1 Corinthians 11
HAMM1 Corinthians 11:1
And do ye in like manner, as oft as there is occasion for the good of others, deny yourselves the use of your Christian liberty.
1 Corinthians 11:2
Now for you that have written this letter to me, and asked my advice in all these particulars, I cannot but commend you, that ye have been so mindful of my doctrine, that ye have adhered so close to it, that ye have not been seducible by any false teachers in any of these particulars, but have appealed to me for my opinion of them.
1 Corinthians 11:3
To proceed then to your next query, in order to matters of decency in the church, it is fit for you to consider the subordination of persons in the church, viz. that as Christ in respect of his office of Mediator is under God, but above all men, so the man being under Christ is above all women, and consequently that their garb in the church must be proportionable to this.
1 Corinthians 11:4
Every man that doth any office in the church, that either prays, or expounds the word of God, or sings psalms, &c. (see note [m] Luke i.) if he do it with his head and face covered, this is indecent, against the liberty and dignity of his sex, it being a sign of shame and infamy in a man to have his head and face covered.
[a] dishonoureth his head] It was a part of the punishment of malefactors among several nations to have a covering put over their faces; and therefore in the Roman form of giving sentence this was part, Caput obnubito, “Cover his head;” and that belonged to the whole head, the face also. So among the Persians, in the story of Esther, ch. vii. 8, The word went out of the king’s mouth, and they covered Haman’s face. And this seems to be the literal notation of κατὰ κεφαλῆς ἔχων, having over the head, which is here used, so having upon the head, as comes down upon the face also, as that differs from ἐπὶ κεφαλῆς ἔχων, having the veil upon the head only. This, therefore, which was the fashion of condemned persons, is justly said κατωσχύνειν τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ, to reproach or shame his head.
1 Corinthians 11:5
But every woman that doth any office in the church, that is employed as a member of a congregation, joining with the minister, whether pastor, prophet, in discharging of any Christian duty, such as is prayer, or expounding, or singing psalms, &c. (see note [n] Luke i.) and hath her head or face uncovered, this is contrary to decency in her, against the modesty and meekness of her sex, as much as it is for her to cut her hair, and wear it as men do.
1 Corinthians 11:6
The use that is made of the not cutting a woman’s hair, of letting it be worn at the length, is, that it may be a kind of veil or covering to her, ver. 15; which is an argument that as it is uncomely or unfashionable for her to have her hair cut after the manner of men, so it is uncomely to have her head uncovered after the manner of men, the distinction of sexes being to be maintained in the one as well as in the other.
1 Corinthians 11:7
For the man indeed is to be uncovered, that being a sign of power and majesty, and man (being the image of God, and a beam and irradiation as it were of God) is an image of his power and majesty, and therefore ought so to appear; but the woman, she is but the beam of the man, having no power but from him, and so her subjection to the husband being her duty, she therefore is to be covered, which is a sign of that subjection.
[b] glory] The Hebrew כבוד signifies both glory and beam, (the beams of the sun being so glorious that all glory is described by them,) and is rendered both by δόξα and ἀπαύγασμα, and one of them may be here taken for the other, δόξα, glory, for ἀπαύγασμα, beam or irradiation, such a beam which, flowing from another, derived from another, implies that from whence it flows to be more honourable. Or else the word may signify similitude, likeness, in both places of this verse; for so it is used by the Septuagint, Numb. xii. 8, δόξα Κυρίου, the similitude of the Lord, and psalm xvii. 15, δόξα σου, thy likeness, where the Hebrew hath תמונה in both places. And so here it will agree with εἰκών, the man is the image and similitude of God, and the woman of the man.
1 Corinthians 11:8
As you know in the forming of man and woman, the woman was made of the rib of the man, and so is to be resolved inferior to him.
1 Corinthians 11:9
And the creation of the woman was, that she ² reproacheth. ³ reproacheth: note [a].
