What’s With the Head Coverings?

When I wrote my book about women in the church, my aim was to examine every verse that has been hijacked to oppress and silence women.

I wanted to show that contrary to what many of us have heard, woman are in no way inferior to men. In the new covenant of grace, women can preach, teach, and lead, and do anything God calls them to do.

But there was one verse I could not explain:

Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head…. (1 Corinthians 11:10a)

In context, Paul is talking about head coverings (scarves?). He says women who pray or prophesy in church with uncovered heads are showing disgrace to their heads (their husbands?). Their behavior is so shameful, says Paul, they might as well go the whole way and shave their heads (1 Cor. 11:5).

Whew.

When I wrote my book, I didn’t know what Paul was talking about. But plenty of people have offered their opinions. “Women wear head scarves to show they’re in submission to male authority,” says one scholar. “It is the will of God that the woman know her place,” says another.

Which doesn’t sound like anything Paul would say. Why would the apostle who wrote “there is neither male nor female in Christ” (Gal. 3:28) turn around and say women are subservient to men?

Something doesn’t add up.

There’s quite a lot going on with the head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11 so I will skip the details here and focus on verse ten. If you want to go deeper, check out the relevant entries in the Grace Commentary.

Sex in the city

As always, context matters. First-century Corinth was a hotbed of sexual immorality. The city had several pagan temples including the infamous Temple of Aphrodite Porne (“Aphrodite of the Prostitutes”). The city had a promiscuous culture, so we can perhaps understand why sexual immorality had infiltrated the church (1 Cor. 5:1).

The world has not changed much. Every day we are bombarded with offerings to the goddess of erotica. Like the Corinthians, we all face sexual temptation. And like them, we need to learn how to deal with it.

Imagine you were the apostle Paul teaching the Corinthians how to deal with sexual temptation. What would you say? If you were a law-lover, you might write, “You should not even think about sinning lest you incur the wrath of God.”

Or you might say, “It is a sin to talk to or even look at a woman,” which is what some of the religious Jews believed. If they saw a woman in the street, they’d shut their eyes. For this reason they became known as “bruised and bleeding Pharisees” on account of all the posts and doors they walked into.

But Paul does not say anything like this. He doesn’t hit the Corinthians with laws or restrictions. Instead, he writes:

Because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. (1 Corinthians 7:2)

The key word in this verse is have. Husbands and wives are supposed to have each other. Do you understand? Look at how the verse appears in the Passion Translation:

Because of the danger of immorality, each husband should have sexual intimacy with his wife and each wife should have sexual intimacy with her husband. (1 Cor. 7:2, TPT)

Because there was so much illicit sex going on, the Corinthians asked Paul if they should practice celibacy (see 1 Cor. 7:1). He had a better idea. “Sex is good, provided you do it God’s way.”

A Christian marriage is a treasure worth protecting. When two people who are each living from their union with the Lord come together in marriage, the result is heaven on earth. Nothing in the diseased temples of Corinth or the dark corners of the internet can compare with that.

Which brings us to the head coverings.

The significance of head coverings

The custom in Corinth was for married women to cover their heads. So a married woman who removed her head covering in a public place was like a man or woman who removes their wedding ring before going into a bar. It’s not a good look. It sends a solicitous message.

It’s like throwing a hand grenade into your marriage.

Paul called them out. “If you are going to remove your head covering, you might as well shave your head” (1 Cor. 11:6). In other words, if you’re going to act like a prostitute, you might as well look like a prostitute.

When Paul says “the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head,” he is not saying women are subservient to men. He’s saying, “Honor your marriage.” In context, he’s reminding them what he said earlier to husbands and wives:

The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. (1 Corinthians 7:4)

The body of a married women is under the authority of her husband, just as his body is under her authority. In other words, she belongs to him and he belongs to her. As the Shulammite said, “My beloved is mine and I am his” (Song of Solomon 2:16).

Put it altogether and Paul is saying something like this:

If you are married, don’t act like you are single. You are part of a one-flesh team. To disrespect the symbols of your union, whether they are scarves, rings, or something else, is to disrespect your marriage partner, mislead others, and diminish one of God’s great gifts.

Marriage should be honored by all and especially by those who are married.

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Got a question about a tricky scripture? Check out The Grace Commentary.

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