>> Jen: Hi, faithful listeners, and good morning, and welcome to another episode of the Bible Explained. We're going to be in First uh, Corinthians 11, talking about a very controversial portion of Scripture. In fact, this portion of Scripture is so controversial that people tried to get it out of the Bible back in the 70s. We'll talk about it. I have a feeling today's episode is going to be very long, so
I'm actually going to jump right in. Um, and the reason I think it's going to be very long is because there are so many beliefs about today's portion of Scripture. There are so many, uh, critiques about it. People just get really, really mad about what we're going to talk about today. So let's read First uh, Corinthians 11, 1-16. I'll be reading from the Web. Grab your cup of coffee or your cup of tea and strap yourselves in, because this one's going to be a doozy.
Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brothers, that you remember me in all things, and hold firm the traditions even as I delivered them to you. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonors his
head. But every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for it is one and the same thing as if she were shaved. For if a woman is not covered, let her hair also be cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or to be shaved, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of god. But the woman is the glory of the man. For man is not from woman,
but woman from man. For man wasn't created for the woman, but woman for the man. For this cause, the woman ought to have authority over her own head because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is the woman independent of the man, nor the man independent of the woman in the LORD. For as woman came from man, so a man also comes through a woman. But all things are from God. Judge for yourselves. Is it appropriate that a woman
prays to god unveiled? Doesn't even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it's a dishonor to him? But if a woman has long hair, it's a glory to her, for her hair is given to her as a covering? But if Any man seems to be contentious. We have no such custom. Neither do God's assemblies. This portion is considered one of the problem portions of the Bible. There was a push in the 70s, I think, to remove this portion from the Bible. Even though everybody knows that this was written
by Paul. Like there is basically no dispute about that, that Paul wrote this, even though we know this was written by Paul. People have tried to get this removed from scripture because they say that it is not consistent with the rest of scripture. That everything else Paul has talked about so far talks about how women and men are equal and how they're equal in marriage. But then in First uh, Corinthians 11, this talks about how the man is the head of the woman. So people don't really like
this portion of Scripture very well. But there's two things I want you to do before we begin today's episode. The first thing that I would like for you to do is to remember that what Paul is talking about here is the church firstly. And the second thing I'd like you to do is to understand that Paul isn't really talking about head coverings here. He is sort of. But the whole theme of what we just read is talking about positions of
authority. Apparently the Corinthian Church had some questions about head coverings. So let's talk about head coverings culturally. And already I'm thinking, I'm um, like this might be a two part episode. I do, because this is such a big in depth topic that we're talking about today. I'm actually wondering if I'm going to get it all done in time. So if we, if we don't finish today, I might actually talk about this again on Thursday. But in the days of Paul, head coverings were very
common. Pretty much everybody wore them. The priests wore them, the Romans wore them, the Greeks kind of wore them. Men wore head coverings when they went and worshiped, regardless of what deity they were worshiping. You know, the priests, they wore their head coverings when they were worshiping Yahweh. And then the Roman men wore a head covering when they went to go pray at some temple that they were
praying at. So head coverings were very common, especially for men in the days of Paul when those men were worshiping specifically. That's the first thing. The second thing is that women pretty much always wore head coverings. But there is a movement going on where women were not wearing head coverings as often. You'll see a lot of art depicting women in the first century where they are not wearing Veils, they just have like elaborate hairstyles going on and they aren't covering
their heads at all. Now this was not common for the typical woman. Like a woman who was not wealthy or a woman who was a servant pretty much always had their hair covered. But wealthy women started uncovering their hair around the time of Paul. So there's two things going on. The first being is that men pretty much always covered their heads when they were worshiping. And the second thing being that women started making a push to have their hair uncovered to show off their fancy hairstyles.
