Are Head Coverings Biblical?
Let’s start by taking note of the Church Paul is writing to, the church of Corinth. Corinth is in Greece. In Greece, it was a common practice for a woman to cover their hair. This practice we know today as ‘veiling’.
The Greek dramatist Menander writes: “She’ll be embarrassed when we go in, that’s clear, And she’ll veil herself, for that’s what women do” -Menander, Perikeiromene 311-312.
It was typical for some Greek city-states to veil themselves in many different forms such as:
Pharos veil
Grave relief of Polyxena
Why did the Greeks wear veils?
The Greeks believed in Aphrodite, a god of love, lust, beauty, passion, and pleasure. Aphrodite was believed to wear fetters and a veil. The fetters and veil would act as a barrier to her sexual desires.
“Veiling and binding Aphrodite is a pre-emptive strike against her dishonourable sexually unrestrained influence. Thus, besides offering protection and safeguarding honour, every woman’s veil has the negative, but necessary, association of containing and restraining miasma and uncurbed sexuality, so that veiling women symbolically pre-empts the danger that pollution will spill out of the female figure and contaminate the social order”. -Aphrodite’s Tortoise the Veiled Woman of ancient Greece, page 262.
We also see how in the near east some harlots would wear the veil. Genesis 38:15 “When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face”.
Now wearing something on your head is not a sin IF the reason behind it is non-religious. For example, we see in the Lachish reliefs men and women wearing head coverings for the march into captivity, this would be to avoid the hot sun. However, in the case of wearing a head covering whilst praying this is not the order of God.
Judean captives being carrying away into Assyria, note the men and women with covered heads.
Paul’s rebuke of the practice of veiling.
At the beginning of this chapter Paul tells the Corinthians to stick to what they’ve been taught, the men and women in the church of Corinth integrated the practice of veiling into the Christian faith. Some Christian churches still carry on the pagan tradition as it was maintained in Catholic and Orthodox churches.
The summary of 1 Corinthians 11 verses 5-16:
Verses 5-7 Paul creates a contradiction in their logic.
Verses 8-10 Paul explains the order of man to woman and how that relationship compares with the angels to God.
Verses 11-12 Paul explains how both genders are still reliant on each other and God.
Verses 13-16 Paul makes his point clear.
Most people stop reading at verse five or six and don’t get to Paul’s conclusion, because typically they don’t see the point Paul is trying to make, and why he goes on what seems like a tangent but is very relevant to full understanding.
Here Paul explains “A woman should not pray with her head uncovered”. He states that a woman praying with her head uncovered is like she’s praying bald.
1 Corinthians 11:5 “But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven”. Hence, to Paul uncovered means shaven.
Then Paul adds something they never considered; he mentions that if a woman isn’t covered shave her head but if it’s too much to shave her head let her be covered.
1 Corinthians 11:6 “For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn (shaven): but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered”.
At this point, the person is meant to think for themselves, “why should we shave her head just because she isn’t wearing her veil that’s a bit much…”
Which is the point Paul is trying to make. He wants them to notice how they consider a woman’s hair to be her natural covering. Hence, if they claim a woman’s hair isn’t enough of a covering, shave her head. This is because they are discounting her hair, so if the hair means nothing shave it off. This is so they think, “but a woman’s hair is her covering, her glory”. Paul had a different definition for the second use of the word covered, he wants them to understand it like this 1 Corinthians 11:6 “For if the woman be not covered (with a veil), let her also be shorn (shaven): but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered (with her hair)”.
He then goes on to state that they are correct that a man shouldn’t cover their heads, as they are the glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man.
1 Corinthians 11:7 “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”.
He explains that if the woman is the image of man and this relationship in a way is like the angels to God, then the women ought to have power on their heads (a covering) because of the angels.
1 Corinthians 11:8 “For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man. 9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. 10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels”.
What do the angels have to do with the covering of women?
The Lord naturally has a rainbow about him and the sight of him is like jewels. Rev 4:3 “And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald”.
Hence if the angels are to reflect the glory of God, they would also need to have the sight of jewels. Whilst the Lord naturally has this sight, angels need a covering of them. What we can gather from Satan’s appearance is that he was given a covering of many different jewels.
Eze 28:13 “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created”.
Angels are also clothed with light given by the Lord. Eze 28:17 “Thine heart was lifted because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness…”
2 Corinthians 11:14 “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light”.
Jewels will disperse light, and diamonds of a certain cut will produce the colours of the rainbow when shined upon. (video demonstration). Let us remember the light which would pass through these gems would be of a greater intensity than that we are used to. Therefore, the colour effect would be much stronger. Mark 9:3 “And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them”. So even the other jewels would display colours more vividly. It is likely Satan lost his covering of jewels when he fell. Whether it was a crown or something else the Bible doesn’t go into detail.
As the appearance of God is full of vibrant colour, so did he give to the angels as they are made in his image. Paul then assures the church that just because this pattern of the angels to God is symbolic of man to woman, it’s not entirely the same because God can live without the angels, but the angels can’t live without him.
1 Corinthians 11:11-12 “Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God”.
Paul then concludes by stating how the same way God gave angels their covering created by Him, so do the women already have a natural covering created by God.
1 Corinthians 11:13-15 “Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering”.
Paul’s point is finally made, a woman’s hair IS her covering. That’s why he mentioned that women needs to be shaven to be considered uncovered in verses 5-6. When they pray, they pray with their heads already covered but not by earthly materials, but by their God-given covering of hair.
1 Corinthians 11:16 “But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God”
Then Paul concludes by saying we (the Jews) don’t have a custom of praying with covered heads, and neither do the churches of God. Here it’s obvious he’s speaking of the custom of veiling practiced, as having hair for a woman wouldn’t be considered a custom. The only custom mentioned in the chapter here is the artificial covering of one’s head as opposed to the natural.
Today many professed Christians (and Muslims, as that religion is an offshoot of Christianity) have taken the Corinthian church’s old stance and continued the practice of veiling.
Nuns:
Muslims:
When God made Eve, at no point did Eve have to veil her head with a cloth when speaking to God. If God expected women to cover their heads while praying, he would’ve created Eve with an extra bit of cloth on her head. “But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering” (1 Cor 11:15). I pray you were blessed amen.
Question: Can I still wear my veil, or scarf around my head?
For a woman to wear an artificial covering whilst praying would be against what the prophet Paul has stated. If the order of Christ’s church is for a woman to use her natural covering and not an artificial one, then to go against the commandment is to go against the churches of God. 1 Corinthians 11:16 “…we have no such custom, neither the churches of God”. One may wear it in business or leisure, but in the house of God, we need not add artificial coverings of man to the natural covering of God.
