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the race in Adam, irrespective of age and sex, and does not question the full application
of Gen. 1: 26, 27 or Gen. 5: 2 to woman equally with man.
But the home or the Church is a unit, and in both there must be some sort of order and
rule. Now, says Paul, it is evident that, while both Adam and Eve were linked together in
the purpose of creation as expressed in Gen. 1:, it is equally true that "Adam was first
formed, then Eve" (I Tim. 2: 13), and this fact is made the basis of the Apostle's
argument in I Cor. 11: 8, 9, to show that within the human circle, whether in the home
(Eph. 5: 23), or in the Church viewed as an assembled company on earth (I Cor. 11:), the
`image' of God as expressed in headship is vested in the man, and that, just as the head of
Christ is God, and the head of man is Christ, so the head of woman, within this circle of
humanity, is man.
"For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory
of God: but the woman is the glory of the man" (I Cor. 11: 7).
It may appear on first consideration that this passage need not have been included in
the references, seeing that we are concerned with the goal of the ages, and the ultimate
realization of the Divine image in man, but no examination of Gen. 1: 26, 27 would be
complete without the light received from I Cor. 11:, and further, one features emerges
which is important, namely, the fact that the divine Image, finds one of its expressions in
headship. Now all rule, authority and power are to be subjected beneath the feet of the
Lord in that day, and that leads us to see, at least two things:
(1)
The headship of man, foreshadows the universal headship of Christ, continuing in
the frail successors of Adam what he himself only very dimly represented.
(2)
This headship of man is temporary. When the goal of the ages is reached ALL rule
and authority will have gone; and this indicates that man's headship now does
not foreshadows the END, but foreshadows the Mediatorial office of Christ
that leads up to the end, when God shall be all in all.
A great deal of heartburning on the part of Christian women, and a great deal of
foolish self-assertion on the part of Christian men, would never have been had BOTH
men and women realized that they were but playing an appointed part. Neither men nor
women in themselves are either superior or inferior to one another, and before Paul
enjoins the wife to be `subject' or to `submit' to her own husband he exhorts BOTH to
`submit' or be `subject' to one another. It is just as foolish for a man to assume that he is
intrinsically superior to a woman because he has been cast for the role of `head', or for a
woman to think that she has been degraded because she has been cast for a lower part, as
it would be for an actor to assume royal airs and insignia simply because for a brief hour
he played the part of a king in a Shakespearean tragedy. Neither the man nor the woman
are anything else in this matter than `shadows', and it would not do any harm to us all,
sometimes to remind ourselves of the fact. The `submission' enjoined in this relationship
is but an anticipation of the greater `submission' of I Cor. 15: 27, 28; for the same word
hupotasso is used by the same writer in each epistle.