So keep that in mind as we, uh, talk about the first few verses here. Firstly, Paul repeats this sentiment, be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now, Paul repeats this quite a bit. In fact, he repeated this also in the book of Philippians. I just read Philippians last night and, uh, he said the same thing. He's also said this once or twice before in First uh, Corinthians. And this isn't Paul making himself out to be better than anybody
else. But he's saying that he is an example, that he's a good example actually that people can follow. And because people didn't have widespread knowledge yet about Jesus, and in a time period when a lot of people couldn't read, having Paul there, setting an example would be something that they could imitate as they begin to learn more about Jesus. And we know that the uh, Corinthians weren't exactly the most well versed church in the Gospel, even though they kind of thought
they were, they were not. And so they needed a good example. Paul also said this to other people. He said, be a good example to younger, weaker Christians that need that example. He said this to Timothy. And then later on in Philippians, Paul says, imitate me and the other disciples that you see. Imitate us as we imitate Christ. But moving forward, Paul gets into the meat of what he's about to talk about.
I praise you, brothers, that you remember me in all things and hold firm the traditions even as I delivered them to you. Now, of course we know the uh, Corinthians didn't. They did not remember Paul in all things. And they also didn't hold to the traditions that Paul taught about. I mean, just a few chapters ago, they were basically congratulating a guy in their congregation who was sleeping with his stepmom and living with her. So they did not hold fast to
any traditions. So I think Paul was being a little bit snarky when he said this. It kind of sounds like it to me, because the uh, Corinthians just were not actually holding fast to any tradition that Paul taught them. I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is god. So what does Paul mean here when he says the head?
Some people interpret this as origin, which it could be interpreted as origin, meaning, I would have you know that the origin of every man is Christ, the origin of the woman is man, and the origin of Christ is god. In fact, my footnote here in the web translates it as origin. So let's look at the Greek of what this word head means. It is the word kephali. Kafali could be interpreted as the head of a body, the top of
something, or like a stone in a building. It also could be interpreted as someone or something in the primary place. And then it also could be the point of origin. Lastly, it could mean head, like the head of something or cornerstone. So which meaning is it in first uh, 1 Corinthians 11? Well, the word kephali or head is used elsewhere, specifically in Ephesians, chapter five, where it talks about husbands, um, and wives. If you go to verses 22 and 23,
the word Kephali is found once again. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the LORD. For the husband is the head or kephali of the wife, as Christ is the head or kephali of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. So we know that this verse is talking about leadership here. So obviously, kephali in this portion is translated as headship or leader. So that is the most logical
translation of kephali. Also, in First uh, Corinthians 11, the head of every man is Christ, the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. So, uh, no, I don't believe that this means origin. I believe that this is talking specifically about headship. This is why I told you at the beginning to keep in mind that this is talking specifically to the church and to marriage relationships, Christian marriage relationships. Obviously, no random man out on the street has authority over me
as a woman. If some guy tried to order me around on the street, I'd be like, no, uh, you have no right to tell me to do anything. And every other woman would say the exact same thing. Because we all know not every single man has authority over every single woman. That is not how God designed things. But God did put order in place in the church and also in the Christian marriage. So what does it say here? I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ.
So in other words, Christ is the leader of the men, and then the head of the woman is the man. So the men are leading the women, and then the head of Christ is God. So in other words, the Father has headship or leadership over Christ. That is the order that God put in place for the churches. And a lot of people get very upset about this verse because they say, oh, well, this is really sexist. Why is Paul saying that women are
inferior to men? Well, he's not saying that women are inferior to men, because if you use that argument, you would have to say that Jesus is inferior to God. Because Paul also says here that the head of Christ is God. Obviously, we know that Jesus is not inferior to God the Father, but that they're both God and that they're both equal and we worship them as God. So Jesus is not inferior to God. So Paul here is not making the argument that women are inferior to men.
