1 Corinthians 11:11-12

Context

These verses belong to 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, a section of 1 Corinthians, the letter Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. The section deals with whether women who pray or prophesy during worship should cover their heads. Earlier, Paul had said that "the head of the woman is the man" (v. 3), and he grounded his argument in the creation account: woman came from man and was created for man (vv. 8-9; cf. Genesis 2:20-24).

Verse 11 opens with "Nevertheless," shifting the direction of the argument: "in the Lord" neither man nor woman exists without the other. The first woman came from man, but every man since has been born through a woman, and the source of all things is God. Beginning with verse 13, Paul returns to the question of head coverings.

Interpretation

• A reading that holds order and mutuality together: This is the reading of interpreters who hold to complementarianism (the view that men and women are equal in dignity but distinct in roles). They maintain that the passage does not abolish the order of verse 3; rather, it adds that this order does not imply the superiority or independence of either sex.
• A reading that treats mutuality as the conclusion: This is the reading of interpreters who hold to egalitarianism (the view that church offices and roles should not be distinguished by sex). They take "Nevertheless" as a correction of the preceding argument and read the mutual dependence of man and woman "in the Lord" as Paul's conclusion. They often read it in connection with Galatians 3:26-29.
• A reading that focuses on the symmetry of creation and birth: Many commentators draw attention to a distinction between prepositions in the original text: the woman is "of" the man (Greek ek), while the man is "by" the woman (dia). They explain that the passage sets the order of creation alongside the reality of birth, showing that neither sex exists by itself.

Debates and Issues

The passage itself is reported to have no significant textual variants. The debate concerns how to read the section as a whole. Related questions include whether the head-covering instruction reflects a cultural custom of the time or a principle that still applies today, and whether "head" in verse 3 should be understood as denoting authority or source.

In Korea, the passage is frequently cited in debates over women's ordination, together with 1 Corinthians 11:5 (which depicts women praying and prophesying). Denominations that permit the ordination of women as pastors and those that do not give the passage different weight. Interpreters on both sides also point out that quoting either verses 3-10 or verses 11-12 in isolation tilts the argument of the section toward one side.

Related Passages

• Genesis 2:21-23 — the account of woman being made from man
• 1 Corinthians 11:3 — the preceding statement that "the head of the woman is the man"
• 1 Corinthians 11:5 — women praying and prophesying in worship
• Galatians 3:28 — the verse stating that in Christ there is neither male nor female
• Ephesians 5:21 — the exhortation to submit to one another