First Letter to the Corinthians 11

¹ Take me for your model, as I take Christ.

² You have done well in remembering me so constantly and in maintaining the traditions just as I passed them on to you.

³ However, what I want you to understand is that Christ is the head of every man, man is the head of woman, and God is the head of Christ.

⁴ For a man to pray or prophesy with his head covered is a sign of disrespect to his head.[*a]

⁵ For a woman, however, it is a sign of disrespect to her head[*b] if she prays or prophesies unveiled; she might as well have her hair shaved off.

⁶ In fact, a woman who will not wear a veil ought to have her hair cut off. If a woman is ashamed to have her hair cut off or shaved, she ought to wear a veil.

⁷ A man should certainly not cover his head, since he is the image of God and reflects God’s glory; but woman is the reflection of man’s glory.

⁸ For man did not come from woman; no, woman came from man;

⁹ and man was not created for the sake of woman, but woman was created for the sake of man.

¹⁰ That is the argument for women’s covering their heads with a symbol of the authority over them, out of respect for the angels[*c].

¹¹ However, though woman cannot do without man, neither can man do without woman, in the Lord;

¹² woman may come from man, but man is born of woman – both come from God.

¹³ Ask yourselves if it is fitting for a woman to pray to God without a veil;

¹⁴ and whether nature itself does not tell you that long hair on a man is nothing to be admired,

¹⁵ while a woman, who was given her hair as a covering, thinks long hair her glory?

¹⁶ To anyone who might still want to argue: it is not the custom with us, nor in the churches of God.

¹⁷ Now that I am on the subject of instructions, I cannot say that you have done well in holding meetings that do you more harm than good.

¹⁸ In the first place, I hear that when you all come together as a community, there are separate factions among you, and I half believe it –

¹⁹ since there must no doubt be separate groups among you, to distinguish those who are to be trusted.

²⁰ The point is, when you hold these meetings, it is not the Lord’s Supper[*d] that you are eating,

²¹ since when the time comes to eat, everyone is in such a hurry to start his own supper that one person goes hungry while another is getting drunk.

²² Surely you have homes for eating and drinking in? Surely you have enough respect for the community of God not to make poor people embarrassed? What am I to say to you? Congratulate you? I cannot congratulate you on this.

²³ For this is what I received from the Lord, and in turn passed on to you: that on the same night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread,

²⁴ and thanked God for it and broke it, and he said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this as a memorial of me’.

²⁵ In the same way he took the cup after supper, and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.’

²⁶ Until the Lord comes, therefore, every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are proclaiming his death,

²⁷ and so anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be behaving unworthily towards the body and blood of the Lord.

²⁸ Everyone is to recollect himself before eating this bread and drinking this cup;

²⁹ because a person who eats and drinks without recognising the Body is eating and drinking his own condemnation.

³⁰ In fact that is why many of you are weak and ill and some of you have died.

³¹ If only we recollected ourselves, we should not be punished like that.

³² But when the Lord does punish us like that, it is to correct us and stop us from being condemned with the world.

³³ So to sum up, my dear brothers, when you meet for the Meal, wait for one another.

³⁴ Anyone who is hungry should eat at home, and then your meeting will not bring your condemnation. The other matters I shall adjust when I come.