1 Corinthians11chapter 11

1 Corinthians 11:1-2

Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ: the verse closes chapter 10's argument and opens chapter 11's, Paul's own conduct offered as a pattern only because it is itself patterned after Christ's, never an authority in its own right. Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you: ordinances, paradoseis, are traditions handed down by apostolic authority, here commended before Paul turns to correct two areas where the Corinthians had not in fact kept them. The bench reads the praise as genuine but limited, preparing the reader for the sharper words to follow at verse 17, where the same word praise is withdrawn.

1 Corinthians 11:3

the head of every man is Christ: 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 verse states a chain of headship, kephale, before any practice is discussed, and the bench divides over the word's force, some reading it as authority and order, others as source and origin, since Christ is head of every man without ceasing to be his equal in deity. The parallel with the Son's relation to the Father is deliberate, an eternal relation of order within the Godhead offered as the pattern for a relation of order within humanity, without the passage teaching inequality of being in either case. The verse governs everything that follows about covering, and Paul builds his instruction on this stated order rather than on Corinthian custom alone.

1 Corinthians 11:4-6

Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head: prophesying here assumes both men and women speak under inspiration in the assembly, a plain fact the passage never questions even while it regulates the manner. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven: most commentators through history read this as instruction toward an actual head covering, the customary veil marking a woman as under her husband's or father's protection in Corinth's own culture, an uncovered head there carrying the shame associated with a shaven head or a prostitute's mark. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered: the logic runs from a lesser shame already granted to argue for the greater consistency, and the bench notes that the passage nowhere forbids women from praying or prophesying publicly, only regulates the manner in which they do.

1 Corinthians 11:7-9

he is the image and glory of God: For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man: Paul grounds the practice in Genesis 1:27 and 2:18-23 rather than in Corinth's fashions alone, man and woman both bearing God's image while standing in a created order Paul reads as significant for worship's outward form. For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man: neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man: the appeal to the order and manner of creation, Eve formed from Adam and for his companionship, is the passage's own stated reason, offered without disparagement of the woman's equal standing before God, which verse 11 will state directly. The bench notes that Paul argues from creation precisely because the practice he commends is meant to reflect something more permanent than local custom, whatever view is taken of how far the covering itself is bound to that culture.

1 Corinthians 11:10

because of the angels: For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels: power, exousia, is usually read as the covering itself, a sign of the authority or protection under which she prays rather than a mark of subjection alone, and the clause because of the angels is among the most debated in the letter. One reading holds that angels, present as witnesses of the church's worship, are honored by an order rightly kept, a view many reformers and later commentators favor. Another reading, held by some early writers and echoed in Jewish literature from Qumran, connects the covering to Genesis 6:1-4's account of the sons of God, guarding against the kind of angelic overreach that chapter records; the site names both readings and the passage itself settles the question no further than the single clause allows.

1 Corinthians 11:11-12

Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord: having argued from an order of creation, Paul immediately balances it, in the Lord marking a mutual dependence that stands beside, not against, the order just described. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God: every man since Adam is born of a woman, so the derivation runs both directions in the ordinary course of life, and both directions trace finally to God as their source. The bench reads this pair as Paul's own guard against the argument from verses 7-9 being pressed into anything like inferiority, the same balance the founder's ruling on women in ministry keeps in view alongside 11:5's assumption that women pray and prophesy in the assembly.

1 Corinthians 11:13-15

Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?: Paul appeals to the Corinthians' own sense of propriety, the same appeal made at 10:15, trusting their judgment once the argument has been laid out. Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering: nature, physis, here means the settled custom nearly every culture Paul knew observed, long hair marking femininity and short hair masculinity, and the final clause has led some commentators to read the whole passage as chiefly about hair length rather than an added garment, a minority reading among the historic bench. The majority reading takes the covering of verses 4-7 as a separate veil, with hair offered here as nature's own supporting analogy rather than the whole of what Paul commends.

