Cheryl Schatz

Craig,
You said:

It would be easier for me to follow if Paul was talking about “every wife (rather than just Eve) having a head (husband) in v3 to every wife who…….dishonors her head (husband) in v5.
Also, the way in which Adam was the origin of Eve, would seem quite different from the way every other husband is head.
Any thoughts to help my confusion? Thanks.

Paul’s passage is certainly confusing as “head” is used in several different ways from literal to a couple of metaphors so one needs to pay close attention and still Paul is so “deep” that it isn’t easy. In verse 5 we see Paul using “head” both physically and metaphorically:

1 Corinthians 11:5 (NAS)
5 But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved.

In what way is every husband “head” of his wife? I believe that Paul is referencing back the “source” of the first wife as coming from her husband and connecting this to a “one flesh” unity in the body. Since every husband is connected to his wife as a “one flesh” union, the metaphor of a united body in a unity of function and purpose would make sense to me. So every husband is “head” as part of the unity of the body for the reason that the first man was the source of his wife so that what was one physical flesh would be reunited to one emotionally attached flesh. If we are still one emotionally attached flesh as the body is bothy physically and emotionally attached, then what one does affects the other.

The attachment of the head and body in the area of head coverings was part of the shame based culture. A woman without a head covering in public would be seen as a direct way for her to shame her husband as she would be seen as one who is unfaithful. The wife is so connected to the husband’s honor as a body is intimately connected to the head, that what she does or does not do affects him too either giving him honor or bringing him shame. It is a connection for Paul that brings in both origin and interdependence.

In verse 8 we see Paul referencing back to verse 3 with the issue of origins.

1 Corinthians 11:8 (NAS)
8 For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man;

And then in verse 11 he switches to the interdependency of body to the head with neither independent of the other.

1 Corinthians 11:11 (NAS)
11 However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman.

It is quite a brilliant argument, but it is very deep. It means that neither the man or the woman can claim a “first place” status. Both are interdependent on each other with the origin of woman through the man, but the origin of all men since that time as through the woman. We are interdependent on each other as a body nourishes itself with no member claiming a special status as if they were independent of needing the rest of the body. For all of us are on the same level with interdependence and only the first cause or source of all is to have first place.

1 Corinthians 11:12 (NAS)
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.