Head Coverings

Head Coverings
RELATED TOPICS	Bushnell View
SERMONS, ESSAYS AND OPINIONS
CONTENTS

The issue of whether a woman should cover her hair with a scarf is a minor or non-issue in most Christian churches. However in a few it is considered an important issue given that in 1 Corinthians 11 the apostle Paul seems to have instructed women to cover their head.

The mainstream contemporary view is that women do not need to cover their heads, although traditionally in many denominations women have been expected to wear head coverings in the church service. The Bushnell view is that the passage in question is actually mistranslated and Paul actually forbade head coverings.

The passage in questions is from 1 Corinthians 11:2-6

Now I praise you, brothers, that you remember me in all things, and hold firm the traditions, even as I delivered them to you.

But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.

Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head.

But every woman praying or prophesying with her head unveiled dishonors her head. For it is one and the same thing as if she were shaved.

For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered.

For a man indeed ought not to have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man.

For man is not from woman, but woman from man;

for neither was man created for the woman, but woman for the man.

For this cause the woman ought to have authority on her head, because of the angels.

Nevertheless, neither is the woman independent of the man, nor the man independent of the woman, in the Lord.

For as woman came from man, so a man also comes through a woman; but all things are from God.

Judge for yourselves. Is it appropriate that a woman pray to God unveiled?

Doesn't even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him?

But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering.

But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither do God's assemblies.

Links

• Headcovering Directory - Links to pages of the orthodox view view
• On the Meaning and Context of 1 Cor. 11 A contemporary view

---

Return to Gender Politics within the Church