We must always be careful to “handle accurately the word
of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). This text requires us to be
careful.
The apostle Paul told the Corinthians, “I praise you because
you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the
traditions, just as I delivered them to you” (v 2). The key
word is “traditions,” literally, "things delivered or passed
on" which he has established in the churches under his care.
The word traditions might refer to doctrine, practices, or
discipline, Paul is about to explain one of the basic
traditional practices of the Church more fully so that the
Corinthians might understand and observe it more willingly,
not merely as a traditional custom but as a teaching. We may
infer that some irregularities had occurred or objections
rose concerning women's head coverings, and he begins by
commending them for their general willingness to adhere to
the traditions he has given them.
In verse 3 Paul sets the foundation for the entire
discussion that follows. He indicates that there is a
divinely ordained hierarchy, in which men are directly under
Christ as their "head" while women are under the headship of
man. Christ is directly under the head of God the Father in
this grand scheme of things. Paul expressed a similar
hierarchical conception earlier in the epistle, in 3:21-23,
where the arrangement is of teachers under the church, which
is under Christ, who is under God. Paul repeats the point
concerning Christ being under God in chapter 15 verse 28,
where it is expressed in terms of subjection. Paul mentions
it here, in the context of his discussion of the
relationship between men and women.
Paul’s point is, the authority of the man over the woman is
no more done away with in Christ than is Christ’s authority
over man.
In verse 4 Paul addresses the subject of a covering on the
head of a man while praying or prophesying. The
interpretation of this verse, and of the remainder of the
passage, has varied widely among commentators because of
their different ideas about Greek and Jewish customs of the
time. Contrary to their interpretations, there is not enough
evidence in ancient sources to conclude that Paul is
advising conformity to Greek customs or Jewish customs, in
which women hid their faces in public. He is certainly not
advising conformity to Roman customs of his day. However, he
is urging the Corinthians to observe an established custom
of the Church. Paul established this custom in his Gentile
congregations, probably after the example of the Jewish
custom, but it was somewhat more liberal in its
requirements, that required Christian women to cover their
heads, but not their faces.
Although we are not told if this happened, it is possible
Paul was told some of the women in the Church had removed
their head coverings in some kind of demonstration of sexual
equality. If this was the case, then Paul's words in verse 6
go straight to the root of the problem.
Although in ancient times the customs of female dress
varied, women of all cultures allowed their hair to grow
long. Nowhere was short hair the custom for women. Short
hair on a woman was a sign of grief or disgrace. Among Jews,
Greeks, and Romans, adulterers sometimes had their hair
cropped as an extremely humiliating punishment for their
crime. Among the Jews, this was done as someone recited the
words, "Because thou hast departed from the manner of the
daughters of Israel, who go with their head covered,
therefore that has befallen thee which thou hast chosen."
Sometimes a Greek woman would cut her hair short as a sign
of mourning, after the death of a family member. Another
custom of the Greeks, people, both male and female, would on
certain occasions cut off a lock of hair and offer it to a
deity. However, there is no reason to think that in the case
of women this offering involved any general shortening of
the hair.
The humiliation of cutting off one’s hair can be easily
documented in the Old Testament Scriptures. When the
ancients wished to shame an individual, they would remove
some or all of his beard and/or hair (2 Samuel 10:4-5;
Isaiah 7:20; 15:2; 50:6). When men wished to symbolize
humiliation and defeat, they cut off their own hair
(Jeremiah 48:37; Ezekiel 27:31; 29:18; Micah 1:16), anyone
who reads the Old Testament would understand that shaving
off the hair was a disgrace. Paul claims, if some women in
Corinth were brazen enough to refuse to wear a head
covering, let them play out their rebellion and shame to the
full. Let them not only pray or prophesy with an uncovered
head, let them also cut off all their hair, as a token of
defeat and shame. If, on the other hand, a woman recognized
that shaving the head was a disgrace, let her also recognize
that having an uncovered head was shameful, and so let her
cover her head.
Beginning with verse 7, Paul begins a new argument in which
he refers to the head covering as a symbol. He begins by
explaining that man and woman are themselves like symbols,
pointing to the purposes for which God created them. For
Paul, the outstanding fact of woman's existence is her
subordinate position under the headship of the man, and in
another epistle, he says that in this she symbolizes
submission to the authority of God. A well-ordered marriage
is a holy mystery that "refers to Christ and to the Church"
(Ephesians 5:32). This, according to Paul, is the inherent
symbolism of man and woman, intended by God from the
beginning.
In verse 10, Paul reiterates the necessity of the woman
covering her head as a symbol of authority because of the
angels. What does a woman’s head covering have to do with
the angels? Paul does not tell us. What he tells us is, “in
the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man
independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the
man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and
all things originate from God” (vv 11-12).
In this text, Paul is not as concerned with when and where a
woman can pray or prophesy, but with how she would do so,
with her head covered. Do we have problems with why Paul may
have employed these terms and referred to these activities?
That is understandable because Paul does not explain why he
chose these activities because whether or not a woman can
pray or prophesy in the church meeting is not his primary
concern in this passage. His concern is that which he
consistently comes back to in verses 1-16, women wearing a
head covering.
Why did Paul pick these two activities, one of which,
prayer, is not a gift, and the other, prophecy, which is a
gift? We can only speculate. These two activities are not
the only things a woman could do, but are the two things a
woman should not do with an uncovered head. Why should a
woman cover her head when praying or prophesying? For one
thing, prayer and prophecy are functions that both have a
strong element of authority. In both cases, the one who
performs these functions is in direct contact with God. The
one who prays speaks directly to God; the one who prophesies
speaks directly from God. If there ever was a time when a
woman seemed to be in authority, it would be when she was
praying or prophesying. At these times, Paul insists, a
woman is acting shamefully if she does not cover her head.
There is one important fact we must not overlook in this
matter of wearing or not wearing a head covering. If the
Corinthians were to allow their women to remove the head
covering, this new practice or custom would go against the
established custom of Paul and his fellow-workers, the
custom which was observed in all the other churches, and
which he has delivered to them as one of the "traditional
practices" of the faith (verse 2). A similar appeal to the
church-wide is made in 14:33, "As in all the churches of the
saints, the women should keep silent," and the argument
there is ended with a brusque, "if anyone does not recognize
this, he is not recognized" (14:38). Those who continue to
challenge the “traditional practices” regarding women after
these explanations have been made are to be regarded as
obstinate troublemakers, who deserve no further answer.
The head covering practice is a matter of apostolic
authority and tradition, and not open to debate. His
concluding rebuke of the contentious people in Corinth is
meant to cut off debate and settle the issue, not to leave
it open. In other words, Paul’s instruction is “maintain the
traditions even as I delivered them to you" (v 2).
