Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11:2-3
I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you. But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
There’s a really good post over at the Jesus Creed by Scot McKnight, who captures Lucy Peppiatt’s remarks from her book Women and Worship at Corinth:
Whatever “head” does mean, it does not mean that as God rules over Christ, Christ rules over man, and man rules over woman, because we cannot claim that God rules over Christ in the first place (91, italics added).
Most importantly, McKnight rightly states:
Since the Father’s relation to the Son is one of perfect union eternally and a relationship of ordered love for the other, the notions of headship of Christ to the man and the man to the woman are to follow suit: they are about union and love, not hierarchy and authority. The three unions (man-woman, man-Christ, Father-Son) each has its own nuance of union, but to go toward hierarchy is to posit a doctrine of eternal subordination that the church never taught.
Check out the whole post.
