The Image of God and Order in the Assembly

An idol-devoted person, thinking that something is an idol. For eating belongs to the Lord, since both the earth and all that fills it are His. Do everything in a way that preserves things, so that God may be glorified through you and no one is made to stumble. Do not become a cause of stumbling for Jews and Greeks by avoiding them to prevent the scandal of your bad conduct, nor for the church of God by causing the weak to stumble.

He exhorts now, even though they have already believed, so that they might be persuaded in the rest of what he says. He says 'exhorts' rather than 'accepts,' in order that he might confirm the exhortation in them from then on. But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ. If someone takes this impiously, it is according to His divine nature; but if piously, it is according to His economy. For the word is not about what has come to be now—for behold, the man did not make the woman—nor is it about the order in which Paul used it for this purpose, but solely regarding subordination. It is not because of a difference in nature, and entirely, the divinity of the Only-Begotten is not taken as being subject now, but the economy, having a closer relation to the man and the woman according to nature.

Since the Arians say: just as Christ is the head of the man because he is his creator, so God is the head of Christ because He is His creator, they seem to be ignorant of the following: that the man is the head of the woman. And neither is he her creator, yet he is consubstantial with her; and by the same logic, we find ourselves consubstantial with Christ. In this way, they babble about everything to everyone. For 'head' here is spoken in the authoritative sense, not in the creative sense; so that he who has Christ as ruler and head, if he sins, insults his own ruler. According to this logic, being subject to Christ, we are also made subject to God and the Father, because God is the head of Christ.

He says 'to prophesy' to mean 'to interpret the prophets.' That is, in this is the difference between the prophets of old and the new: the former prophesied more generally about the fall of the Jews, the calling of the Gentiles, and the incarnate presence of Christ, while the latter speak specifically, like Peter Ananias.

Man is the image of God in soul, but not in body. For if it were by one of these, the woman also would have been called the image of God, possessing the same type of body and the same soul as the man. But if the woman, possessing the same nature, is not called the image of God to the man in soul and flesh, it is evident that man is the image of God according to the original. When the discourse concerns irrational things, the woman is the image of God; but when the examination concerns man in relation to women, the man alone is the image. For the male and female in humans prevail over those in the earth, the sea, and the air, but the man is the image of the woman, and no man is the image of the woman on the earth. Just as no one rules God among existing things, so no man rules over the man on the earth.

We understand the truth of the nature of these things. The man is the image of God, not according to body or soul, but according to the original; for he has the woman in subjection along with the others, and just as no one rules God among existing things, so no man rules over the man on the earth. Just as the man who obeys the leader well is the glory and praise of God, so also the woman is the glory of the man, having been well subjected to him.

Regarding the rough and difficult thing of women, the apostle says, looking together at the fact that God has even sent angels to us. Some say that certain angels are the priests of the church, and through them women cover themselves as if not having received the freedom to rule. Perhaps he said this because even women were prophesying from the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit is working, it is necessary for the ministers to be as angels, and therefore it is necessary for the woman to be covered.

It is not from old custom, but from what he tested according to them. And those who cut the old hair partially, cutting more than was necessary, the cutting of the woman was always disapproved. He speaks of factions, not those in doctrines, but those in customs and types. He indicts them that, coming together as for the communion of the holy body, they do not wait for one another, but some, being distracted and lagging behind, the poor ones, not waiting for the others, but through gluttony of the Lord's supper, were neglecting the others...