1 Corinthians 11:10
And especially when the angels are generally believed to be present in the places of God’s public worship, this piece of decency in the woman, her being covered, ought most strictly to be observed, as we will be most careful of doing no indecent thing in the presence of such pure divine spirits.
[c] power] What the word ἐξουσία signifies here will be best conjectured, not by hearkening to the critical emendation of ¹ Jacobus Gothofredus, who would read ἐξουβίων, the Latin exuviam, instead of it, but by looking on the Hebrew word, which signifies the woman’s hood or veil, and that is רדיד, whose theme רדיד signifies dominion or power over any thing or person; according to which notion of the theme, the word ἐξουσία must needs be answerable to the Hebrew רדיד, and consequently, though it signify power primarily, is yet fitly set here to signify a veil, (and by the Vulgar translation in some copies rendered velamen,) by the same proportion as רדיד, deduced from the root signifying power, is put for a woman’s veil, Cant. v. 7, and Isa. iii. 23, and so Gen. xxiv. 65 and xxxviii. 14, and explained by the Targum by צָעִיף, a veil, peplus, theristrum, such as Rebecca and Tamar used. And this more fitly in respect of the discourse or rational importance of this place, which, ver. 8, proves that the woman should wear a covering in token of her husband’s power over her. So when ¹ Eustathius, a bishop of Sebastia, in Constantine’s time, among other things, τὰς γυναῖκας κείρεσθαι παρεσκεύαζεν, caused women to be polled, against him the council of Gangra made a man canon in these words: Εἴτις γυναικῶν διὰ νομιζομένην ἄσκησιν ἀποκείροιτο τὰς κόμας, δὲ ἔδωκεν ὁ Θεὸς εἰς ὑπόμνησιν τῆς
¹ Ἐξουσία de Dom. Maris, c. 3. ¹ Socrates, Hist. I. 3. c. μβ’. m Can. 17.
[d] on her head] The woman’s head signifies her head and face both, which were customarily covered with a veil, and it was counted immodest to be without it, according to that saying of Rabbi Abraham in the Talmud, tract. Sota, that “the bare uncovering of the head is immodest for the daughters of Israel.” See Schickard De Jure Regio, p. 134. Thus among other writers also. Plutarch in Problem. Rom. Συνηθέστερον ταῖς μὲν γυναιξὶν ἐγκεκαλυμμέναις, τοῖς δὲ ἀνδράσιν ἀκαλύπτουσις εἰς τὸ δημόσιον προσείναι, “It is the custom” (and consequently decent) “for women to come into the public covered, and for men uncovered.” And Clemens Alex. Pædag. l. 2. c. 10, Ἐγκεκαλύφθαι δὲ τὴν κεφαλὴν, καὶ τὸ πρόσωπον ἐπισκιάσθαι προστίτακται, οὐ γὰρ ὅσιον εἶναι θηρατρὸν ἀνθρώπων τὸ κάλλος τοῦ σώματος, “It was appointed that the heads and faces of women should be covered and shaded, and that the beauty of the body should not be a snare to catch men.” So saith n Dicaarchus of the Thebans, ἱματίων ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς κάλυμμα τοιοῦτό ἐστιν, ὥστε προσωπιδίῳ δοκεῖν πᾶν τὸ πρόσωπον κατειλήφθαι, οἱ γὰρ ὀφθαλμοὶ διαφαίνονται μόνον, τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ μέρη τοῦ προσώπου πάντα κατέχεται τοῖς ἱματίοις, “Their heads and faces were all covered as with a mask, and nothing but their eyes to be seen.” And so of the city of Tarsus, (St. Paul’s country,) saith o Dio Chrysostom, that “the women came so attired into public, ὡς μηδὲν αὐτῶν μέρος ἰδεῖν τινα, μήτε τοῦ προσώπου, μήτε λοιποῦ σώματος, “that no part, either of their face or the rest of their body, might be seen.” And for those that have not used or retained that custom of wearing veils or coverings, yet the universal custom of women among all people is to wear their hair at length, and that is useful to cover their faces and necks and shoulders, and that is the reason of the mentioning their long hair, that nature teaches them, ver. 15, and that it is as fit for her to be shaven as uncovered, ver. 6.
