Woman is the Glory of Man
The man is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
He says it in the middle of some deeply reactionary stuff about women keeping their head covered in church and such so this particular teaching gets lost. But as with an illusionist’s trick, the part that draws the eye isn’t the important part.
So what does Paul mean?
I don’t know. But sometimes my life as a husband and a father feels like I could say ‘she is my glory.’ I feel like I do a lot of scutwork out in the world and a lot of discipline and order and stabilizing at home to make possible the little circle of domestic intimacy that she creates. Because of what I have to do to make it possible, or because I am the sort of person who does what is necessary to make it possible, I can’t fully be a part of it. But all the same that circle validates all my efforts, it seems to me.
Filed under: Deseret Review | Tags: family, glory, love and glory
Vader
February 11, 2014
I congratulate you on your choice of spouse, and envy you the happiness it has evidently brought you.
Zen
February 11, 2014
Regarding, some of Paul’s statements in Corinthians and other places, people take them wildly out of context. Specifically, the head-covering would be wise in Corinth, because the primary deity worshiped there was Aphrodite, and the priestesses of Aphrodite wore their hair loose. In other words, in that time and place, hair uncovered was dressing like Aphrodite priestesses.
Ok, now back to Adam’s regularly scheduled post.
G.
February 11, 2014
Which is not to say, Lord Vader, that we don’t wrangle like fishwives.
Agellius
February 11, 2014
Maybe it refers to the fact that man is made in the image of God, and woman was made from the rib of a man.
In any event, I like your interpretation very much.
Kristen Dugas
August 2, 2014
Actually, Jesus Christ is the image and glory of God. (See 2 Corinthians 4: 3-4, Colossians 1: 15, Hebrews 1: 3, Revelation 21: 23.) Paul is referring to a man’s figurative head (Christ) in verse 7.
G.
June 16, 2015
That’s a not very convincing exegesis. The context is Paul telling women to cover their head in Church, and men not to. If we take the figurative meaning of ‘head,’ then Paul is either telling women that they ought to conceal Christ or else that they ought to put a cloth over their husband. Neither one makes much sense.