1 Corinthians 11:16

But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God: the closing verse is itself evidence in the historic debate over how far the instruction binds every culture, since Paul appeals to the practice of the churches generally rather than pressing a command with no exception allowed for disagreement. Some read no such custom as referring to contentiousness itself, no church makes disputing this a habit, while others read it as referring to the reverse practice, no church allows women to pray uncovered, and the bench names both without resolving which Paul intended. The range of readings stays open here, from the literal covering read as abiding instruction to the whole passage read as addressed to a specific cultural setting, since the church itself has long divided on the question.

1 Corinthians 11:17-19

Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse: the praise of verse 2 is pointedly withdrawn, and the sharper tone signals a real abuse rather than a matter of custom. For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it: the same word for divisions, schismata, that opened the letter at 1:10 reappears at its practical low point, the Lord's table itself. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you: heresies, haireseis, are factions rather than doctrinal error in this context, and Paul reads even this evil providentially, exposing which members' character was genuine under pressure.

1 Corinthians 11:20-22

When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper: the meal had degenerated from its intended shape, most likely a shared fellowship meal, the agape feast, in which the bread and cup of remembrance were set. In eating every one taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry, and another is drunken, wealthier members having eaten their own provisions ahead of the poor, some going hungry while others overindulged, turning a meal meant to display the church's unity into a display of its divisions along economic lines. Paul asks whether they lack houses to eat and drink in, or despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing, his indignation landing on the shaming of the poor specifically. The very people the gospel had gathered into one body were humiliated at the table meant to proclaim that unity.

1 Corinthians 11:23-25

For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: Paul's account, written before any of the Gospels, is the earliest written record of the Last Supper, received directly rather than merely passed along secondhand, the same verb used of receiving the gospel itself at 15:3. This is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me and This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me: the church has long divided over the manner of Christ's presence in the bread and cup, some holding a real and substantial presence, others a spiritual presence received by faith, and others a memorial sign pointing to a finished work, and the site names each reading with its historic holders rather than adjudicating between them. What all readings share is the command itself, in remembrance of me, anamnesis, an active calling to mind rather than a bare memory.

1 Corinthians 11:26

For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come: the Supper looks two directions at once, backward to a finished death and forward to a coming return, and till he come keeps the meal from becoming either a bare memorial with no future or a mystery detached from history. The bench notes shew, kataggello, is the same word used for gospel proclamation elsewhere in the letter, the meal itself preaching the death of Christ every time it is observed. The verse gives the Supper its full scope, present participation, past remembrance, and future hope, the same span Paul's own resurrection chapter will widen further.

1 Corinthians 11:27-29

Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord: unworthily describes the manner of eating amid the very divisions just described, not a standard of sinlessness no worshiper could meet, and the bench is careful to distinguish an unworthy manner from an unworthy person, since no one comes worthy in the second sense. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup: the remedy is self-examination before the table, not exclusion from it, and the pastoral weight of the instruction has shaped how the church prepares for communion across every tradition. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body: discerning, diakrino, carries forward the body thread from 10:17's one bread one body, the Corinthians' failure being precisely a failure to recognize the church itself, the Lord's body in its members, at the very meal meant to display that unity.

1 Corinthians 11:30-32

For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep: Paul reads actual illness and death in the congregation as consequences of the abuse at the table, a plain claim the bench takes at face value rather than softening into metaphor. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged: the remedy of verse 28 is restated as a general principle, honest self-examination forestalling a more severe correction. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world: chastening here is corrective rather than punitive, discipline aimed at a believer's restoration, and the verse distinguishes the Lord's own household discipline sharply from the final condemnation reserved for the world.

1 Corinthians 11:33-34

Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another: the practical remedy answers the practical abuse directly, waiting for the whole congregation, rich and poor alike, before the shared meal begins. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation: private hunger is to be satisfied privately, keeping the corporate meal free from the very display of inequality that had provoked Paul's rebuke. And the rest will I set in order when I come closes the section with a promise of further instruction on his arrival, leaving some details unaddressed in the letter itself and turning the church's attention forward to chapter 12's larger subject, the gifts that operate in that same gathered body.