[e] because of the angels] The presence of God in any one place more than in another is not easily conceivable by any. And therefore that any place should be called his house or place of residence, his temple wherein he dwells, 2 Cor. vi. 19, must needs be in some other respect, and what that is, is sufficiently explicated by Jacob, who upon the vision of angels at Luz, awakes, and says, that the place was venerable, and that God was in it, and that it was the house of God; which concludes that the appearance or presence of angels is that from which God is said to be peculiarly present anywhere, and which fits that place to be God’s house; and thus, Eccles. v. 5, when we read, from the
n P. 58. o Or. 1. Tars. K 2
1 Corinthians 11:11
But this inferiority of the wife to the husband must not so be urged, that the man being independent from her should be thought to have no respect unto her, (which may be seasonable to tell the Gnostics, who were great despisers of marriage,) any more than the woman should be from the man.
1 Corinthians 11:12
For as the woman was formed out of Adam’s rib, so all the sons of Adam were born and conceived and propagated by women, and man and woman united by God, from whom all things are.
1 Corinthians 11:13
But for that of women’s behaviour in the place of public service, judge you by what is decent among you, is this decent for her to have her head uncovered in time of divine service?
1 Corinthians 11:14
Doth not the universal custom of all nations make this distinction between sexes, that men wear their hair cut, and that is decent in them;
[f] nature] What is meant by φύσις here, which is said to teach that men are to cut, women not to cut their hair, may be guessed, first, by the practice and vow of the Nazarites, of never cutting their hair, which yet was allowed and commended by God in some men, which it would not have been, if the practice had been against the law of nature, or if that were the notion of φύσις here; secondly, by the words precedent, ver. 13, πρίπον ἐστι, &c. is it decent? which though it belong to the woman’s praying uncovered, yet when being uncovered and cutting her hair are made unfit upon the same principle, ver. 6, the τὸ πρίπον, or decency, will be an interpretation of the φύσις, nature, as ver. 6, αἰσχρὼν, uncomely is applied to both the being shaven and uncovered; thirdly, by the notion of φύσις, in other authors, for custom, 80 ἤθη ἐπίκτητοι φύσεις, customs are acquired natures in Galen: and in Aristotle Rhet. l. 1. c. 11. καὶ γὰρ τὸ εἰθισμένον ὥσπερ πεφυκὸς ἤδη γίνεται, ὅμοιον γὰρ τὸ ἴθος τῇ φύσει, ἐγγὺς γὰρ τὸ πολλάκις τῷ ἀεὶ ἐστιν· ἐστι δὲ ἡ μὲν φύσις τοῦ ἀεὶ, τὸ δὲ ἴθος τοῦ πολλάκις, “Custom and nature are near and like one another; and that which is frequently done is next that which is always done.” And therefore when in Lucian, in the person of Demosthenes, we have, Συγγίνωσκε μοι μὴ πεφυκέτι κακῷ γίνεσθαι, “Pardon me, that am not born to be ill or naturally ill,” Phil. Melancthon renders it, Ignoscas mihi, qui non consuevi inconstans esse, “Pardon me, that am not wont to be so,” that being an ordinary notion of πεφυκέται among authors; and so it is ordinary for that to be called the law of nature which was but the law of nations, ὡ τινι ἴθους ἴν, ἡ ἴθνη χρῶνται τινι, “which one nation or some nations use,” in Harmenopulus, Ἐξαβ. l. 1. tit. 1. And so in the Digests, (de Stat. Hom. l. lex naturæ,) that which was but the law of many nations, ut qui nascitur sine legitimo matrimonio matrem sequatur, (which, though it held among the Grecians and Romans, did not among other nations,) is called lex naturæ, “the law of