that in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female ; that the one is as fully a partaker of all the benefits of redemption as the other. And it is also true that he teaches that this equality of Jews and Greeks, bond and free, before God is per- fectly consistent with the social inequalities existing in this world. But these truths, however important, and however they distinguish the Christian doctrine of the equality and dignity of woman from all other forms of religious doctrine on the subject, are foreign to this connection. The apostle's sin- gle object is to show the true nature and limitations of the subordination of the woman to the man. It is a real subordi- nation, but it is consistent with their mutual dependence ; the one is not without the other. And this mutual dependence is ev Kvpio), i. e. by divine appointment — according to the will of the Lord. These words are used here, as so frequently else- where, as an adverbial qualification, meaning religiously^ after a Christian manner^ or divinely^ i. e. by divine appointment. The same idea is substantially expressed by those who explain the words in the Lord as tantamount to " in Christianity ; " in the sense that it is a Christian doctrine that the man and the woman are thus mutually dependent.
12. For as the woman (is) of the man, even so (is) the man also by the woman ; but all things of God.
The one is not without the other, for as the woman was originally formed out of the man, so the man is born of the woman. This is a proof, not of the admitted equality of the sexes in the kingdom of God, but of their mutual dependence in the kingdom of nature. It therefore confirms the interpre- tation given of the preceding verse. But all things are of God ; these subordinate relations of one creature to another are merged, as it were, in the supreme causality of God. It matters little whether the man was of the woman or the wo- man of the man, as both alike are of God; just as he before said, it matters little whether a man were a Jew or Gentile, bond or free, since all are alike before God.
13. Judge in yourselves : is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered ?
This is an appeal to their own sense of propriety. The apostle often recognizes the intuitive judgments of the mind