Eleventh chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Paul of Tarsus writes on the conduct of Christians while worshipping together. The First Epistle to the Corinthians is a book of the Bible in the New Testament. ... Saul, also known as Paul, Paulus, and Saint Paul the Apostle, (AD 3–67) is widely considered to be central to the early development and spread of Christianity, particularly westward from Judea. ...

Propriety in Worship

Verses 2-16 have been the source of much confusion for interpreters. In particular, problems come from the rhetorical question that nature teaches it is a shame for a man to have long hair and telling women to cover their heads on account of the angels. Interpretations tend to fall into three informal categories. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Universal View

A minority of current Christians apply the passage universally. In this view, women should cover their heads and men should keep their hair short. As evidence they point to Paul's appeals to arguments that do not change with time, the creation of Adam and Eve, the angels, and Nature herself. Look up Paul in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Paul is a common given name for males, derived from the Roman surname Paulus (Latin: small or humble) [1]. Paul was also the chosen name of many Popes of the Roman Catholic Church upon election to the papacy. ... It has been suggested that portions of this article be split into a new article entitled Adam. ...

Contemporary View

The majority of Christians interpret the passage as a cultural mandate that expires as the culture expired. Thus woman should no longer cover their heads. Some believe the universal principle of the passage is that woman should show a sign of submission to their husbands while others disagree.

Several interpretations are taken on Nature teaching showing long hair is a covering for woman. The New Internation Version translates "the nature of things" instead of simply "nature," but other translations claim this is incorrect. Some interpret that Paul believed culture to be an extension of Nature and therefore he meant that culture taught this^[1], but this claim is dubious. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Bushnell View

A minority translate the passage as commanding women to uncover their heads. This idea was pioneered by John Lightfoot and expanded by Katherine Bushnell. In their view, this possibility was initially ignored to suppress women, then carried on because of ignorance Christians did not want to break tradition. The passage is not actually a repression of women but a herald for equality. However, no printed Bibles have accepted this translation. Bushnell points out many inconsistences with the interpreting the passage as ever encouraging women to cover making it, she says, impossible to read it that way. Bushnell translates it as follows. John Lightfoot (March 29, 1602 - December 6, 1675) was an English churchman and rabbinical scholar. ...

But I wish you to understand that of every man Christ is the Head; but of a wife the husband is a head; and God is Christ's Head. Any man praying or prophesying, having his head covered dishonors his Head. But any wife praying or prophesying bareheaded dishonors her head, for it would be one and the same thing as her head shaved. For if a woman is not covered, let her be shorn. Now if it would bring disgrace to a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man ought not to veil the head because he is the image and glory of God. But woman is the glory of man. For man is not originally from, but woman is from man. Nor was the man created for the woman but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have authority over her head because of her angels. Nevertheless, in the Lord, the woman is not apart from the man, nor the man from the woman. For just as woman came out of man, so is man through woman and all Christians born of God. Judge of this matter among yourselves. It is proper for a woman to pray unto God unveiled. Nor is there anything in the nature of hair itself that teaches you that if a man wear it long it is a dishonor to him, while if a woman have long hair it is a glory to her, for her hair has been given her instead of a veil. But if anyone thinks to be contentious let him know that "we have no such custom, neither the Churches of God."

Problems

• Verse 4, "Dishonors his Head": If a man dishonors his Head, Christ, by covering it, then woman, whose Head is Christ also, would dishonor her Head, Christ, by covering it. This implies women should uncover.
• Verse 7, "Image of God": If a man should uncover because he is in the image of God, then woman, who is in the image of God, should uncover also.
• Verse 10, "Must have Authority": Paul commands women to have authority on their head. What is the "authority?" By context, it can only possibly be a head covering, or a lack of a head covering. By reasoning, a head covering is not a sign of authority; Paul forbids the men from covering because their covering a sign of sin, which makes slaves of its owners.
• Verses 11, 12, "Man and Woman United": These verses say that man and woman are together. Why would Paul include this in a passage where he treats men and women differently?
• Verse 13, "Judge for Yourselves": Paul write the lengthy letter of 1 Corinthians mostly to teach and correct. The Corinthian church is divisive, arrogant (1 Cor 4:18), houses a sexually immoral man (5:1), and Paul implies they are at least tempted by prostitution (6:16). This is not a group Paul would trust to make their own conclusions concerning women ("judge for yourselves"). Moreover, he would not write this passage instructing them on covering if he later told them to decide for themselves.
• Verse 14, "Nature's Teaching": An honest attempt to answer Paul's question, "Does nature teach . . ." will yield an undeniable "No." It is not a shame for man to have long hair; the Nazarite vow (Numbers 6:5) certainly denies this. If anything, Nature teaches that everyone should have long hair, because, left on its own, anyone's hair will grow long.
• Verse 16, "No such Custom" Paul denies that neither he nor other churches have "such custom." What custom is he refering to? It must be the custom of covering, for no other custom is mentioned. Some translations translate "no other such custom" but Bushnell was not alive when this translation was started.

