Sue

I appreciate your vote of confidence, but the more I study this, the less I understand it. I definitely read 1 Cor. 11 in the light of both 1 Cor. 7, relational mutuality, and 1 Cor. 15,

“39All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.”

In some way, God and Christ are of the same essence, as a human Christ is of the same essence as mankind, and as humans men and women share the same essence. This is unique to Christianity, the link between God and humans.

But in some ways, Paul seems very influenced in his language by certain presuppositions. Woman is for man, but then again, man is of woman. He backtracks and reshapes. I don’t see scripture as one hundred per cent consistent. I would have to say that most scholars don’t.