What Does 1 Corinthians 11:7 Mean?
For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and weight of God; but the woman is the weight of the man.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
The verse gives the man God’s image and weight, then names the woman as the man’s glory: here, glory carries honor and significance within a relationship.
THE MEANING
The man is named as God’s image and weight, and the woman as the man’s glory. The wording is asymmetrical: the man is related directly to God, while the woman is described through her relation to the man.
THE ROOT
δόξα
doxa
GROWS FROM
δόξ-
dox-
Honor, recognized standing, and significance; here, the word carries weight, the substantial honor a person bears.
“Glory” can sound like radiance alone, but doxa also carries weight: honor and significance. The verse gives that weight two directions, relating the man to God and naming the woman as the man’s glory.
ALSO GROWS
doxazō: to honor, glorify
δοξάζω
This branch makes the honor in doxa active: glory is recognized standing, not mere appearance.
endoxos: honored, distinguished, glorious
ἔνδοξος
It carries the same sense of standing held in honor, illuminating the significance attached to the relationships in this verse.
εἰκών
eikōn
GROWS FROM
εἰκ-
eik-
Likeness or resemblance: an image that represents another.
An image is a likeness that points beyond itself to its source. The word therefore brings visibility into the verse: God’s nature is represented through the image named here.
ALSO GROWS
eikazō: to compare, liken
εἰκάζω
This branch keeps the sense of recognizing a likeness between one thing and another.
eoika: to be like, resemble
ἔοικα
Its shared sense of resemblance shows that an image is defined by the likeness it bears to its source.
THE PATTERN
Image names a likeness that makes its source visible; glory names the honor or weight carried in that relation.
And God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.But we all, with uncovered faces, mirror the weight of the LORD, and are being reshaped into the same image, ever increasing in weight, even as from the breath of the LORD.Who is the image of the unseen God, the firstborn of all creation.THE THREAD
Who is the image of the unseen God, the firstborn of all creation.Colossians uses the same word, εἰκών (eikōn, image or likeness), for the one who makes the invisible God visible. That shared word opens “image” here as more than a label: it names a likeness that represents its source, while glory adds the weight or honor carried in that relation.
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