One article to explain 1 Corinthians 11:2-16

The aim of this article is to, in one long, article, to explain how 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 is a united, integrated argument by Paul.  It is universally recognized that this is a difficult passage to read as a whole.   Plus, there are a number of specific issues that are said to be unclear.  Hopefully, I will give you clear explanations of these as well as show you how the whole passage ties together.

As we do this, we will travel to the beginning of creation and time, and see the Lord Jesus making Adam from the dust and Eve from out of Adam.   We will see how this makes Adam the image of God. We will venture to the vast heights in Psalm 8 where we are given a picture of the whole order of creation, nay, not just of creation, but of the whole realm of all reality in relation to God.  This order of reality is a hierarchical one from top to bottom, from God through to angelic beings, to mankind through to the created world and animals.  We will see how Paul explains Christ’s creation of man and woman in oneness as a hierarchical relationship, based on the hierarchical order of all reality seen in Psalm 8.  Further, and most astonishingly, we will see that Paul explains the oneness of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ of 1 Corinthians 8:6 in terms of the hierarchical order of all reality seen in Psalm 8.  In fact, we will see that this is the whole point of head covering.  Yes, head covering of woman displays the oneness in hierarchy of the man woman relationship, however, what it is ultimately designed to do is to display the oneness in hierarchy of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,  of whom man and woman in oneness hierarchy is the image of. 

Now, there is a lot of exegetical work to get to all this. 

I need to tell you some things that I am not doing.

I am not doing any research into the cultural situation of head covering practice, of women wearing hats or scarves or whatever, at Corinth either in society or in religious gatherings or anywhere,  nor of any other places in the world at that time.   I will show you how it is unnecessary to do this, if we follow Paul’s line of argument.  It is not needed to understand what he is arguing and how he is applying it.  

Similarly, I am not doing extensive word studies from outside the New Testament as a  means of deciding whether “head” means authority, source or pre-eminence.   I will show you how it is unnecessary, if we follow Paul’s line of argument.   I do believe that the word “head” when used metaphorically by Paul in other places pre-dominantly means “authority over”, that is, it is a word used of hierarchical relationships, but I want to show you how understanding the passage leads to the conclusion that this is the meaning, rather than just importing the meaning from its use elsewhere in Paul. Finally, because I am trying to give you the whole picture in one article.  There are some things that I assert that I don’t provide all the supporting detail and arguments for.  Hopefully, I will be able to provide this in other articles.  However, I try to include every essential detail to understand how and why Paul is arguing and how and why it fits together like this.

Please ready yourself for some hard, but hopefully illuminating work, as we delve into this passage.

I will start by reading the passage in my translation  which includes some expansions of details.

I will take the ESV and modify it, so making it easy to compare with a well-known translation.

I will include some color coding showing what verses are linked with each other.  Paul, in a number of passages, starts a discussion, then seems to digress, then comes back to where he started.  Yet, on re-reading and reflection, we often find a linkage between the digression and the main argument.   This, I propose, is what is happening in our passage. The color coding will point to the various arguments and differing types of material and form the basic structure to figure out how the whole passage links together. I will explain more after the reading.

[square brackets are bits I have added].

There are 4 colors representing the 4 types of material Paul is using.

Verse 2 says I commend you for keeping the tradition that I Paul instituted regarding head covering but 16a indicates that not all of them are keeping the tradition. “Contentious” is the word he uses.

At face value, you might think 16b “we have no such practice”, is Paul recanting all he has argued as if he is saying,

“on 2^nd thoughts fellows, I’ve got something to confess, I just realised that I don’t really do this every time I’m in church, and the other churches don’t either, so let’s just forget everything I just said.”

That would be ludicrous, yet, some commentators argue that is what he is saying.

Rather, “no such practice” is explained when you link v16a with 13a.  The subject of 13a is a woman being uncovered.  It is this, a woman being uncovered, that Paul and the other churches have no such practice of.

Verse 3 is the final overarching theology he wants them to understand from all the other things he says and the other creation theology he explains.

There are lots of scholarly arguments about whether  “head” means authority over, or being the source of something or being pre-eminent or a mixture of them.

Scholars do word studies in the New Testament, in ancient Greek literature etc to prove one or the other of those 3 options.

I have a definite view of what “head” means in light of Paul’s integrated argument, and I think it also fits with how “head”  is metaphorically used in the rest of the New Testament, but more importantly, I will show  what “head” means from Paul’s argument itself.   Once you understand from where and how Paul is arguing, then it becomes clear that he is talking about hierarchical order.   

So, we will come back to verse 3 later.