Instead, what he's saying is that men have leadership over the women because they have a responsibility for the women, whereas the women don't have responsibility for men. It's just not. It's not the same. Women do not have that same responsibility. And this has been true since the very beginning. In the Garden of Eden, God actually put this in place. He gave Adam responsibility
for Eve. We know this because God actually, before he even created Eve, he told Adam, he said, do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, otherwise you will die. But God did not give that command to Eve, meaning that once god created Eve, he gave responsibility of Eve to Adam. And Adam was supposed to properly relay that message to Eve, which unfortunately didn't exactly happen. And Eve sinned and caused a lot of problems, and Adam went along with her. But what happened
after Adam and Eve sinned? God talked to the man first. God gave him a responsibility. And he said, adam, Adam, what did you do? What did you do, Adam? And then Adam blamed Eve. So then God talked to Eve. But anyway, that's going off subject a little bit. But God gave responsibility to the man, but not the other way around. So this has been
true since the very beginning of time. So because the men in church have a responsibility to the women, and they have authority, leadership over the woman, they need to act as if they have authority. So Paul goes on, every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonors his head. But every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered dishonors her head for it. Is one and the same thing as if she were shaved. This kind of goes back to that
first cultural point I talked about. Men were praying and prophesying with their head covered. And Paul is saying, no, that's not right, men, you need to take the head covering off and show your head to God. And I looked this up because I was really curious. You know, there were times in the Old Testament where God said that the priests would be wearing a turban.
But when I looked into this further, I didn't see anywhere that God said that the priests had to wear the turban when they were praying or prophesying or sacrificing. It never specifically said that the men had to wear the turban, um, all the time. But of course, later on, the Jewish people took it to mean that all priests had to wear a turban basically at all
times. And so that's why you'll see every depiction basically of a Pharisee, Even while they're praying and stuff, they always had their head covered. And Paul is saying, no, that's not the design. The man has the authority, so he should take the head covering off. But why? Why
is a head covering wrong for a man? Well, because the head covering was a symbol of submission that we don't have exactly today in the Western world, But pretty much every time period understood that a head covering showed that you were under submission of something, which is why the priests would wear the head coverings, because they're saying, oh, I'm under submission of Yahweh, or something like that.
Even now, I believe Muslim men and Jewish men typically cover their head when they are praying as a sign of submission. But Paul is saying, no, you have authority. And God never said you have to cover your head when you are praying. In fact, if you do cover your head when you're praying, you're actually dishonoring your head. And what's confusing about that verse is that Paul isn't talking about your, like, physical head with a hair on it. He's talking about the headship or
Christ. So in other words, let me just read it that way. Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonors Christ or his head, because God gave that authority to the men, and they shouldn't be acting as if they don't have the authority that God gave them. What did Jesus say to Peter? He says, peter, I have given you authority. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Whatever you
bind on earth will be bound in heaven. So Jesus came and gave authority to Peter, who became the rock of the early church. So say Peter decides to cover his head while he's, like, praying or preaching or whatever in the churches. That would be dishonoring to Christ because he's almost, like, insulting the authority that he's been given. This kind of reminds me of an Old Testament story of Jacob and Esau. Esau was the older brother of Jacob. You know, Jacob was one of the
patriarchs. Esau comes home one day from a hunting trip, and he was famished, he was so hungry. And Jacob is making, like, a pot of stew. Okay. Esau smells this delicious stew, and he's like, I'm about to die, brother. I will sell you my birthright if you give me this pot of stew. And Jacob's like, okay, give me your birthright. So Esau sells the birthright to Jacob for almost nothing. And the birthright, obviously, was all of the inheritance that he would
get when his father Isaac dies. And God was so upset at Esau over that, he was saying, esau, why did you despise your inheritance? Why did you insult this authority that I gave you? Because the birthright was more than just an inheritance. It was also authority. Because once the father died, everything would be given to the firstborn son. Everything, including the inheritance, but also every responsibility that the father had had.
So that birthright holder would have to take care of the family, would have to provide for his sisters and for his mother and for any other person in his family that needed support and provision. So, yeah, the birthright wasn't just inheritance, but it also signified authority. And that is why God got so upset at Esau for just selling his birthright, his authority over pretty much nothing. So god doesn't like it when men shirk their responsibilities or almost insult the
authority that they've been given. So Paul says, take the head covering off. Because you know that head coverings signify submission. And even to this day, in many cultures, that is what head coverings signify is submission. So Paul says, it's dishonoring to Christ when a man has his head covering, when he is praying or prophesying. But likewise, in verse five, every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered dishonors her head. So who is the head of the women in this church setting?
