1 Corinthians 11 - Introduction

He reproveth them, because in holy assemblies their men prayed with their heads covered, and women with their heads uncovered: and because generally their meetings were not for the better, but for the worse; as namely, in profaning with their own feasts the Lord's supper: lastly, he remindeth them of the first institution thereof.

Anno Domini 57.

FROM the things written in this chapter, and in 1 Corinthians 14:34 it appears that some of the Corinthian women, on pretence of being inspired, had prayed and prophesied in the Christian assemblies as teachers: and while performing these offices, had cast off their veils, after the manner of the heathen priestesses in their heathen exstasies. These disorderly practices, the false teacher, it seems, had encouraged, 1 Corinthians 11:16 from a desire to ingratiate himself with the female part of the Corinthian church. But the Apostle's adherents, sensible that it did not become the women to be teachers of the men, had restrained them. And this having occasioned disputes between the church and the faction, the church, in their letter, applied to the Apostle for his decision.—In answer, he first of all commended them for having held fast his ordinances concerning the public worship of God, 1 Corinthians 11:2. Next, he explained the foundation on which his ordinances relating to the public worship were built, namely, the subordination of all men to Christ, the subordination of woman to man, and the subordination of the human nature of Christ to God. For by this subordination, the behaviour both of men and women in the public assemblies was to be regulated, 1 Corinthians 11:3.—Every man, says the Apostle, who prayeth or prophesieth in public with his head veiled, dishonoureth Christ his head; who having given man authority over woman, is dishonoured when the man renounces that authority, by appearing veiled in the presence of the woman as her inferior, 1 Corinthians 11:4.—On the other hand, every woman who prays or prophesies in public with an unveiled head, dishonours the man her head. Because the wearing of a veil, being an expression of inferiority, by appearing in public unveiled, she renounces her subjection to the man her superior, and sets herself on an equality with him. Besides, for a woman to throw off her veil in public, was the same kind of indecency as to appear with her head shaven, 1 Corinthians 11:5.—Wherefore, says the Apostle, if it be a shame for a woman to appear in public shorn or shaven, let her be veiled, 1 Corinthians 11:6.—Farther, the different mental and bodily accomplishments of man and woman shew that, in the public assemblies for worship, men ought not to be veiled, nor women unveiled, 1 Corinthians 11:7.—The subjection of woman to man, appears even from the man's being first made, and from the woman's being made for the man, 1 Corinthians 11:8, &c.—For which reason, the woman ought to have a veil on her head in the church, as a mark of her subjection.—In the mean time, that women might not be too much humbled by what he had said, he observed that in the method of salvation, man is not regarded separately from woman, nor woman separately from man; but the same way of salvation is appointed for both sexes, and the same blessings are promised to both, in the Gospel, 1 Corinthians 11:11.—Besides, as the woman springs from the man, so the man is born into the world of the woman; and both, by the power of God, 1 Corinthians 11:12.—Next, to shew the impropriety of women's praying in public unveiled, and of men's praying veiled, the Apostle appealed to the feelings of the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 11:13.—and asked them whether reason and experience did not teach them, that if a man suffers his hair to grow long for an ornament to him, as women's hair is to them, it is a disgrace to him? Because men, being designed for laborious occupations, long hair is extremely inconvenient, especially in warm climates, and therefore is used only by the effeminate, 1 Corinthians 11:14.—But women being formed to sweeten the toils of men by their beauty, if they have long hair it is a glory to them; their hair being given them as a veil to heighten their charms, 1 Corinthians 11:15.—His discourse on this subject, the Apostle concluded with telling the faction, that if any teacher contentiously insisted that women might pray and prophesy in the church unveiled, he ought to know that the Apostles allowed no such custom, neither was it practised in any of the churches of God, 1 Corinthians 11:16.

The Corinthians had likewise been guilty of great irregularities in celebrating the Lord's supper. For the Apostle told them, that though he praised them for observing his precepts in general, he did not praise them for this, that they came together in their religious meetings, not for the better, but for the worse; making these meetings the occasion of strengthening the discord that had taken place among them, 1 Corinthians 11:18.—For when they came together in the church to eat the Lord's supper, they formed themselves into separate companies. Perhaps those who had been baptized by the same teacher, sat down by themselves at separate tables. Or, as violent contentions about different matters had arisen among the Corinthians, probably they were so displeased with one another, that neither of the factions would allow any to join them, except their own adherents. To correct these unchristian practices, the Apostle told them, that their coming together into one place was not all that was necessary to the right eating of the Lord's supper. They ought to have eaten it together in a body, as jointly bearing witness to the truth of Christ's death and resurrection, and in testimony of their love to one another as his disciples, 1 Corinthians 11:20.—They had erred likewise in another respect. The different companies first took their own supper, of victuals which they brought into the church ready prepared; and joined thereto the Lord's supper, making it a part of a common meal or feast. And many of them sinned against the poor who had no supper to bring, by excluding them from partaking with them, not only of the previous feast, but of the Lord's supper itself: so that some were hungryon these occasions, while others were plentifully fed, 1 Corinthians 11:21.—What, said the Apostle to them sharply, have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Or, by making the church of God a place of feasting, do ye mistake it for a heathen temple, and put your poor brethren to shame who have no supper to eat? 1 Corinthians 11:22.—These feasts, previous to the Lord's supper, seem to have been introduced by the Jewish Christians, who, because Christ instituted his supper, after he had eaten the passover, might think themselves warranted to sup together, before they ate the Lord's supper. To the previous supper or feast, the Gentile converts had no objection, as it had some resemblance of the feast on the sacrifice in the idol's temple, to which, in their heathen state, they had been accustomed. And viewing it in that light, we may suppose they invited their heathen acquaintance to partake both of the previous feast, and of the Lord's supper itself, in return for the feasts on the sacrifices to which the heathens had invited them.

To remedy these great disorders in the celebration of the Lord's supper, and to shew the Corinthians how much they had corrupted that holy service, the Apostle repeated the account which he had formerly given them of its institution, according as he had received it of the Lord by revelation, 1 Corinthians 11:23.—From his account we learn, that the Lord's supper is not a common meal designed for the refreshment of the body, but a religious service instituted to keep up the memory of Christ's death till he return. Having given this view of the true nature of the institution, the Apostle shewed them the sin of performing it in an improper manner, 1 Corinthians 11:27.—directed them to prepare themselves for that service by self-examination, 1 Corinthians 11:28.—and declared the punishment to which they subjected themselves, by performing it unworthily, 1 Corinthians 11:29.—Then concluded by ordering them to celebrate the Lord's supper together, 1 Corinthians 11:33.—and to eat at home if they were hungry. The rest of their irregularities respecting that matter, he promised to rectify when he came to Corinth, 1 Corinthians 11:3