Spiritual Equality

1 Corinthians 11:1–16 ESV

1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. 2 Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. 3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, 5 but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. 6 For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head. 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. 8 For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. 9 Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10 That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; 12 for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God. 13 Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, 15 but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering. 16 If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.

1 Timothy 2:11–15 ESV

11 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

Galatians 3:26–29 ESV

26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary A. The Veiling of Women (11:2–16)

‘We must remember that when Paul spoke about women as he did in the letters to the Corinthians, he was writing to the most licentious city in the ancient world, and that in such a place modesty had to be observed and more than observed; and that it is quite unfair to wrest a local ruling from the circumstances in which it was given, and to make it a universal principle

1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary A. The Veiling of Women (11:2–16)

Paul appears to be saying that there is a new view of women in Christianity. They are not to be regarded as an inferior species, as was generally the case in the ancient world. Christ’s new creation makes everything new (2 Cor. 5:17), and distinctions that matter so highly to men, including that between male and female, no longer count (Gal. 3:27–28); Paul will insist on equality in v. 11. He has said that women pray and prophesy in worship (v. 5). For that they need authority and he is saying that their head-covering is their sign of authority. As M. D. Hooker puts it, ‘Far from being a symbol of the woman’s subjection to man, therefore, her head-covering is what Paul calls it—authority: in prayer and prophecy she, like the man, is under the authority of God’

1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary A. The Veiling of Women (11:2–16)

In Judaism women had a very minor place; they were not even counted in the number required for a synagogue (ten males). Christianity gave them a new and significant place, and their head-covering is a mark of their new authority. The differences arising from creation remain; Paul is not trying to obliterate them. But he is clear that Christian women have authority. The idea that the covering of the woman’s head is a sign of subjection to her husband runs into another difficulty. In praying or prophesying she is acting in obedience to God; why should she demonstrate subordination to a man in such an activity? Her head-covering, her authority for praying or prophesying, is the veiling of ‘the glory of man’

The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 30: 1, 2 Corinthians Be Sensitive to Traditions and Customs

Paul feels that when the church is dealing with things that relate to local customs or tradition, it is better to go along with them to the extent that the gospel is not compromised. To do so builds a beginning bridge of contact with the unbelieving world and to fail to do so could be offensive and create a barrier to the gospel of Christ. When a church (or individual Christians within the church) goes out of its way to flout the local customs, it forgets that the purpose of the church is to win persons to Christ and not to tell them about how Christians live. This very commonsense, wise approach to a very special problem is something we can use today.

1 Corinthians The Shame-Honor Culture

The problem Paul is addressing is the incurring of social shame through boundary-transgressing hairstyles (Gundry-Volf 1997a:154). Such social shame in the church would damage the missionary outreach to outsiders, who would be offended by the Christian women’s lack of proper social respect (honor, glory) for their husbands or other men and the husbands’ disrespect for their wives or other women when they adopted women’s hairstyles (e.g., letting their hair grow long, v. 14).