1 Corinthians 11King James Version
On head coverings. Then the institution of the Lord's Supper. The Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. Let a man examine himself.
Paul addresses two worship practices: head coverings and the Lord's Supper. On coverings, he roots his teaching in a theology of ordered relationships within creation. On the Lord's Supper, he is alarmed: wealthier members are eating their own food and getting drunk while poorer members, likely enslaved or day-laborers, go hungry. Paul calls this a desecration. He delivers the institution narrative and warns that eating unworthily means eating judgment on oneself.
The Lord's Supper cannot coexist with class division at the table. When the rich feast and the poor go hungry in the same meeting, you are not eating the Lord's Supper; you are eating your own condemnation.
"For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." (11:29) Not discerning the body means both failing to recognize Christ's presence in the bread and failing to recognize Christ's body as the poor believer starving beside you.
Roman dinner parties followed a strict hierarchy: the host and honored guests ate the best food in the main dining room (triclinium), while lower-status guests received lesser food in the atrium or courtyard. The Corinthian wealthier members were simply following normal social convention. Paul is demanding that this convention be inverted every time the church gathers at the table.
Paul credits the institution narrative to a direct revelation from the Lord, using formal transmission language. The divided Corinthian congregation, wealthy house-church patrons on one side, poorer members on the other, is the target of his sharpest rebuke in the letter so far. Some in the church have become weak, sick, and have died, which Paul connects directly to careless communion practice.
In the first century, the Lord's Supper was eaten as part of a full community meal. Wealthy hosts could control when the meal started and what food was available, often beginning before workers could arrive from their jobs. The social stratification of the Roman dining culture was being imported wholesale into the church. Paul's response is not merely liturgical reform; it is a demand that the eucharist enact the equality of the new creation it proclaims.
Paul's tone here is the sharpest it has been in the letter. The illness and deaths in the congregation are presented not as tragedy but as discipline. That is a hard pastoral word, and Paul delivers it without softening, though the purpose is clearly corrective rather than punitive.
1Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
2Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
3But 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.
4Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
5But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
6For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
7For 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.
8For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
9Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
10For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
11Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
12For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.
13Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
14Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
15But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.
16But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
17Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse.
18For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.
19For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
20When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper.
21For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.
22What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.
23For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
24And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
25After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
26For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.
27Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
28But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
29For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
30For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
31For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
32But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
33Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.
34And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.