Well, that would be the men. So if a woman is going to a church service and is praying or prophesying without her hair or her head covered, she's dishonoring the men in the room because she's saying that she has been given the same amount of authority that those men have been given, whereas she has not. She's been given a different role from the men. And once again, if this offends anybody, what does Paul
say here at the very beginning? M. I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. The head of Jesus was god the Father, but yet Jesus is not inferior in any way to god the Father. So you have to keep that in mind. So this is not saying that women are underneath men, and so that's why they have to cover their heads during
praying or prophesying. What this is saying is that women should show respect to the people in the room who have been given that authority. Once again, go back to the culture of Paul's day where women were beginning to do this fashion trend where they wouldn't cover their head. They were keeping the head covering off. They were showing off these fancy hairstyles that they had with all these pearls and gold interlaced and everything.
And then they would go to a church service like that, and they weren't covering their heads when they were praying or prophesying. Paul says this is disrespectful to the other people who are in the room, but not only that, it's shameful for the woman as well. Paul says it's one and the same as if her head were shaved. For if a woman is not covered, let her hair also be cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or be
shaved, let her be covered. So in other words, it's not just disrespectful to the other people in the room, but it's also shameful to yourself. And why would this be? Well, if because a woman went to church without her head covered in the days of Paul, she was doing it as a act of rebellion, in a sense. She was saying, oh, you know, I don't need to cover my hair, even though that was the proper thing to do in Paul's day. So that woman is calling attention to
herself. She's dressing inappropriately first and foremost, and doing it in a rebellious way at a place that is supposed to be sacred and at a place where she is supposed to be showing her Christian faith. She's not acting in humility, but she is acting in rebellion towards the people around her. And that's making her look shameful, as if her hair were completely shaved off. Now, of course, throughout history, we know that even nowadays, women don't just shave their head too often. Um,
that's never been a very popular trend. Like, every once in a while you see a girl with her head totally shaved. But that's something that's, like, very niche. You don't see very many women shaving all of their hair off. And you never have throughout history. And that's because it is kind of a shameful thing. It reminds me of that episode of Friends. You remember, um, Ross and Rachel had just broken up the first time. And, uh, Ross started dating this really pretty girl with this blonde hair,
but she was kind of a weirdo. And, uh, she had once had her head, like, totally shaved. So Rachel, out of jealousy, convinces this pretty blonde girl that Ross is dating to totally shave her head once again. And she does. And of course, she's, like, wearing a bald cap. And it looks so ridiculous. But it was such a funny episode because of course, Ross is super angry that Rachel convinced his new girlfriend to shave her hair totally off.
But that's how it's been interpreted throughout history, is that it's a shameful thing for a woman to completely shave her head. And it really is. That still has some cultural standing nowadays as well. So Paul says it's no different. If a woman is going to act shamefully at church, she might as well just have her hair totally cut off. She's coming to church wanting to show off her fancy hairstyles, but in God's eyes, it's as if she's coming to church with her head totally
shaven. It's a shameful thing that this woman is doing. So Paul says, well, women, do you want your hair to be cut off? Because if you do want your hair to be cut off, go ahead and do it, because it's no different than what you're doing right now. But if that's too shameful for you, if you don't want to cut all your hair off, if you don't want to shave your head bald, then cover yourself. Come to church with propriety the way God intended you to do. So, as you can see so far, this entire passage
is talking about authority. It's talking about how Christ has the authority of the church. The man in the church has the authority over the women of the church. And because of that, men need to act in a certain way. They need to stop covering their heads when they are praying or prophesying. And then women need to start covering their heads when they are praying and
prophesying. But that's the other thing about this Paul doesn't say that women have to cover their hair at every single point in time, not even at church. He specifically points out it's while they're praying or prophesying that they must either uncover or cover their hair, depending on their gender. So women don't necessarily need to come to church with this big, uh, head covering, but they should cover their head when they are praying and prophesying. So where does that
leave us nowadays? Because typically we don't go to church with our hair covered as women. Men sometimes do. They'll wear, like, ball caps and stuff. But even men know to take their hat off when they go to pray, like men understand that. So where does this leave women nowadays? There's two things I could say about this. The first being that maybe women should start wearing head coverings to church again. And when I say head coverings, I don't mean like Amish head coverings.
