Bible Strands
1 Corinthians 11:3
But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul writes to the Corinthian congregation, placing this statement between commendation for holding his traditions (v. 2) and a rule on head coverings during prayer (v. 4).
The thread — The chain "Christ belongs to God" mirrors 1 Corinthians 3:23, and Christ as head of the church appears in Colossians 1:18. Genesis 3:16 supplies the ordering of the two that Paul reasserts here in a worship context.
Why it lands — Paul frames the headship chain as something to be known (εἰδέναι), not debated: a fixed order that undergirds the practical instruction on head coverings that immediately follows.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
Cross-references
- Genesis 3:16 To the woman He said: “I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
- Colossians 1:18 And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence.
- 1 Corinthians 3:23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
- Colossians 3:18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
- Ephesians 4:15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head.
- Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
- Colossians 2:19 He has lost connection to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and knit together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God causes it to grow.
- 1 Peter 3:5 For this is how the holy women of the past adorned themselves. They put their hope in God and were submissive to their husbands,
- Philippians 2:7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness.
- 1 Timothy 2:11 A woman must learn in quietness and full submissiveness.