Woman the glory of man

Man is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. The most hierarchical lines in the Pauline corpus. Eight verses later Paul qualifies them out of existence.

1 Corinthians 11:7–9 is the middle of the head-covering argument. The logic runs: Genesis 2 has woman made from man, and made for man. Therefore woman reflects man's glory; man reflects God's. Read on its own, the passage is the starkest statement of created-order hierarchy in the New Testament. The complication is that Paul himself refuses to stop there. Verses 11–12 reverse the logic: nevertheless, in the Lord, woman is not independent of man, nor man of woman; for as woman came from man, so also man comes through woman; and all things come from God. Paul gives the hierarchical argument, then takes it back. Complementarian readers emphasize verses 7–9 as the permanent teaching; egalitarian readers emphasize 11–12 as Paul's own qualifier. The passage reads as Paul arguing with himself in real time.