1 Corinthians 11:14

The ἤ, or, of the T. R. might be suitable so far as the sense goes: “ Or indeed, if you answer my question in the negative, does not nature teach you...?” This use of the ἤ is frequent in Paul. But for this very reason the particle might easily have been introduced; the authorities in its favour are weak.

Vv. 14 must therefore be regarded as directly answering the question put in 1 Corinthians 11:13: “After all I have said to resolve the question, is there not another master whose voice you ought of yourselves to hear, and who will teach you that...?” This master is nature, ἡ φύσις, a word which here can neither signify moral instinct nor established usage. It follows indeed from 1 Corinthians 11:15 that Paul is thinking of the physical organization of woman. If we receive the reading of the T. R., αὐτὴ ἡ φύσις, even nature, the idea is: “That which seemed unable to teach us anything in such a domain.” But if we follow the other reading, ἡ φύσις αὐτή, nature itself, the meaning is rather: “itself, without me, without my teaching.”

Hofmann and Heinrici understand the following ὅτι in the sense of because, and make the διδάσκει an intransitive verb: “Does not nature itself instruct you?” But the ὅτι after such a verb as διδάσκειν naturally signifies that, and all the more because the ὅτι at the end of 1 Corinthians 11:15 really signifies because, and serves to explain the bearing of the two preceding ὅτι : “Does not nature itself show you that...and that..., seeing that...?” By not giving the man long hair, like the woman's, nature itself has shown that an uncovered head, and an open brow, suit his dignity as king of creation. The hair of the man is a crown, while, as the following verse adds, that of the woman is a veil.