Head Covering (1 Cor. 11)

[The Biblicist]

May I ask the boy's club here at the BB what they truly think of a woman like me and countless others (including some of the Bond girls) who have short hair and do not wear a head covering? I've already explained that I do not keep short hair as a rebellion against anything and let me explain that I do not know any women who do wear head coverings - long hair or short hair. I've never been taught by any conservative pastor to do so.

I promise - I won't reply at all and you can tell me the honest truth. I'm just truly interested in what you think about women who do not wear them.

Why should we think ill of you? We didn't pen 1 Corinthians 11:1-16. We are just like you, sinners saved by grace responsible to obey the Word of God. If a person has never been taught the truth on any given subject, it should not be expected they would be obeying it. However, once confronted with it, then the issue is what will you do with it? You may choose to study it or not to study it. You may choose to believe it differently than how others interpret it. Nevertheless, if you profess the truth of salvation you are no worse or no better than any other sinner saved by grace, as we all fail somewhere. What you will or will not do with it, we will let you and God figure that one out.

 

[go2church]

A cultural explanation of a passage isn't necessaryly a dismissal of a passage. The bible wasn't written in a vacuum, there are accomidations, exceptions, inclusions and exceptions made all the time in biblical interpretation.

 

[Maj]

I think that they can be great witnessing tools, great personal reminders of our faith, and good to encourage modesty. Personally, it would be strange to leave home without one, but it can't judge those that don't for not having been convicted, like said above. The one I wear is a self-made pattern (for better or worse) and I actually just make a tutorial that I can sell online for those that sew, or know someone that does. It costs only 75 cents with the code FRIENDS for the next month.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/215930396/headcovering-veil-tutorial-diy?

 

[The Biblicist]

Seems today the older a women get's the shorter she cuts her hair. Some females today wear their hair cut off like a man's haircut. Then the flip side of the coin, I've seen church woman with very long hair wear their hair in public braded or what I call pig tails twisted around their heads or in a bun that make them appear older than what they actually are.

The point Paul is making is that God made male and female, and he wants them to maintain that distinction in their appearance and roles. How long is long and how short is short? When you can't tell visually if you are looking at a man or woman but the appearance blurs the line of that male and female distinction and breeds confusion it is too long for a man and/or too short for a woman as God is not the author of Confusion.

Unfortunately, we live in a "ITS" society where distinction between male and female are intentionally under assault by our society. Another evidence of the last days when what is called "good" is evil and what is called "evil" is good.

 

[RLBosley]

Verse 16 is saying the very opposite. He has provided an orderly defense of the covering in verses 3-15. In verse 16, to paraphrase it, "if you still want to be contentious over this, then you stand alone, as no other custom can be found among the churches of God but the one I am defending."

However, if you want a more intense study of this subject may I suggest you read the following booklet you can freely download at:

http://victorybaptistchurch.webstarts.com/uploads/Baptist_Women_Exalted.pdf

I think you missed what I was saying. I agree with you.

Thanks for the booklet. I assume that you believe head covering is still necessary today?

 

[Marooncat79]

When you read the context, you see that there was confusion in the early church in regards to married women feeling threatened by unmarried women. In our day, we wear a wedding band to demonstrate the marriage covenant. In NT times, most early Christians were poor and they certainly could not afford gold for a wedding band, so Paul appeals to "headcovering" to demonstrate that the women are under the same covenant-ie, today the wedding band in our society demonstrates the woman being "under" the man.

The long hair issue also comes from a custom in the day. In NT times, pagan temples often had prostitutes which basically served as "sexual slaves". They cut their hair short so they would be easily picked out in the crowd. Paul is telling women here to not "act as the pagans" and not even hint towards such behavior hence early Christian women wore long hair

 

[RLBosley]

When you read the context, you see that there was confusion in the early church in regards to married women feeling threatened by unmarried women. In our day, we wear a wedding band to demonstrate the marriage covenant. In NT times, most early Christians were poor and they certainly could not afford gold for a wedding band, so Paul appeals to "headcovering" to demonstrate that the women are under the same covenant-ie, today the wedding band in our society demonstrates the woman being "under" the man.

The long hair issue also comes from a custom in the day. In NT times, pagan temples often had prostitutes which basically served as "sexual slaves". They cut their hair short so they would be easily picked out in the crowd. Paul is telling women here to not "act as the pagans" and not even hint towards such behavior hence early Christian women wore long hair

I'm lost, you start out talking about reading the context, and then you discuss things that are not at all in the text.

Where do you see this confusion caused by married women feeling "threatened" by single women? I've never heard of this before.

Can you demonstrate that Paul is talking about marriage, or that the teaching on headcovering applied only to those too poor to afford some other symbol of marriage?

I've heard the pagan temple thing several times, especially as it applies to 1 Cor 11 and the temples in Corinth. But from what I've read, the Corinth in Paul's day was literally a totally different city than the Greek city that those references to pagan temples refer to. The city had been destroyed and then rebuilt as a Roman colony, so Greek era idolatry and pagan practices would have been irrelevant.

And, if that was Paul's point, why didn't he just say so? The exposition on headcovering really seems like a bizarre, round about way for the apostle to say, "Don't dress like a hooker."

 

[Marooncat79]

Overt paganism was still rampant in NT times, see Acts 17

 

[RLBosley]

Overt paganism was still rampant in NT times, see Acts 17

Yes. That doesn't mean the expressions of paganism in Roman Corinth was the same as that in Greek Corinth. That is all I was pointing out.

 

[SaggyWoman]

1. I personally do not.
A. I have never been taught to.
B. After reading, I haven't felt the conviction to do so.
2. I have visited other countries where it is more traditional to wear head coverings to church.
A. This was geared more towards married women.
B. I am single. I didn't wear one.

 

[OldRegular]

Ladies - do any of you wear a head covering to worship?
Men - do any of your wives?

I ask because my wife has started looking into this and we are both confused. She had never really studied it in the past, and when I had read it I just assumed that v15 proved that the woman's hair was the covering. But now I am not so sure. In fact I'm almost convinced that cannot be the case based on the way the apostle argues his case. It seems that Paul was arguing for either a literal, artificial covering or is using that to symbolically argue for wifely submission.

Thoughts?

I have always believed Paul is talking about a women submission!