I am a pretty fierce egalitarian.  I take my controlling verses from Genesis and Galatians. First is our base understanding of the female and the male: “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”[1]

god madeSecond is our status in the Body of Christ, which is the truest expression of our humanity: “Neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female is among [you all], for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”[2]

It is through the lens of those two verses that I view all of the other gender issues in the Bible.  Most of the seemingly complementarian (hierarchical) views of gender can be reinterpreted or better interpreted through those verses and in light of a closer contextual reading.  For examples of this, I refer you to JR, Tom, and my posts over at Theology for the Masses on the topic.[3]

However, while we are eager to deal with issues in the letters to Timothy, or the letter to the Ephesians, there are  passages which really seem to imply at first glance a hierarchy within gender and these are oft ignored.

In 1st Corinthians 11:7-8 and really involves verses 3-16.

For a man ought not to have his head veiled, since he is the image and reflection of God; but woman is the reflection of man. 8 Indeed, man was not made from woman, but woman from man. 9 Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man.[4]

I have worked on the issue before, but I don’t necessarily like my conclusions. It is a weird passage, no matter how you look at it, and I have not seen an interpretation that answers all the questions that the passage raises while taking the text seriously.

Woman being created for the sake of man creates problems for the egalitarian position.  It suggests that there is a hierarchy of gender here and that in some way, the God given roles are different for each.  There are other passages which blatantly state the opposite, but a Canonists must fit 1Cor 11:7 into their theology as well.

I think, as linked above, that this is not from the hand of Paul, but from a interloper from Corinth.  However, I don’t want to cut out the passage, but recognize it as an God-authorized portion of scripture.  Another voice within the Canon to go along with Paul’s.  I don’t like this, but I can’t see another way forward.

Any thoughts?

Notes:
  1. Gen 1:27 NRS [↩]
  2. οὐκ ἔνι Ἰουδαῖος οὐδὲ Ἑλλην, οὐκ ἔνι δοῦλος οὐδὲ ε}λευθεροη, οὐκ ἔνι ἄρσεν δαὶ θῆλυ· πάντες γὰρ ὑμεῖς εἶς ἐσιε ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ” – Galatians 3:28. [↩]
  3. Selected posts on the topic: The Weaker Vessel, Arc One – Critiquing Roman Gender Roles, Toward An Egalitarian Ecclesia (post series) [↩]
  4. 1Co 11:7 NRS [↩]
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