There's a way to do it and not look like you came out of the 1800s. You could wear a ball cap like men do. You could wear a beanie. You could wear a big headband. You could do something like that. That's the first way. But I don't necessarily think that that is the answer. Think about the heart of what Paul is getting at here. He's talking about authority. That is really what this boils down to. So in what way are women in the church trying to usurp the authority of the man?
We need to look at that instead. Are we trying to draw attention to ourselves when we go to church? Are we dressing appropriately when we go to church? Are we gossiping when we're at church? Are we disrespecting our family members or our husbands when we are at church? As women, we need to understand that there is a certain way we should be acting at church. We need to understand that god designed men and women equal but different. That is the complementarianist viewpoint, which is what I am.
I am a completarianist. I believe that men and women were created very equal, but god gave them different roles. god gave the man the leadership role, specifically when it comes to church and specifically when it comes to marriage. Not in business, not in the world, nothing like that. This is the church and marriage
setting. But as women that claim to worship god, we need to be mindful that god put this in place and be thankful for the role that god gave us and be active in the roles that god gave us. Now, Paul goes more into detail with this because he's about to say Men and women are completely equal. He says that actually in verse 11, that men are not independent of women and women are not independent of men. They both need to work together to create a cohesive team
in the church. But when it comes to authority, men do have the authority. And Scripture is very clear about that from the very beginning of time, from the Old Testament all the way through the New Testament. That is why I can never be an egalitarian, which means that men and women are completely equal in every single way, shape and form. Their roles are totally the same. I can't get on board with that because Scripture does not say that.
So because we're about 30 minutes in to this episode, I am, uh, not going to be finishing today. I didn't think I would because this is such a big topic. It's so big and it's very, um, highly contested nowadays because there's so many
different viewpoints about this. But what I want to leave off saying, and I'll finish all of this on Thursday, what I want to leave off saying today, is that we need to be very careful with how we view scripture because a lot of people like to take these passages that don't fit into the narrative that they already have, and they like to say, oh, you know, this doesn't belong in the Bible, or Paul didn't really write
this, even though he did. Or, you know, this is just something that was for Paul's time period and not for our time period nowadays. I want to challenge you not to think that way, because if you say that about this passage of scripture, you could say that about any passage of Scripture. Well, that was just for their time period. It doesn't apply today. Just because culture changes doesn't mean the Bible
changes. So we have to look at what we're reading and understand the context of it, not just the cultural context. You know, the cultural context helps us. We have to get to the heart of what these biblical passages are talking about. And what this is clearly talking about is that, uh, somehow the church has gotten disordered where God put a specific plan and order in place that is not being met. And the church, if it isn't doing what god calls it to do, then
problems are going to arise. And we can see that, you know, nowadays in our culture, you know, this is very unpopular, and a lot of churches are straying away from this design that God put in place. And what's happening to these churches, what's happening to our culture? It's just getting worse and worse and worse. But what if we tried to do things the way Scripture actually says, instead of feeling prideful or egotistical about everything, what if we tried to do what Scripture actually
said? Can you imagine how much better our churches would be if we actually just did what Scripture tells us to do, if we actually lived by the design that god put in place? Man, that might be the longest episode I've ever done by myself, I think. But this was a really tough topic to talk about. I had to do a lot of research, and, uh, I enjoyed it. But it's one that definitely could be talked about for a lot longer, which is why we'll go more into this on Thursday. Anyway,
faithful listeners, have a wonderful rest of your day. I am not going to talk for a second longer. Happy listening and God bless.