THE TOKEN
Extracts from readings with Mr. J. Taylor
AR More than long hair is spoken of in this chapter (1 Corinthians 11). There is also the matter of a covering, that is ‘authority’ on the head of woman, verse 10.
JT That is a verse not much understood; it reads, “Therefore ought the woman to have authority on her head, on account of the angels”. Authority there means that there is a sign or a symbol of authority on her head.
LES Would it not furnish a bulwark, if understood, as over against the incoming of the floods of evil?
JT I think it does, and it is a question of how much sisters take it on, because there is a great deal of discussion on this point; and when the subject is ended, it is said, “But if any one think to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor the assemblies of God”, showing that the apostle was refusing the idea of contention on this point.
LES Would you say something in regard to long hair? There are sisters amongst us who have their hair cut.
JT Well, this subject affects every brother and sister, every sister particularly.
FNW Is that one way in which priestly sensibilities would show themselves in the sisterhood?
JT Yes, ‘priestly sensibilities’ is a good expression because it is so allied with the service of God, and what is becoming in it.
(Vol. 67, pp.447, 448).
WSS Would you be free to say something about the word ‘authority’ in the verse we are considering (1 Corinthians 11: 10). “Therefore ought the woman to have authority on her head”?
JT We might well look at the note given at the bottom of the page.
WSS The note says—‘that is, a token of the authority under which she stands’.
JT That is, she has something above her.
WSS I think you said sometime ago, that it is like the badge of rank which a soldier wears, and of which he is proud, showing that he is under authority; but being under authority he can speak with authority.
JT Quite so. Under authority does not mean that he is rendered inferior by it, but he can speak with authority because he is under authority. A corporal is under authority in the Army; he is not reduced on that account, but there is an authority above him.
WGC Does the woman in the ordering of God become the expression of the grace of the assembly as subjected to Christ?
JT That is right. In the creation God intended to bring out the great thought of Christ and the assembly. He intended to bring it out, and He wanted to do it, and now He has done it, and the thing is to be worked out in Christians, because
Christians have the Spirit; it is all a question of the Spirit.
AJG And you would say that this verse requires that the woman should at all times have authority on her head, and not simply when we are together in assembly?
JT That is what I think is right, and I believe the sisters are coming to see that, and to use the token—even if it is only a token of the place that she has and the authority she is under.
AHG Has woman a distinctive place in the setting forth of this principle of subjection?
JT I would think so. There is no doubt that God is helping us in our households. The principle of the household has come into more prominence than it has been, and I think it is to bring out this very thought, the place that woman has in it, and the place that man has over her and then the place that man has under Christ, and that Christ has under God. It is to bring out the great thought of order; divine order in God—God being everything.
(Vol. 73, pp.10, 11).