Christ the Head and the Veiling of Women

But we shall not follow their foolishness. How could we? We believe that the Word who sprang from the Father is uncreated, as being from an uncreated Father. And we say that He has been called the head of every man (1 Corinthians 11:3), as the archetype, as I said; but since He appeared as man in the last times of the age, and as one of the same kind as men in His humanity, He was given as head to the Church, which is His body (Ephesians 1:22–23). For He holds the first place in all things, as Paul says (Colossians 1:18).

“Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head,” and so on (1 Corinthians 11:4).

Do you see how he makes the law of nature the judge and arbiter of what befits each? For openness is most fitting for men, while for a woman being veiled is an adornment. So the unseemliness of the image would quite reasonably be an insult to the archetype. For if man is the image and glory of God (1 Corinthians 11:7), as according to the Scriptures he was made (Genesis 1:27), let him keep before God the openness that befits him, with his head uncovered, since nature does not reproach him for having to go uncovered. For the Divine is free and beyond all blame, rich in its own glory and held in wonder.

And if woman is in the likeness of man, an image of an image and a glory of a glory, and nature also lays it down for her to wear long hair (1 Corinthians 11:15), why should what comes second in grace contend with what is first? For she too is according to the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26), but as it were through the mediation of man, so that in some small respect she differs in nature. I will not bring a charge against her when she wraps her person in modesty as far as she can and crowns it with her hair; for to go openly uncovered is not without harm for women.

So, he says, let her be veiled because of the angels (1 Corinthians 11:10), clearly meaning those whom God has stationed in the churches. Not that they suffer anything in seeing women. Human beings, who have this coarse body taken from the earth and are pushed down toward baser things by inborn pleasures, might suffer harm, being stirred by the beauty of women toward what is not fitting. But as for the holy angels, what could anyone think or say of that kind? For they are holy and above all defilement, since they are outside the flesh and have bodies that are fine and spiritual, beyond the grasp of the human mind. Rather, it is because they are deeply grieved if anyone neglects the law of what is fitting.

And being veiled befits women, and nature is witness to this: “for her hair,” he says, “has been given to her as a covering” (1 Corinthians 11:15). So let what is fitting be kept in this matter too, because of those who know the will of the Creator better than we do.

The inspired Paul uses yet another skilful device. He said that man was made according to the image and likeness of God, and he plainly insisted that the female has been cast, as it were, behind his honor and glory, adding what follows: “For woman,” he says, “is the glory of man; for man was not created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man” (1 Corinthians 11:7, 9). Then, gently covering over what would likely grieve women, he goes on to say, “Nevertheless, neither is woman without man, nor man without woman” (1 Corinthians 11:11).

For woman admittedly came from man, and this is true (1 Corinthians 11:12); yet she has been found to have her share in bringing man into being. Nature, bringing both together into one, has made them need each other, wisely binding them together in love. And he further confirms that God is the Creator of all things, saying, “But all things are from God” (1 Corinthians 11:12); for all things were brought into being through Christ (John 1:3).

Tome Five. Discourse One.

“No one speaking in the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus is accursed,’” and so on (1 Corinthians 12:3). Our Lord Jesus Christ promised that when He had gone away He would send us the Comforter (John 16:7), and to this He added, “He will glorify Me” (John 16:14). And we understand, quite rightly, that His Spirit glorifies Christ both by making wise those in whom He comes to dwell and by making Christ dwell in the saints through Himself; for Christ is in us through the Holy Spirit. And He glorifies Him also in another way…