1 Cor. 11 1 Cor. 11:3–16 Paul exhorteth the Corinthians to follow him, as he did Christ: 1. He praiseth them for observing the rules he had given them. 2. And forbiddeth men to pray or prophesy with heads covered, and women with heads uncovered; the covering of the head being a token of subjection.

Interpreters judge, that these words do properly belong to the foregoing chapter, in the last verse of which he had propounded his own example to them; but whether they be applied to that chapter or this, is not much material.

That ye remember me in all things; that you remember my doctrine, the precepts and instructions that I gave you; and keep the ordinances: so we translate it; the Greek word is παραδοσεις.

The abuse which the apostle is reflecting upon in this and the following verses, is women’s praying or prophesying with their heads uncovered, against which the apostle strongly argues.

By every man praying or prophesying, some (amongst whom the learned Beza) understand not only he that ministereth in prayer, or in opening and applying the Scriptures, whether from a previous meditation and study of them, or from the extraordinary revelation of the Holy Spirit, which they had in…

But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth: though the woman be forbidden to teach, and commanded to be in silence, 1 Tim. 2:12; yet that text must be understood of ordinary women, and in ordinary cases, not concerning such as prophesied from an extraordinary impulse or motion of the Spirit.

For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: nature itself teacheth, that it is a shameful sight to see a woman revealing the mind and will of God, by an extraordinary pretended revelation, in so indecent a manner, as with her hair all hanging down; let her hair be either shaven off, or…

For a man indeed ought not to cover his head; covering the head being in those countries a token of subjection, a man ought to uphold the power, pre-eminence, and authority with which God hath invested him, and not to cover his head, further than it is naturally covered with hair.

Here the apostle openeth or proveth what he had before said of the woman’s being the glory of the man; the woman was made of the man; the man was not made of a rib taken out of the woman, but the woman was made of a rib taken out of the man; we have the history, Gen.

We have this expounded, Gen. 2:18, where God said: It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. God did not first create the woman, and then make man a meet help for her; but he first made the man, and then the woman, that she might be a meet help for him.

By power on her head is here to be understood (as some think) a covering on her head, in sign that she is under the power of her husband: the thing signified is here put for the sign, as the sign is often put for the thing signified. Thus the ark, which is called, the ark of God’s strength, Ps.

Lest the man, upon the apostle’s discourse of his pre-eminence and dignity over the woman, should wax proud and insolent, and carry himself too imperiously, the apostle addeth this, that they both stand in need of each other’s help, so as neither of them could well be without the other, either as…

The man hath a priority to the woman, being first created, and a superiority over her upon that account, she being made for him, not he for her, this is indeed the man’s advantage; but on the other side, since the creation of the first man, all men are by the woman, who conceives them in her womb,…

No man is truly and thoroughly convinced of an error, till he be convicted by his own conscience. It is therefore very usual in holy writ for God, by his sacred penmen, to make appeals unto men’s own consciences, and put them to judge within themselves, to examine a thing by their own reason, and…

He tells them, that they could not judge this as a thing comely, for nature itself taught them, that it is a shame for a man to wear long hair. By nature here some understand the law of nature, according to which it would have an intrinsic evil in it, which it is plain it hath not; for then neither…

But, he saith, if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her. Long hair is comely for the woman, and accounted to her for a beauty or ornament, for God hath given her her hair for a covering.

If any man seem to be contentious; if any man hath a mind to quarrel out of a love to show his wit in discoursing what may be said on the other side, or out of a desire to hold up a party, and contradict us.

Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not; I come now to another thing of greater consequence, as to which I must much blame you; I am so far from being able to commend or approve of what you do, that I must for it smartly reflect upon you.

In the church, here, must signify the religious assembly; for at this time there were no temples built for Christians, but they met in private houses, as the iniquity of those times would bear: yet others think the place is here meant where the church was wont to meet, and say, that the Christians…

There must be; it is not simply and absolutely necessary that there should be such divisions amongst you, (they are caused from the free acts of men’s corrupt wills), but yet these things do not fall out by chance, but through the providence of God, who hath so immutably ordered and decreed, to…

The Greek words do not necessarily signify into one place, they may as well be translated, for the same thing, and possibly that were the better translation of them in this place; divisions appearing the worse amongst persons that met as one and the same body, and for one and the same grave action,…

There was at this time in most of the Christian church a Jewish party, viz. such as were converted from Judaism to Christianity, and had a tang of the old cask, being too tenacious of some Jewish rites.

What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Hence evidently appears, that these love feasts were kept in the place where the assembly met for the public worship of God; for the apostle would have them (if they would continue them) kept in their private houses: and he doth not only blame the…

About these love feasts preceding the Lord’s supper, I have received nothing from the Lord, you have taken the practice up from the Jews or heathens: I do not know that it is unlawful for you civilly to feast, and eat and drink in your private houses; but to come to make such feasts immediately…

These words we also met with, Luke 22:19–20, and in the other evangelists’ narration of the institution of the supper. See Poole on “Luke 22:19”. See Poole on “Luke 22:20”.

From hence it appears, that the bread and wine is not (as papists say) transubstantiated, or turned into the very substance of the flesh and blood of Christ, when the communicants eat it and drink it. It is still the same bread and cup it was.

Divines agree, that the unworthiness here spoken of, respecteth not the person of the receiver so much as the manner of the receiving; in which sense, a person that is worthy may receive this ordinance unworthily: it is variously expounded, without due religion and reverence, without faith and…

He is to examine himself about his knowledge, whether he rightly understands what Christ is, what the nature of the sacrament is, what he doth in that sacred action; about his faith, love, repentance, new obedience, whether he be such a one as God hath prepared that holy table for; it is the…

He that eateth and drinketh unworthily; in the sense before mentioned, either having no remote right or no present right to partake in that ordinance, being an unbeliever, or a resolved unholy or ignorant person; or irreverently and irreligiously.

You, it may be, are not aware of it, but look upon other causes why so many amongst you are sick, and weak, and die immaturely; but I, as the apostle of Jesus Christ, (and so know the mind and will of God), assure you, that this your irreverent and irreligious profanation of this holy ordinance, is…

This word judge in Scripture signifies all parts of judgment, examining, accusing, condemning, &c.: here it signifies accusing ourselves, condemning ourselves; discriminating ourselves, by the renewings of faith and repentance, from unbelievers, impenitent and profane persons: if we would thus…

Lest they be terrified at what he had said, and look upon their afflictions as indications of God’s displeasure against them to that degree, that he would not look any more upon them as his children; he tells them, that when God’s people are afflicted with the evils of this life, sickness, &c., God…

The apostle concludes this discourse with an exhortation to them, for the time to come to take heed of these irreligious and irreverent behaviours, with relation to the Lord’s supper; that they should not take the sacrament before the whole church were met together, the rich should stay for the…

And if any one hungered, they should not make the place where they met together for the solemn worship of God, a place for eating and drinking at feasts, but eat at home; lest, by these disorderly and irreverent actions, they incurred the displeasure of God, and brought down the judgment of God…