of the same nature with the Father. There is nothing, there- fore, in this passage, at all inconsistent with the true and proper divinity of our blessed Lord. For a brief statement of the scriptural doctrine of the relation of Christ to God, see the comments on 3, 23. It need here be only further re- marked, that the word Christ is the designation, not of the Logos or second person of the Trinity as such, nor of the hu- man nature of Christ as such, but of the Theanthropos, the God-man. It is the incarnate Son of God, who, in the great work of redemption, is said to be subordinate to the Father, whose will he came into the world to do. When Christ is said to be the head of every man, the meaning is of every be- Hever ; because it is the relation of Christ to the church, and not to the human family, that is characteristically expressed by this term. He is the head of that body which is the church, Col. 1, 18. Eph. 1, 22. 23.
4. Every man praying or prophesying, having (his) head covered, dishonoureth his head.
Such being the order divinely established, (viz., that men- tioned in V. 3,) both men and women should act in accordance with it ; the man, by having the head uncovered, the woman by being veiled. As the apostle refers to their appearance in public assemblies, he says, Every man praying or prophesy- ing, i. e. officiating in public worship. Prophesying. In the scriptural sense of the word, a prophet is one who speaks for another, as Aaron is called the prophet or spokesman of Mo- ses. "Thou shalt speak unto him, and put words into his mouth, . . . and he shall be thy spokesman," Ex. 4, 15. 16 ; or, as he is called, 7, 1, thy prophet. The prophets of God, therefore, were his spokesmen, into whose mouth the Lord put the words which they were to utter to the people. To prophesy, in Scripture, is accordingly, to speak under divine inspiration ; not merely to predict future events, but to de- liver, as the organ of the Holy Ghost, the messages of God to men, whether in the form of doctrine, exhortation, consola- tion, or prediction. This pubhc function, the apostle says, should not be exercised by a man with his head covered ; Ut- erally, having something on his head downward. Among the Greeks, the priests officiated bareheaded ; the Romans with the head veiled ; the Jews (at least soon after the apostolic age) also wore the Tallis or covering for the head in their pub-