THE CHURCH SUBJECT TO CHRIST.
THE woman praying or prophesying with power on her head because of the angels, namely, with a veil or covering, the symbol of subjection, thereon, thus owns the authority of the man, her natural head. Adam, we read, was first formed, then Eve; besides which, Eve came forth from his side, the woman in this way being of the man, as well as for him. In this ordinance therefore we see the distinction between them.
But there is a still deeper meaning than this. THE CHURCH, the type of which is the woman, derives her being from Christ, whom the man represents. Hence the woman is to have her head covered, as expressing THE CHURCH'S SUBJECTION TO CHRIST, its living mystical head.
Then there is another point. If the woman proceeds from the man, namely, Adam, the man also comes from the woman, because all Adam's seed are born of Eve. For this reason the man is not without the woman, no more than the woman is without the man in the Lord. They unite in forming the Church, and so 'mutually depend on each other, just as Christ and the Church have neither of them a separate being, apart from the other. The Eternal Son became Christ, God manifest in the flesh, for the sake of the Church, while the Church, on the other hand, lives, moves, and has her being in Him.