15. Heading off misconceptions of authority, heads & head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11

1 Corinthians 11 says some things that are difficult for modern readers to fully grasp, and unfortunately, often this passage is interpreted in what seems like misogynistic way. In this episode we uncover a few surprising truths from this passage: "head" does not indicate "authority" in 11:3, a head covering was a sign of status and privilege for the women of Corinth, and that women have authority and glory of their own! Listen in! 

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Related episodes: 2. In the Beginning: The "Male and Female" Joint Partnership in Creation

https://anchor.fm/krista-lucich/episodes/2--In-the-Beginning-The-Male-and-Female-Joint-Partnership-in-Creation-eedntn

Show notes (go to www.anchor.fm/krista-lucich if the show notes aren’t formatted well in your podcast app). 

Fee, Gordon. "Praying and Prophesying in the Assemblies: 1 Corinthians 11:2-16." Discovering Biblical Equality: Complimentarity Without Hierarchy. Ronald Pierce. 2004. 

Here's Bruxey Cavey's quote and his series on marriage: Love, Lust & Loyalty. October 2016. 

Women's Study Bible footnoted by Mary J. Evans and Catherine C. Kroeger 

Articles by Marg Mowczko:  

"Women's Hair in Corinth and in Sydney,"  "Man and Woman as the Image and Glory of God."

 Cynthia Long Westfall lecture, "Does Paul Really Threaten to Shave Women's Heads?" February 4, 2020.  YouTube. 

Westfall, Cynthia Long. Paul and Gender: Reclaiming the Apostle's Vision for Men and Women in Christ. 2015. 

Outakes/Extra Information:

 *“Another piece of evidence that shows kephalē did not usually mean “leader” in ancient Greek is that LSJ, the most exhaustive lexicon of ancient Greek, does not include any definition of kephalē that approximates “leader” or “authority”...Al Wolters, who identifies as a complementarian, states that kephalē with a meaning of “leader” is “virtually unattested in pagan Greek literature until about the fourth century AD.”[7] [And, “As far as pagan Greek literature is concerned, LSJ (1996) is entirely justified in omitting the meaning “chief” or “leader” from its entry on kephalē.”[8]...Unfortunately, it seems that many Christians have simply presumed that “head” means “authority” in 1 Corinthians 11:3 as well as in other verses such as Ephesians 5:23. (Head) 

*Is the authority of every man is Christ? Sure, we could say that, even though every man does not choose to come under Christ’s authority.  But, can we say the authority of Christ is God, because Christ and God are 2 parts of the same Trinitarian God and they act in perfect union, not as a hierarchy (although our complementarian friends are actually trying to argue for this, which has been linked to the Arian heresy, which is a topic I have slated to cover soon). Lastly, we could try to say the leader or authority of woman is man, and this is used to suppose that husbands are the leader and authority of their wives, but that is also questionable, especially since Genesis 1:28 gives men and women equal standing as rulers and co-regents in the Garden of Eden. Also, what about single women? So let’s try the metaphor that the Greeks used for the word kephale, instead of supplanting our own linguistic metaphors. 

*As for glory, Lucy Peppiatt argues that this is actually a Corinthian saying that is a corrupted version of Genesis 1:27, that Paul then responds to in Rediscovering Scripture's Vision for Women. 2019.

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