Ask Pastor Mike Live

Mike Fabarez: 1 Corinthians 11:10. What does this mean? That's a good question. I know this passage. 1 Corinthians 11:10. A wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. I love that we're bringing this up because we just talked about a concordance. "Angels" is a Greek word. We're not translating it—the word "angels." Here are a few places where the word "angels" maybe should be translated. It's like the word *baptidzo*. I always say this to my church when we have baptism: it would be good if we were to translate it because we would always wonder if we are talking about being dunked into water or being dunked into Christ.

Are we being placed into water or being placed into Christ? We'd want to know the context. If I said, "Does baptism save you?" you'd want to know what I mean. Being placed into Christ judicially, legally, by the Spirit being placed into a relationship with Christ, that does save me. Being placed into water, no, that doesn't save me. *Angelos* is a Greek word. We just transliterate that into English like we do the word *baptidzo*. We just turn it into an English word, "baptize." *Angelos* is the same way. We just turn it into an English word, which I wish we translated because if we did, we would translate it into the word "messenger" because that's what the word *angelos* means. Instead, we just turn it into an English word, "angels," which is what we did.

There is one place, and in the book of Revelation, where it may be helpful if we did translate it. Because then it would read this way: "The wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the messengers." Paul's talking here about the practice in Corinth. Paul has messengers going back and forth with these letters. Verse 16 says, "If anyone is inclined to be contentious about this matter, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God." Paul can't get a letter to the Corinthians without messengers. Messengers are bringing these letters to them. I was preaching 2 Corinthians to my congregation recently and reminded them that Corinth is the Orange County of the ancient world.

It's at the crossroads on an isthmus. It's got a lot of money there and it's progressive. Feminization of this area in terms of a feminist movement and the empowerment of women and all the rest was cutting-edge stuff. And it showed here in 1 Corinthians 11, when you had a lot of feminists saying, "We want to take the pulpit and we don't care about gender roles and we're going to do all this stuff." They wanted to press the limits of gender distinctions and were wanting to cast off women being feminine and men being masculine. There was a blurring of the lines here that Paul is trying to correct.

This picture of why women should be covering their head and even—depends on how you read this text—the covering of their hair as their glory. As it says in verse 15, "A woman has long hair, it is her glory; it's given to her as a covering." And the women cutting their hair off and trying to wear men's hairstyles and all the rest. He says, "No, that shouldn't happen, at least," he says, "for the sake of the angels." What angels? When we hear the word "angels," we think of this other class of beings, like Gabriel and Michael and Satan. No, that's not what we're talking about.

Probably talking here about the messengers that are bringing these letters back and forth for Paul. And they are not living in Orange County. They're from Cincinnati, so to speak. They're coming from other places and as he brings up in verse 16, they have the traditions or the practices. That's even where it starts earlier in the passage when he talks about the traditions. I think that's probably what's in view here. Even the ESV puts a footnote here next to the word "angels" and it says, "or messengers, people sent to observe and report for the Apostle Paul."

The other passage I mentioned where it probably would be helpful if we did translate it is Revelation chapters 2 and 3. Because it says at the beginning of all those seven letters to the seven churches, "To the angel of the church of Ephesus," and Smyrna, and it goes on through Pergamum, Thyatira, and on through the seven churches. The "angel" is probably not talking about an angelic being. We're probably talking about the pastor, the preacher, the messenger, the one who brings the message, the one who brings the sermon. The letter that Christ is bringing to these churches is going to be read by the pastor of those churches. That probably should have been translated there, too.

Every time the word *angelos* shows up in the Greek New Testament, it's usually just transliterated instead of translated. Because it is transliterated, we're left with a little confusion. If it were translated, we would probably do better and think, "Are we talking about a heavenly messenger from heaven or are we talking about a pastor or a messenger from the Apostle Paul?" All right.