"... BECAUSE OF THE ANGELS" (1Cor 11:10)

"That is why a wife ought to have [a symbol of] authority on her head, because of the angels" (1Cor 11:10).

While we cannot be 100% certain what Paul meant by "the angels" in this passage, by our entering sympathetically into ancient Jewish thinking about the role/s of heavenly angels we can perhaps gain a glimpse of what the Apostle intended to communicate.

Take the following extra-biblical Jewish literature for example:

1. "And so, when you [the Jew Tobit] and your daughter-in-law Sarah prayed, I [the angel Raphael] brought a reminder of your prayer before the Holy One; and when you buried the dead, I was likewise present with you. When you did not hesitate to rise and leave your dinner in order to go and lay out the dead, your good deed was not hidden from me, and I was with you. So now God sent me to heal you and your daughter-in-law Sarah. I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the saints and enter into the presence of the glory of the Holy One" (Tobit 12:12-15 [2nd or 3rd century B.C.]; See also Rev 5:8; Cf Rev 15:7 -- bracketed comments mine).

2. "But no one who is a fool or insane may enter; and no simpleton or ignorant man, or one with with eyes too weak to see or lame or crippled or deaf or minor child, none of these shall enter the congregation, for the holy angels are in your midst." (Dead Sea Scroll - "Damascus Document" [175 B.C.-70 A.D.]; Cf Lev 21:16-24).

3. "No man with a physical handicap—crippled in both legs or hands, lame, blind, deaf, dumb, or possessed of a visible blemish in his flesh or a demented old man unable to do his share in the congregation—may enter to take a place in the congregation of the men of reputation. For the holy angels are a part of their congregation" (Dead Sea Scroll, 1QSa - "The Rule of the Congregation" [100-75 B.C.]; Cf Lev 21:16-24).

4. "When a man sleeps, his body tells to the neshamah [i.e. the brutish part of his soul] what it has done during the day; the neshamah then reports it to the nefesh [i.e. the more elevated part of his soul], the nefesh to the [assigned] angel, the angel to the cherub, and the cherub to the seraph, who then brings it before God" ([Leviticus Rabbah [Midrashic Commentary on Leviticus, 5th century A.D., but reflecting known and much more ancient sources] 22; See also Ecclesiastes. Rabbah 10).

The point here is not to agree or disagree with every detail of the above extra-biblical Jewish literature. The point is to notice a common denominator about the role of angels in reporting good and bad behavior to God. We can see that other Jews besides Paul shared this assumption about what some angels were tasked by God to do. May this short study bless you with an added perspective as we all seek to better interpret Scripture, for further personal and corporate blessings in Christ.

-Michael Millier