nature;” as on the other side, Dio Chrys. περὶ ἴθους, of custom, comprehends the law of nature under that style. Fourthly, by the use of the word φύσις in the New Testament, as Ephes. ii. 3, τέκνα φύσει ὀργῆς, children of wrath by nature, applied to the national universal custom of idolatry among the Gentiles, as appears ver. 2, in which you (Ephesian Gentiles) sometimes walked; and ver. 3, among whom we all (we Romans, from whom he wrote,) ἀνεστράφημῖν πότε, sometime conversed, ὡς καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ, as the rest also of the heathen world. Just as the same idolaters, Wisdom xiii. 1, are called φύσει μάταιοι, vain, that is, idolatrous, by that general custom among them. To this matter the testimony of Suidas is most clear on the word φύσις, where having enlarged on the signification of it in philosophy, he adds, “Ὅταν δὲ ὁ ἀπόστολος λέγῃ, καὶ ἦμεν τέκνα φύσει ὀργῆς, ὡς καὶ λοιποὶ, οὐ κατὰ τοῦτο τὸ σημαινόμενον τῆς φύσεως λέγει, ἐπεὶ τοῦ ποιήσαντος ἂν ἦν τὸ ἔγκλημα, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἔμμονον καὶ κακίστην διάθεσιν καὶ κρονίαν καὶ πονηρὰν συνήθειαν,” But when the apostle hath those words, which were by nature, &c., he takes not the word nature in this notion, but for an evil durable disposition, or chronical
1 Corinthians 11:15
And women do not, but wear it at length, and that is decent in them? and to what purpose is this, but that their hair may be a kind of veil or covering to them?
1 Corinthians 11:16
And if, after all this, any man will further contend in this matter, all that I shall add is, the constant custom of all the apostolical churches, that women in the churches should constantly be veiled, and that may be of sufficient authority with you.
1 Corinthians 11:17
Now one thing there is wherein you are much to be blamed, that your assemblies are not so Christian as they ought.
1 Corinthians 11:18
For first I am told, and I have some reason to believe it, that there are divisions and factions among you, which express themselves in your assemblies.
1 Corinthians 11:19
And indeed there is some good use to be made of divisions among Christians, that so the honest and orthodox may be more taken notice of.
1 Corinthians 11:20
That which I am to blame in you is, that your public common meetings, which should be as at the table of the Lord, to eat a church-meal, a common Christian feast, are indeed much otherwise, none of that communicativeness and charity among you, as is required in such; (see note [f] Acts i.)
1 Corinthians 11:21
For at your feasts of charity accompanying the Lord’s supper, which were intended for the relief of the poor, and wherein all the guests are to be equal, no man to take place or eat before another, no man to pretend any right to what he brought, but every man to contribute to the common table, and to eat in common with all others, this custom is utterly broken among you; he that brings a great deal falls to that, as if it were in his own house at his own meal, and so feeds to the full; whereas another, which was not able to bring so much, is fain to go hungry home: and so your meetings are more to feed yourselves than to practise a piece of Christian charity, to which those sacramental assemblies were instituted.
1 Corinthians 11:22
This certainly is to do as you were wont at home, and you may as well stay there and do thus; this is quite contrary to the institution of church-meetings, and the not only sending away hungry, but even reproaching and putting to shame those that are in want, and are not able to bring any great offering along with them. This sure is a great fault among you.
