The Greek that is typically translated as (Christ is the head of every man, and) the man is the head of the woman(, and God is the head of Christ) in English is translated in the Traducción en Lenguaje Actual (United Bible Societies, 2004) as Cristo es el origen del varón, el varón es el origen de la mujer y Dios es el origen de Cristo or “Christ is the origin of the male, the male is the origin of the female, and God is the origin of Christ.”
Esteban Voth (in: Elliot / Boer 2012, p. 169ff.) explains that the exegesis of the translation team concluded that this passage refers to Genesis 2:22 and translated this in relation to the origin of the woman rather than any authority over her.
Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Corinthians 11:3:
Uma: “But there is one thing I must remind-you-of. Kristus can be compared to the head of every man/male. A man is like the head of a woman, and God is like the head of Kristus.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “But there is still something that I would like you to understand. Almasi is the leader (lit. for-head) of all men. The men are the leaders of their wives and God is the leader of Almasi.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And there is something else that I want you to understand. It is: Christ is the one who is in charge of a man. And as for a man, he is in charge of his wife. And the one who is in charge of Christ is God.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “But there is still that which I want you to understand and it is this. Cristo is the leader of all men (males), the man is the leader of the woman, and God is the leader of Cristo.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “However, this is something else that I want you to understand, that the like-the-head of each man is Cristo. The like-the-head also of a woman is the man, and as for God, he is the like-the-head of Cristo.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “But I have a word I want to tell you. You must know that God is over Christ. And Christ is over man. And man is over his wife.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
The structure of this verse consists largely of a comparison between three pairs of items: man and Christ, wife and husband, Christ and God. Between each of these pairs Paul uses the Greek connective de. Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible follow English usage in translating the first of these occurrences of de by a simple comma, and the second occurrence by a comma followed by and.
But suggests a contrast with verse 2. The contrast may be between (1) matters about which Paul can commend the Corinthians and (2) matters on which he must criticize them. However, he doesn’t express this contrast until verse 17. It is more likely that the contrast of verse 3 is between the teaching already given by Paul and accepted by the Corinthians (verse 3), and new teachings that he is about to develop. If this is so, I want you to understand is probably different in meaning from the expression in 10.1 translated “I want you to know” (Good News Bible‘s “remember”). The first expression understand refers to new teaching, whereas “know” refers to teaching that the Corinthians had already received from Paul (see the comments on 10.1, and compare 12.1).
The same Greek words are translated man or husband, and woman or “wife” (Good News Bible; see the comments on 7.2). Each occurrence of these words must be considered to find out which is the more likely meaning in each case. In this verse Paul appears to be referring to the relationship between a man and a woman in marriage, not stating generally that man is the head of a woman. Elsewhere in this passage Paul appears to be speaking more generally of men and women, though verse 10 will raise special problems.
Some modern translations such as Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente keep the word head because of a play on words in the Greek; it involves the literal meaning of “head” that occurs in verses 4-10. But in many languages it will be impossible to keep this play on words. Modern translations that do not use “head” in verse 3 tend to agree that Paul is thinking of the head as a symbol of authority; for example, Portuguese common language version (BÍBLIA para todos Edição Comum), “Christ has authority over all men as the man has authority over the woman and God over Christ.” Good News Bible‘s translation “supreme” also gives this meaning. (See Isa 7.8, 9 for a similar problem.)
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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