1 Corinthians 11:8

For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:2-16 Here begin particulars respecting the public assemblies, ch. 1Co 14. In the abundance of spiritual gifts bestowed on the Corinthians, some abuses had crept in; but as Christ did the will, and sought the honour of God, so the Christian should avow his subjection to Christ, doing his will and seeking his glory. We should, even in our dress and habit, avoid every thing that may dishonour Christ. The woman was made subject to man, because made for his help and comfort. And she should do nothing, in Christian assemblies, which looked like a claim of being equal. She ought to have power, that is, a veil, on her head, because of the angels. Their presence should keep Christians from all that is wrong while in the worship of God. Nevertheless, the man and the woman were made for one another. They were to be mutual comforts and blessings, not one a slave, and the other a tyrant. God has so settled matters, both in the kingdom of providence and that of grace, that the authority and subjection of each party should be for mutual help and benefit. It was the common usage of the churches, for women to appear in public assemblies, and join in public worship, veiled; and it was right that they should do so. The Christian religion sanctions national customs wherever these are not against the great principles of truth and holiness; affected singularities receive no countenance from any thing in the Bible.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For the man is not of the woman - The man was not formed from the woman.

But the woman of the man - From his side; Genesis 2:18, Genesis 2:22-23.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. is of … of—takes his being from ("out of") … from: referring to woman's original creation, "taken out of man" (compare Ge 2:23). The woman was made by God mediately through the man, who was, as it were, a veil or medium placed between her and God, and therefore, should wear the veil or head-covering in public worship, in acknowledgement of this subordination to man in the order of creation. The man being made immediately by God as His glory, has no veil between himself and God [Faber Stapulensis in Bengel].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

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, Genesis 2:21,22; and from hence the apostle argueth her subjection to the man.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For the man is not of the woman,.... In the present state of things, and according to the ordinary course of generation and propagation of mankind, man is of the woman, though not without the means of man; he is conceived in her, bore by her, and born of her; but the apostle respects the original formation of man, as he was immediately made by God out of the dust of the earth, before the woman was in being, and so not of her:

but the woman of the man; she was made out of his rib, and took both her name and nature from him; God was the author, and man the matter of her being; her original under God, is owing to him; and therefore as he was first in being, he must be superior to her: this serves to prove all that has been as yet said; as that man is the head of the woman, the woman is the glory of man, what he may glory in as being from him; and therefore there should be this difference in their appearance at public worship.

Geneva Study Bible

{7} For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.

(7) He proves the inequality of the woman by the fact that from the man is the substance of which woman was first made.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 Corinthians 11:8-9 add two more to the chain of for’s extending from 1 Corinthians 11:6 : a double reason for asserting that woman is man’s glory appears in the revelation of the origin of mankind made by Scripture (Genesis 2:18-25 : the second narrative of Creation, J of the critics), where Eve is represented as framed from a rib taken out of Adam’s body to be his “helpmate”. Woman originates from (ἐστὶν ἐκ), and was created for (because of, ἐκτίσθη διά) man, not vice versa.—“ἐκτίσθη differs from ἐστὶν as purpose from fact,” (Ed[1637]).—καὶ γάρ, “For also” (1 Corinthians 11:9)—the second statement goes to explain the first: Man was there already; and Woman was fashioned out of him for his need. Whether the story of the extracted rib is read as poetry or prosaic fact, the relationship set forth is the same.

[1637] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians.2

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. For the man is not of the woman] Second argument, drawn from the creation of mankind. The narrative in the book of Genesis establishes two facts, (1) that woman had her being originally through man, and not, as man, directly from God; and (2) that she was created for man’s advantage, and not man for hers. Not that we are to suppose, with some, that woman is in no sense to be regarded as the image and glory of God, but that man is so immediately, she mediately, through man.

Bengel's Gnomen

1 Corinthians 11:8. Οὐ γὰρ, for not) As his own wife stood in relation to the first man, so is the whole race of women to the men.—ἐξ ἀνδρὸς, from the man) from the rib of the man.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - But the woman of the man. An allusion to Genesis 2:21, 22. 1 Corinthians 11:8