248 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. XI.
10. Power on her head (éfovcdav). Not in the primary sense of dberty or permission, but authority. Used here of the symbol of power, 7.¢., the covering upon the head as a sign of her husband’s authority. So Rev., a sign of authority.
Because of the angels. The holy angels, who were sup- posed by both the Jewish and the early Christian Church to be present in worshipping assemblies. More, however, seems to be meant than “to avoid exciting disapproval among them.” The key-note of Paul’s thought is subordination according to the original divine order. Woman best asserts her spiritual equality before God, not by unsexing herself, but by recogniz- ing her true position and fulfilling its claims, even as do the angels, who are ministering as well as worshipping spirits (Heb. i. 4). She is to fall in obediently with that divine econ- omy of which she forms a part with the angels, and not to break the divine harmony, which especially asserts itself in wor- ship, where the angelic ministers mingle with the earthly wor- shippers; nor to ignore the example of the holy ones who keep their first estate, and serve in the heavenly sanctuary.*
14. Nature (gvous). The recognized constitution of things. In this case the natural distinction of the woman’s long hair.t+
16. Custom. Not the custom of contentiousness, but that of women speaking unveiled. The testimonies of Tertullian and Chrysostom show that these injunctions of Paul prevailed in the churches. In the sculptures of the catacombs the women have a close-fitting head-dress, while the men have the hair short.
* A full discussion of this difficult passage is impossible here. The vari- eties of interpretation are innumerable and wearisome, and many of them fanciful. A good summary may be found in Stanley’s Commentary, and an interesting article, maintaining Stanley’s explanation of “the angels” in the ‘*Expositor’s Note-Book,” by Rev. Samuel Cox., D.D., p. 402. See, also, Meyer and Godet.
tI prefer this objective sense to the subjective meaning, the inborn sense and perception of what is seemly. Of course, such subjective sense is assumed ; but, as Edwards remarks, ‘‘No sentiment of men would be adduced by ‘ie
apostle unless it were grounded on an objective difference in the constitution of things.”
Cu. XL] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 249
17. | declare (wapayyé\Aw). Wrong. It means in the New Testament only command. See on Luke v.14; Acts i. 4.
18. In the church (év éxxAncia). See on Matt. xvi. 18. Not the church edifice, a meaning which the word never has in the New Testament, and which appears first in patristic writ- ings. The marginal rendering of the Rev. is better: 72 con- gregation.
19. Heresies (aipéceus). See on 2 Pet. ii. 1. In Paul only here and Gal. v. 20. Letter, parties or factions, as the result of the divisions.
20. This is not (ov« gor). Rev., correctly, i¢ 7s not pos- sible.
The Lord’s Supper (xupsaxov Setrrvov). The emphasis is on Lords. Aeimrvov supper, represented the principal meal of the day, answering to the late dinner. The Eucharist proper was originally celebrated as a private expression of devotion, and in connection with a common, daily meal, an agape or love-feast. In the apostolic period it was celebrated daily. The social and festive character of the meal grew largely out of the gentile institution of clubs or fraternities, which served as savings- banks, mutual-help societies, insurance offices, and which ex- pressed and fostered the spirit of good-fellowship by common festive meals, usually in gardens, round an altar of sacrifice. The communion-meal of the first and second centuries exhibited this character in being a feast of contribution, to which each brought his own provision. It also perpetuated the Jewish practice of the college of priests for the temple-service dining at a common table on festivals or Sabbaths, and of the schools of the Pharisees in their ordinary life.