11:3 2 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 a head of Christ [is] God. (2) He sets down God, in Christ our mediator, as the end and mark not only of doctrine, but also of ecclesiastical comeliness. Then applying it to the question proposed, touching the comely apparel both of men and women in public assemblies, he declares that the woman is one degree beneath the man by the ordinance of God, and that the man is so subject to Christ, that the glory of God ought to appear in him for the preeminence of the sex.
11:4 3 Every b man praying or prophesying, having [his] head covered, dishonoureth his head.
(a) In that Christ is our mediator. (3) By this he gathers that if men do either pray or preach in public assemblies having their heads covered (which was then a sign of subjection), they robbed themselves of their dignity, against Gods ordinance.
11:5 4 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with [her] head uncovered dishonoureth her head: 5 for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
(b) It appears, that this was a political law serving only for the circumstance of the time that Paul lived in, by this reason, because in these our days for a man to speak bareheaded in an assembly is a sign of subjection. (4) And in like manner he concludes that women who show themselves in public and ecclesiastical assemblies without the sign and token of their subjection, that is to say, uncovered, shame themselves. (5) The first argument taken from the common sense of man, for so much as nature teaches women that it is dishonest for them to go abroad bareheaded, seeing that they have given to them thick and long hair which they do so diligently trim and deck, that they can in no way abide to have it shaved.
11:7 6 For a man indeed ought not to cover [his] head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. (6) The taking away of an objection: have not men also hair given to them? "I grant that", says the apostle, "but there is another matter in it. For man was made to this end and purpose, that the glory of God should appear in his rule and authority. But the woman was made so that by profession of her obedience, she might more honour her husband."
11:8 7 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. (7) He proves the inequality of the woman by the fact that from the man is the substance of which woman was first made.
11:9 8 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. (8) Secondly, by the fact that the woman was made for man, and not the man for the womans sake.
11:10 9 For this cause ought the woman to have c power on [her] head because of the 10 angels. (9) The conclusion: women must be covered, to show by this external sign their subjection.
11:11 11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, d in the Lord.
(c) A covering which is a token of subjection.
(10) What this means, I do not yet understand.
11:13 12 Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
(11) A digression which the apostle uses, lest that which he spoke of the superiority of men, and the lower degree of women, in consideration of the policy of the Church, should be so taken as though there were no measure of this inequality. Therefore he teaches that men have in such sort the preeminence, that God made them not alone, but women also. And woman was so made of man, that men also are born by the means of women, and this ought to put them in mind to observe the degree of every sex in such sort, that the marriage relationship may be cherished.
(d) By the Lord.
(12) He urges the argument taken from the common sense of nature.