1 Corinthians 11
11
1follow me in this attitude, my brethren, as I follow the Christ.
Paul’s views on woman in the church
2You do remember and mark my words, I know, and you do keep the rules and the instructions which I lay down. I commend you as an obedient flock, and therefore listen now to another rule, a tradition I wish to be observed in our churches. 3Let men be bareheaded at our meetings, but let the women still wear the head-covering, as has always been the custom, and not thinking themselves free, as they begin to do, appear bareheaded like to men. 4-9And why? There is a reason. If a woman is to appear bareheaded like a man, then let her cut her hair, and wear it in the way that men wear theirs. That would be ugly, you say, and I agree. There is then a difference between the man and the woman; and what is our interpretation of it? Mine is this. Man stands for God; but woman stands for man. The head of the man is the type of Christ governing the body, and the head of Christ is God. The man then in every way stands as the type of the divine, the image and likeness of God, and with unveiled head he stands in the presence of God. 10But woman represents the glory of man; and in the presence of the angels of God man’s glory should be veiled. A woman’s beauty is her modesty. Her long hair is her glory, because it clothes and covers her. 11The male comes first as the representative of God, and the female next as the representative of man. 12In the second chapter of Genesis the difference made between the creation of man and of woman lies, as I interpret it, in these two different types, the one of God, the other of man; 13-15and so I advise you to keep the old custom whereby men wear their hair short, and bare their heads in prayer or preaching, but women wear their hair long, and in praying or in preaching they keep their heads covered. 16I advise you, I say, to keep this rule, but if you intend to argue the point with me — then I declare I am ignorant of any such custom, and the churches of God know it not!
Divisions and abuses at the Lord’s table
17Now in this next point I cannot add any commendation to the advice I am going to give you, for the reason that things are far from well, and that you are receiving harm where you ought to get only good. 18It is an excellent thing that you assemble yourselves together that you may get mutual profit thereby, but not if thereby differences and divisions arise amongst you. This I have heard to be the case, and so in a measure I believe it to be; 19because these divisions, it would seem, have a part to play in our faith, whereby the false are separated from the true, and true faith is tried and tested. 20-21Similarly taking food and drink in common, arriving at this meal hungry and thirsty, is no part of our faith. To dine all together is not to eat the supper of the Lord, especially when some are far better provided than others, and there are great differences in the way you fare at this common feast, and excess even and want are found seated at the same table. 22I like not such customs as that. Why not take your meals in the ordinary way at home? To eat and drink in such a way is to hasten the doom that is coming on all flesh — that doom and judgment of the flesh which is seen in the sickness, the ill-health and the death that still is found amongst your numbers. Now through the eternal body and blood of the Christ we are released from that fate and judgment that come upon the flesh. We look forward to the appearance and coming of the eternal Christ, and we show forth that peculiar death of his which overcame death and releases us from it.
The last supper described
23That is what the Lord Jesus meant by his words at that last supper the night on which they took him, when he handed the cup to his disciples, and broke the bread for them. I taught you his words and his action on that occasion, as they were given me by those who were present. 24After taking the bread, he gave thanks, spoke the usual blessing, and handed it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is surrendered on your behalf. In future, when you break bread thus, and give thanks, remember my body, remember me.” 25-26In handing the cup after dinner, he said, “This is the new covenant, sealed in my blood. In future, whenever you take wine thus together, think of this new covenant, remember my blood.”
Its spiritual meaning explained
27Do you then my brethren, when you come together, eating and drinking, with the intention of carrying out his injunction, and recalling his words, do you really discern beneath this semblance and type of bread and wine the eternal body of Christ to which we belong? Do you really celebrate that wondrous death of his, which differed from all other deaths in that it is to be followed by his second coming and eternal presence in the world? 28Examine yourselves on these points, and assemble together in that spirit only. Otherwise you will only eat and drink the doom of all flesh, as it comes upon the whole world. 29But if you discerned that infinite eternal body, if you understood the meaning of Christ’s death in the flesh, and what is signified by the shedding of his blood, and the giving up of his mortal life and material body — 30-31then, my brethren, there would not be so much sickness and disease and death in your midst as there still is. 32-33You would not be bound up with the world in the common doom of perishing mortality, but by first judging yourselves, you would then escape the general ruin. 34Such feasts as you observe, where the eating and drinking predominate over the teaching, have little in keeping with the Lord’s supper and this can be avoided by eating first at home, and then when you come together, giving place to one another, and taking the bread and wine as it comes to you. There are other details in connection with this matter which I will arrange when I see you.
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Translated in 1916, published in 1937.
1 Corinthians (1 Co) 11
11
1try to imitate me, even as I myself try to imitate the Messiah.
2Now I praise you because you have remembered everything I told you and observe the traditions just the way I passed them on to you. 3But I want you to understand that the head of every man is the Messiah, and the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of the Messiah is God. 4Every man who prays or prophesies wearing something down over his head brings shame to his head, 5but every woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled brings shame to her head — there is no difference between her and a woman who has had her head shaved. 6For if a woman is not veiled, let her also have her hair cut short; but if it is shameful for a woman to wear her hair cut short or to have her head shaved, then let her be veiled. 7For a man indeed should not have his head veiled, because he is the image and glory of God, and the woman is the glory of man. 8For man was not made from woman, but woman from man; 9and indeed man was not created for the sake of the woman but woman for the sake of the man. 10The reason a woman should show by veiling her head that she is under authority has to do with the angels. 11Nevertheless, in union with the Lord neither is woman independent of man nor is man independent of woman; 12for as the woman was made from the man, so also the man is now born through the woman. But everything is from God. 13Decide for yourselves: is it appropriate for a woman to pray to God when she is unveiled? 14Doesn’t the nature of things itself teach you that a man who wears his hair long degrades himself? 15But a woman who wears her hair long enhances her appearance, because her hair has been given to her as a covering. 16However, if anyone wants to argue about it, the fact remains that we have no such custom, nor do the Messianic communities of God.
17But in giving you this next instruction I do not praise you, because when you meet together it does more harm than good! 18For, in the first place, I hear that when you gather together as a congregation you divide up into cliques; and to a degree I believe it 19(granted that there must be some divisions among you in order to show who are the ones in the right). 20Thus, when you gather together, it is not to eat a meal of the Lord; 21because as you eat your meal, each one goes ahead on his own; so that one stays hungry while another is already drunk! 22Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or are you trying to show your contempt for God’s Messianic community and embarrass those who are poor? What am I supposed to say to you? Am I supposed to praise you? Well, for this I don’t praise you!
23For what I received from the Lord is just what I passed on to you — that the Lord Yeshua, on the night he was betrayed, took bread; 24and after he had made the b’rakhah he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this as a memorial to me”; 25likewise also the cup after the meal, saying, “This cup is the New Covenant effected by my blood; do this, as often as you drink it, as a memorial to me.” 26For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord, until he comes.
27Therefore, whoever eats the Lord’s bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty of desecrating the body and blood of the Lord! 28So let a person examine himself first, and then he may eat of the bread and drink from the cup; 29for a person who eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. 30This is why many among you are weak and sick, and some have died! 31If we would examine ourselves, we would not come under judgment. 32But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined, so that we will not be condemned along with the world.
33So then, my brothers, when you gather together to eat, wait for one another. 34If someone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it will not result in judgment.
As for the other matters, I will instruct you about them when I come.
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