Cody, I want to respond to one of your posts about Creation by looking at one of your Biblical quotes, namely, 1 Corinthians 11:8. Of course, this is only a single verse and it is necessary to re-establish the context. In the ancient Church at Corinth, worship was not quite the same as worship in many mainstream churches today. Especially at Corinth, people seem to have responded spontaneously to the leading of the Holy Spirit. In fulfilment of the prophet Joel, both men and women prophesied or led the congregation in prayer. Not only did worship often involve chaos, but some women were doing this in a way that was sexually immodest. In doing this they were embarrassing their husbands. But before I say more on that, let me tell you a story.
When I was at uni many years ago, we were in the height of the flower power generation. One of my female friends decided to “burn her bra” in tune with the ideology of the day. As she was a big breasted woman and it was summer, this was very obvious. One day a feminist lecturer came through and after her guest lecture invited the female students to afternoon tea. During that time she warned my friend she lived in a male dominated society and ran the risk of becoming a sexual object. When she had completed her PhD. and converted that to a book, did she want men coming away from her book launch saying, “Great book” or “Great boobs.” My friend took the hint, restored the bra, and went on to a life of academic success.
I think that what this feminist lecturer said to my friend was exactly what Paul was saying to some women at Corinth. To understand it we have to realize that in that ancient society, a woman’s uncovered hair was thought to be sexually provocative. This is the reason Muslim women cover their hair nowadays, and even in the Eastern churches, Christian women still cover their hair when in church.
Paul came from Antioch, which was a cosmopolitan center of learning that rivalled Alexandria in Egypt. He knew that one mark of a skilled orator was the use of a play on words. He could do this in the common Greek because at that time the first metaphorical meaning of the Greek word for head, kephale, was “source”, like the source of a river. In the Creation story, Eve is made from Adam’s rib, so man is the “head” or source of woman, but in Christ this is not one-sided, because just as woman gives birth, woman is the source of man. (1 Corinthians 11:11-12). So a woman should not dishonor her head (source = the man), by uncovering her head (literal). While we may find this logic bizarre, Paul’s hearers would probably clap such brilliant exegesis.
If Acts is to be believed, Paul always went to the Jews first, then the Gentiles. So the early church was composed of Jewish and Gentile Christians. Now Paul’s policy was to become a Jew to the Jews, a Gentile to the Gentiles, … all things to all people. In other words, to step in and meet people where they were at. In view of this, should we take an element of his “brilliant exegesis”, which was intended to instruct people to dress appropriately, and take it as an indication that we should see in it a literal account of Creation? In the history of the Christian Church, we have a good indication that we should not do this. In the book of Joshua, we have an account of the Sun being made to stand still; an account that was used to assert that the Sun revolved around the Earth. We all know where that approach ended.
