But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
The Corinthian women, on the ground of the abolition of distinction of sex in Christ, claimed equality with men, and, overstepping propriety, came forward to pray and prophesy without the customary head-covering. The Gospel did raise women from the degradation in which they had been sunk, especially in the East. Yet, while on a level with males as to the offer of, and standing in, grace (Galatians 3:28), their subjection in point of order, modesty, and seemliness is to be maintained. Paul reproves here their unseemliness as to dress; in 1 Corinthians 14:34, as to public speaking. He grounds his reproof on woman's subjection in the order of creation.
The head - an appropriate expression when he is about to treat of woman's head-dress.
Of every man is Christ (Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18).
Of the woman is the man (1 Corinthians 11:8; Genesis 3:16).
Head of Christ is God. By Christ's voluntary subordination to the Father He was exalted; so the woman finds in voluntary subjection to the man her truest freedom (John 14:28; 1 Corinthians 3:23; Philippians 2:8). 'Since the head is of the same essence as the body, and God is the head of the Son, the Son must be of the same essence as the Father' (S. Chrysostom) (Luke 3:22; Luke 3:38). 'The woman is of the essence of the man, not made by him; so the Son is not made by the Father, but of the Father's essence' (Theodoret, t. 3:, p. 171).