1 Corinthians 11:14-15

The question οὐδὲ ἡ φύσις αὐτὴ κ. τ. λ.; summons personal instinct to the aid of social sentiment: “Does not even nature of herself teach you that, etc.?” For ἡ φύσις, see Romans 2:14; in this connexion it points to man's moral constitution rather than to external regulations; Hf. and El [1654] however, taking φύσις in the latter sense, reverse the order of thought in 1 Corinthians 11:13 f., seeing in the former ver. individual instinct (they render ἐν ἑαυτοῖς within yourselves), and in this ver. social rule. Hf [1655] and Hn [1656], by a strained constr. of διδάσκει, render ὅτι “because,” and draw the obj. of “teach” from 1 Corinthians 11:13, seeing in ὅτι κ. τ. λ. the ground of the affirmative answer tacitly given to both questions: “Does not nature of herself teach (this)? (Yes), for if a man have long hair, etc.” The common rendering is preferable; the teaching of nature is expressed in a double sentence, which gathers the consensus gentium on the subject: “that in a man's case, if he wear long hair (vir quidem si comam nutriat, Vg [1657]), it is a dishonour to him; but in a woman's, if she wear long hair, it is a glory to her”. ἀνήρ, γυνὴ stand in conspicuous antithesis preceding the conj.: what is discreditable in the one is delightful in the other. Homer's warriors, it is true, wore long hair (καρηκομοῶντες Ἀχαιοί), a fashion retained at Sparta; but the Athenian youth cropped his head at 18, and it was a mark of foppery or effeminacy (a legal ἀτιμία), except for the aristocratic Knights, to let the hair afterwards grow long. This feeling prevailed in ancient as it does in modern manners (cf. the case of Absalom). In the rule of the Nazirites natural instinct was set aside by an exceptional religious vocation. The woman's κόμη is not merely no ἀτιμία, but a positive δόξα; herself the δόξα ἀνδρός, her beauty has in this its crown and ensign. And this “glory” is grounded upon her humility: “because her hair to serve as a hood (ἀντὶ περιβολαίου) has been given her” not as a substitute for head-dress (this would be to stultify Paul's contention), but in the nature of a covering, thus to match the veil (en guise de voile, Gd [1658]); cf. χάριν ἀντὶ χάριτος, John 1:16; ἀντὶ κασιγνήτου ξεῖνος … τέτευκται, Odyss. viii., 456. δέδοται (pf. pass [1659]) connotes a permanent boon (see 2 Corinthians 8:1; 1 John 3:1, etc.). περιβόλαιον (from περιβάλλω), a wrapper, mantle, is here exceptionally used of head-gear.

[1654] C. J. Ellicott's St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians.

[1655] J. C. K. von Hofmann's Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht, ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[1656] C. F. G. Heinrici's Erklärung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer's krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

[1657] Latin Vulgate Translation.

[1658] F. Godet's Commentaire sur la prem. Ép. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

[1659] passive voice.