23, 24. For from Christ it was that I received (though I were not present there) what I delivered in my preaching among you, that Christ, when he instituted his last supper, took and blessed the bread, and then eat it not all himself, nor preferred any one before another by a more liberal portion, but gave it in an equal distribution to every one at the table, and that as an expression and token of his life for all of them, without preferring one before another, and then appointed all disciples to imitate this action of his, to meet and eat as at a common table, not one to engross all or deprive others, and so to commemorate
⁹ divisions, alpinæis. ¹⁰ the sincere, δάκιμοι. ¹¹ it is not, or, it is not possible, οὐκ ἔστι. ¹² takes his own supper: for the King’s MS, νεμίς, προσλαμβάνει. ¹³ put them to shame that have nothing? κατασχύνετε τοὺς μὴ ἔχοντας; ¹⁴ you? In this I praise you not. ὑμᾶς; ¹⁵ Ἐν τούτῳ οὐκ ἔπαινῳ.
1 Corinthians 11:25
And when supper was ended, he took also the grace-cup (see note [e] ch. x.), and delivered it about, telling them that this action of his was an emblem of that covenant of grace and bounty, which he would seal in his blood to all, without respect of persons, and commanding them to imitate and commemorate this impartial charity of his, whensoever they met together at the holy table.
1 Corinthians 11:26
And do ye, saith he, in all your sacred festivals, thus shew forth to God and man this gracious act of my bounty in giving my life for my people, and continue this ceremony till I come again at the end of the world.
1 Corinthians 11:27
So that to offend in this kind against this institution of this feast, by doing contrary to the universal charity designed therein, is to sin against the body and blood of Christ, to take off from the universality of Christ’s goodness and mercy in that death of his.
1 Corinthians 11:28
It is therefore fit that every man examine himself thoroughly, whether he be rightly grounded in the faith of Christ, of which this sacrament is an emblem, and accordingly, when upon examination he hath also approved himself (see note [f] Rom. ii.), when he is fitly prepared, let him come to that table, and partake of it in a Christian manner.
1 Corinthians 11:29
When I say a conscience, I mean not thine own, but that other man’s conscience; that is, that thou art in this case to abstain for the sake of that other man’s conscience, lest he be betrayed to sin by that means, ver. 28, and not for thy own; for there is no reason in the world that that other man’s conscience should make that simply unlawful to me which I receive as a gift of God and acknowledge it from him, that is, render it altogether unlawful, abstracting from the scandal annexed, which were otherwise (by the liberty which Christ hath given) perfectly lawful to me.
And he that doth come without that preparation, and so understands not the truth of Christ’s universal mercy in his death, signified by this institution of the Lord’s supper, or consequently receives it not in an holy manner, incurs damnation, instead of receiving benefit by such eating and drinking of it.
1 Corinthians 11:30
And certainly abstract it from that case of scandal, and there will be no reason to find fault with or accuse me for eating of that before which I say grace, bless God for it, and eat it merely as a blessing of his, without any respect unto any idol-god whatsoever.
And the want of this due preparation to and performance of this duty, the factions and divisions that are among you, have brought many punishments upon some of you, afflictions, (see note [a] Gal. iv.), diseases, and death itself, as was threatened upon those who at the feast of the passover put not all leaven out of their houses, Exod. xii. 19.
1 Corinthians 11:31
The only thing then considerable in this matter is the scandal, which tends to the dishonour of God, and betraying men to or confirming them in sin, and that must be provided against, and care be taken that in every bit I eat, or action I do, I may not dishonour God, or do hurt to my brother.
Which had never fallen upon you, if you had not by such faults needed admonition and discipline, God never punishing them that do not stand in some need of being awaked thus, and stirred up by his punishments.
¹⁵ covenant, διαθήκη. ¹⁶ declare ye, καταγγέλλετε. ¹⁷ So that, “Ωστε. ¹⁸ some, Ixarel. ¹⁹ examine, διακρίσουμε.
1 Corinthians 11:32
Let nothing you do be apt to betray any man to sin, whether it be Jew or heathen on one side, or Christian on the other.
1 Corinthians 11:33
Even as in my ministry I conform myself to all men, so as may be most for their advantage, not for my own, (see note [c] Rom. xiv,) that by some means or other I may bring them to embrace the gospel, ch. ix. 20, &c.