Quotation

As noted above, in the Jewish tradition it was suitable punishment to shave the head of a women accused of adultery, as would an uncovered women would likely be if she were married to a nonChristian Jew. It was unusual for Paul to agree with any Jewish tradition, let alone not directly connected with the Messiah. It also strange that Paul would say "If it is a shame . . ." after mentioning why it would so shameful. In Judaism, the Messiah (מָשִׁיחַ anointed one, Standard Hebrew , Tiberian Hebrew Arabic ) initially meant any person who was anointed by a prophet of God. ...

To harmonize with Paul's arguments against veiling, Bushnell interprets that Paul is refering to Jewish tradition, not his own ruling. A different translation could be to insert quotation marks beginning with verse 5 and ending after the first sentence of verse 6. Thus in the latter part of verse 6 Paul is not being redundant, he is responding to the Jewish tradition.

Angels

The correct translation, says Bushnell, is "her," not "the." Paul says that angels are inferior to humans (1 Corinthians 6:3) and Jesus says, "in heaven their [childrens'] angels do always behold the face of My Father." Paul's argument is that if angels are not veiled before God, neither should women who are above the angels.

Judge for Yourselves

Koine Greek does not separate words into sentences, much less into verses. Both were added later by scribes and translators interpreting the text. Thus the phrase "judge for yourselves" could belong and apply to verse 12 or verse 13. Because Paul would not trust the Corinthians to judge such a hard issue as covering, but he would trust them to judge a simple one like verse 12, Bushnell moves it to verse 12. Thus there is no colon but simply a period, completing the thought.

Imperative Statement

This is the most difficult verse. Because Koine Greek contained no marks ending a sentence, the question mark in traditional translations could also be a period or an exclamation mark. The first word of verse 13 is literally translated "it is." Where English reverses these words to form a question, Greek had no such method. Thus the only way to tell between a simple statement and question was context; if spoken, it could be known through inflection of voice, as in English. To harmonize with the rest of the passage, and because there is little sense in Paul asking about what he is teaching, Bushnell translates this as a statement. "It is proper for a woman to pray unto God unveiled."

Nature

For the reasons in verse 13 above, these verse may be translated "Not does even nature" instead of "Does not even nature." Also, because question marks did not exist, verse 14 and 15 can be joined into a single sentence. Thus both verses are in the negative; Paul is saying a woman's hair is not given as a covering.

The Lord's Supper

In verses 17 through 33, Paul chastises the Corinthian church for their behavior while eating the agape feast. His description of Jesus at the Last Supper is common in eucharistic liturgy. The Agape Feast was a love feast celebrated in apostolic times on any day, in addition to the Eucharist. ... This article relates the event related in the New Testament of the Bible, see The Last Supper (disambiguation) for other uses, including a list of famous works of art with this name. ... The Divine Liturgy is the common term for the eucharistic service of the Byzantine tradition of Christian liturgy. ...

Notes

1. ↑ Hard Sayings of Paul. Manfred T. Brauch.

External links

• 1 Corinthians 11 Text New Revised Standard Version
• 1 Corinthians 11 New American Standard Version
• God's Word to Women by Katherine Bushnell Bushnell's full exegesis.
• Bushnell View A summary of Bushnell's argument
• Rethinking the Veil William Welty agrees with Bushnell; in pdf format.