We’ve reached the pointy end of the Cornerstone series, so please check out the previous episodes, if you haven’t already done so, before listening to or reading this one. Without a thorough grounding in
- what a cornerstone signifies
- its appearance under different guises in salvation history
- its connection with threshold covenant
this episode won’t make sense.
Last session, I ended with the words, ‘Because of the angels.’ That’s where I want to start this time—with those very same words, ‘Because of the angels.’
And I want to direct your attention to their place in Scripture. They are the culmination of Paul’s argument about head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11.
But I want you to realise that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonours his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonours her head—it is the same as having her head shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head.
A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels.
1 Corinthians 11:3–10 NIV
Paul, the relentless and peerless advocate of grace, the apostle who went to bat for the Gentiles over whether or not male believers need to be circumcised, the teacher who immediately before this passage argued for freedom of conscience when it came to food sacrificed to idols (somewhat contrary to the ruling of the Council of Jerusalem and, by the way, ever so slightly impugning the faith of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego by implying they were somewhat puritanically hardline in refusing to eat delicacies from Nebuchadnezzar’s table because of the covenantal defilement that could result)—yes, that Paul, the champion of freedom and the passionate defender of liberty in Christ—suddenly gets uptight, rule-quoting and nit-picky about the appropriate head covering for men and women while praying as a result of contentious remarks about headship. Really? How can head coverings possibly be subject to a more restrictive ruling than circumcision, the ultimate sign of covenant with God? How can there be more freedom to eat food offered to idols, the topic Paul has just finished discussing, when that creates the possibility of covenanting with an idol?
And, what’s more, how can he close off his argument with ‘because of the angels’, as if that point were so obvious it didn’t need explanation? It just adds to the baffling nature of what he’s saying. Why did he expect ‘because of the angels’ to clinch the matter?
And as regards men not having their head covered when they pray, surely Paul cannot seriously be suggesting that every priest who offered prayer at the altar of incense—thousands of them over more than a thousand years—was dishonouring God, can he? Especially when God Himself decreed priests should wear turbans. This all seems hugely back-to-front. How can doing what God asked priests to do be wrong and not doing what God asked be right?
Let’s back up a moment and look at the verse right at the beginning. All this talk about matters of head coverings starts with several points allegedly about headship in 1 Corinthians 11:3.
I want you to realise that the head [kephalé’] of every man is Christ,
and the head [kephalé’] of the woman is man,
and the head [kephalé’] of Christ is God.
Now it’s all too easy in this verse to get distracted by the controversial and so miss the heretical. Let’s skip over the controversial for the moment, ‘the head of the woman is man,’ and launch ourselves straight at the deviant section. The final words of this verse, ‘the head of Christ is God’, are a straightforward denial of the co-equal nature of the Trinity. Either seventeen hundred years of creed is wrong and Paul is right, or alternatively, Paul is espousing heresy—which calls the whole of the rest of the epistle into question. Or, just possibly, we have a translation problem.
I suspect you’ve guessed which option I’m going to plump for. I’m definitely not going for the workaround of some scholars who suggest that Paul’s third usage of head in this verse is different in meaning to the first two instances. That’s an arbitrary judgment. By that process, why isn’t the first or the second different to the others?
Now it’s my view that, in this particular instance, our translators have a lot to answer for. I believe Paul deliberately made it impossible for his Corinthian readers to mistake ‘kephalé’ for head. As soon as they realised he couldn’t possibly be suggesting that Jesus was not equal to the Father, they would have reached for one of the secondary meanings of ‘kephalé’.
The Jews amongst Paul’s readers would have got the pun and realised this Greek word ‘kephalé’ could not only mean cornerstone but was a playful allusion to a Hebrew word, ‘kaphar’, covering or atonement, from ‘kaph’, cornerstone, also called the head of the corner. You know, that place angels have been associated with since the beginning of time.
So, let me translate 1 Corinthians 11:3 differently:
I want you to realise that the cornerstone of every man is Christ,
and the cornerstone of the woman is man,
and the cornerstone of Christ is God.
Throughout the ages, the cornerstone was consistently associated with sacrifice, covenant and blood atonement. This verse and what follows isn’t about submission and headship but rather about the priesthood of all believers. Of course it is, because the entire discussion revolves around what to wear during the priestly endeavour of praying and prophesying.
For over a millennium and a half, ever since men lost the right to be priests for their own household because of the sin involving the golden calf, intercession on behalf of the people was restricted to the descendants of Aaron. Not even all Levites were priests—but instead were assigned to help the priests. But now, everything has changed: men can pray and prophesy; women can pray and prophesy. Jesus has instituted a new era.
But—!
There’s a problem with the angels. Sure the godly cherubim will have got the message a new age has dawned and it’s now fine for women to pray, as once only priests could. But what about the unholy threshold guardians? Their offices, being irrevocable, still give them legal rights at cornerstones.
It would be best for women to take care to avoid retaliation by those dark powers by having a sign of authority on their cornerstone. One way of symbolising this is by covering the head. No doubt another way is simply by asking Jesus to reveal His sign of authority.
This is Grace Drops and I’m Anne Hamilton. May Jesus Christ, the Chief Cornerstone, defend you today.
I want to acknowledge Lucy Peppiatt who, in Rediscovering Scripture’s Vision for Women: Fresh Perspectives on Disputed Texts, commented that her personal opinion was that ‘kephalé’, usually translated head in 1 Corinthians 11:3, actually meant cornerstone. She didn’t expand on this thought at all but, as soon as I saw it, Paul’s hitherto obscure thinking instantly became obvious to me. When you’ve been researching the concept of the cornerstone as long as I have, it all fits together.
I immediately thought of Hebrew ‘kaphar’, a word repeatedly associated with cornerstone. One of its meanings is covering, the very topic Paul is trying to explain in this passage. It not only sounds like ‘kephalé’ but has all the same overtones and resonances. Moreover, while I can’t prove Paul meant cornerstone for ‘kephalé’ in 1 Corinthians 11:3, I think I can prove it for the parallel passage in Ephesians 5:23 which is usually translated ‘the husband is the head of the wife.’ (See God’s Palmoniy, to be published in late 2025.) The new and expanded edition of God’s Panoply has an additional chapter which looks at cornerstone as an alternative to head in 1 Corinthians 11:3. Please get in touch through the contact form at Armour Books if you are in the US, UK or Australia and there are unusual availability/price issues at the retailer.
Thank you to Lorna Skinner of www.riversofmusic.co.uk for the background music.