Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
Thanks for your exegesis. I did notice that you made a classic mistake in your work. It is called Begging the Question.

Begging the question (or petitio principii, “assuming the initial point”) is a logical fallacy in which the proposition to be proved is assumed implicitly or explicitly in the premise.

You were to show us by an exegesis of the passage that “head” means “authority over” or “superiority over another” but all you have done is assumed this meaning without showing it in the passage. There is no explicit or implicit words in 1 Cor. 11 that show that Paul is telling the man to take authority over the woman or that there is something that he has that shows his authority over her. Rather than showing us the man’s authority in the passage, you have just assumed it.

What is also especially odd to me is that the passage that Sue quoted in 1 Cor. 7 where the man’s authority is actually given, you downplay this authority and rename it to “respect”. You said:

Paul is indeed portraying a mutuality of respect for each others body in sexual union.

Paul actually said that a man has “authority over” his wife’s body. Why did you change it to “respect”? Perhaps the answer is obvious. It is because Paul says that the wife as “authority over” her husband’s body. It is mutual authority of the other person’s sexuality. Once you reworded that authority to “respect” it is easy to ignore the fact that the wife is given equal authority. Yet in 1 Cor. 11, there is no authority of the husband over the wife spoken about.

While I was waiting for you to finish writing this piece, I was quite interested to see how you would going to explain how “superiority” or “authority over” was actually the theme and meaning of “head” in this passage. But there was no explanation at all. You just assumed it. In fact if you assume “superiority” or “authority over” in verse 12 as you do, you would have to assume that now the woman has “superiority” or “authority over” the man in the same verse.

1 Cor 11:12 For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God.

The fact that origins are highlighted in this verse shows a connection to “head” as origin or source not as “superiority”. How one can see the man as in a position of superiority from verse 12 is beyond me. I was very curious to see how you would deal with the verse to prove your point. Assuming is not proving a point.

More points later.