1 Corinthians 11:2-16 is where the Bible talks about head covering. The passage was written by a man named Paul. Paul was writing to the church in the city of Corinth during the first century AD/CE.
This is it.
2 I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you.
3 But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. 5 But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head shaved. 6 For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head.
7 A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; 9 neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.
10 It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels.
11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. 12 For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.
13 Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, 15 but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering.
16 If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God.
First Corinthians 11:2-16 is a pretty easy passage to understand, but it is a difficult one to accept – at least in our day. It speaks of biblical truths that rub our culture completely the wrong way. It is so far outside our comfort zone that even when people determine to accept it, they don’t know how to apply it and feel normal. We can talk about how to apply the passage, but first things first. We need to work through the passage and understand it. So here goes.
2 I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you.
This is the beginning of a new section of Scripture, a discussion of traditions held to in the Church. They are Christian traditions, passed on by Paul back when he set up the Church in Corinth. And while the Corinthians have been holding faithfully to those traditions, Paul still has some things he needs to say.
3 But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
(Verse 3) First, man has a head, and he is Christ; woman has a head, and he is man; Christ has a head, and he is God. Paul starts with the heads of men and women because the whole passage is about men and women, before grounding the idea of “head” in God through Christ.
But what does this use of the word “head” mean? Paul does not answer that at this point, though we will get more of an idea later.
4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. 5 But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head shaved. 6 For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head.
(Verses 4-6) What Paul does say here is that if you are a man wearing something on your head while praying or prophesying you dishonour your head. On the other hand, if you are a woman not wearing something on your head while praying and prophesying, you dishonour your head.
So part of what is at stake in this tradition is the honour of Christ and man.
Paul also says a woman’s uncovered head is like short hair or a shaved head. There is something about long hair that is appropriate to women. It is womanly. Therefore, short hair or a shaved head is unwomanly, a disgrace for a woman.
Wearing a covering on her head while praying and prophesying is equally womanly. Failing to cover her head while praying and prophesying is also an unwomanly disgrace. Therefore a woman should cover her head while praying and prophesying.
So Paul is saying if a woman prays or prophesies without covering her head, she is dishonouring man, presumably by rejecting him as her head, and, in doing so, disgracefully rejecting her own womanliness. This is confirmed by the next part of the passage.
7 A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; 9 neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.
(Verse 7a) Man is the image and glory of God. This, of course, is seen in perfection in Christ, but is also something true, to a lesser degree, of man in general. That means that if a man covers his head while praying and prophesying, he symbolically covers the image and glory of God. If you cover the image and glory of God, you reject an integral part of man, and so dishonour his head, himself a man, Christ.
(Verses 7b-9) Woman, on the other hand, is the glory of man. She is man’s helper, as taught in Genesis and restated by Paul in verses 8 and 9: man was not created from woman or for woman, but woman was created from and for man.
Woman is the glory of man, displaying the worth of humanity through her unique and cooperative contribution as helper. And as helper, she is like God the Holy Spirit as she works “behind-the-scenes”. Woman builds up the family of man to help man image and glorify God to creation.
10 It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head...
(Verse 10a) This is why, Paul says in verse 10, a woman ought to have authority over her head.
In this translation of the Bible, the word “own” is added by the NIV translators who are suggesting that a woman is the one who holds authority over her own head, but this does not fit in with the rest of what Paul is saying in this passage. Instead, “authority” refers to the covering woman are to have on their head as said back in verse 6.
It is here that we also understand a bit more about what it means to be the metaphorical head. The fact that Paul uses the word authority to describe the physical sign of a woman’s head shows that being under a head includes being under authority. This is a very unpopular idea today. We therefore need to remember that Christ’s authority, under whom we all live, is not abusive or damaging, and any authority anywhere must be modelled closely on his.
…because of the angels.
Verse 10 finishes with this phrase. There are two main ideas about why Paul mentions angels here, though many people differ in the details.
The first idea is that Paul is talking about elect angels who delight in seeing women covering their head in a proper and orderly way.
The second idea is that Paul is talking about fallen angels who are looking to deceive women. When a woman covers her head, the fallen angels are put on notice that she is submitting to created order and are somehow protected.
I hold to a third idea. A woman’s covering is not a sign to the angels of the authority of man over woman, but it is a reminder to the woman herself. This reminder is necessary “because of the angels” who look to deceive woman and lead them into rebellion against their created order.
11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. 12 For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.
(Verses 11-12) Paul heads off overweening male egos. Even though woman was made from man and for man, man is also born of woman. There is a form of interdependence between the sexes. But even that interdependence is not everything – we are all dependent on God.
13 Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, 15 but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering.
(Verse 13) Paul returns to the main point of the passage, rephrasing it this way: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? “Judge for yourselves” he says, obviously expecting them to be more than capable of doing so by looking at nature (not “the nature of things” as the NIV puts it). He goes on to explain.
(Verses 14-15) Long hair is a disgrace for a man. It is unmanly for a man to have something only appropriate for a woman.
On the other hand, long hair is a woman’s glory. In other words, it is appropriate because long hair is “given as a covering”. Paul does not say what long hair is given to cover, but in nature woman has a body that can be covered by long hair.
From there we are left to come to the unspoken conclusion that if woman is given a womanly covering in nature, it is proper for a woman to also be covered in prayer.
16 If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God.
(Verse 16) The word “other” in the NIV is actually the word “such” in Greek. Paul says he and his fellow workers, the churches of God that existed at the time of Paul’s writing, (and most that have existed since that time) did not and have not allowed the practice of women praying with their heads uncovered (see v13).
So the question for us is: why should we?