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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Corinthians 11:5 - 11:5
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With her head unveiled (akatakaluptōi tēi kephalēi). Associative instrumental case of manner and the predicative adjective (compound adjective and feminine form same as masculine), “with the head unveiled.” Probably some of the women had violated this custom. “Amongst Greeks only the hetairai, so numerous in Corinth, went about unveiled; slave-women wore the shaven head - also a punishment of the adulteress” (Findlay). Cf. Num 5:18.
One and the same thing as if she were shaven (hen kai to auto tēi exurēmenēi). Literally, “One and the same thing with the one shaven” (associative instrumental case again, Robertson, Grammar, p. 530). Perfect passive articular participle of the verb xuraō, later form for the old xureō. It is public praying and prophesying that the Apostle here has in mind. He does not here condemn the act, but the breach of custom which would bring reproach. A woman convicted of adultery had her hair shorn (Isa 7:20). The Justinian code prescribed shaving the head for an adulteress whom the husband refused to receive after two years. Paul does not tell Corinthian Christian women to put themselves on a level with courtesans.