Many years ago I witnessed the Romanian people in a church we attended, wearing scarves on their heads while in the service. I approached one of the women after services to inquire of the reason that all the Romanian women were wearing them.
The Lord had already been working in my heart in the area of submission to my husband in some ways and I had read the passages in 1 Corinthians 11.
The Romanian woman explained to me that the ladies from Romania had been raised with knowledge of the passages in 1 Corinthians 11 that mandated a woman to be covered in the service when she prayed and prophesied. I had known this passage but did not seek to understand it because no one I was associated with was doing it.
1 Corinthians 11:1-10 “1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
2 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
3 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.
4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
8 For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man.
9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.”
I felt led to pray and seek God on this matter asking Him if this was for today. As I read the passage I noticed that in the same passage was the instruction for the men to be uncovered. Hmmm! It seemed that this instruction was being followed, we never saw a man in the service with a hat on and I was quite sure that if there was one, someone would approach him to take it off.
So the question is, "why would the man be asked to uncover his head, but the woman would not be asked to cover her head."
Here is the passage of the discussion.
1 Cor. 11:5-6 "but every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head 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."
I discovered that the word for "covering" in these passages has to do with "veiling or covering oneself." The covering here is not the hair. It occurred to me too that if a man is to be uncovered and the covering were his hair, he would have to shave his head bald to comply with God's Word.
The hair is not the covering in 1 Corinthians 11, it is a separate covering over the hair for the woman, and a lack of covering for the man that is compliant with God's Word.
For 1900 years all women were covered, there was no question that she should be covered. In 1 Corinthians 11:16 Paul says "But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom nor do the churches of God." this passage has been used to say that Paul was saying that we have no such custom of having coverings, when in fact it is saying that "we have no such custom of being contentious about it." All the churches were doing it at that time and Paul takes an entire chapter to explain the covering and God's purpose in it. It would make no sense to go to that much explanation and then say "but we don't do it."
What has changed in 1900 years? What has changed is the attitude of the churches to negate the Word of God wherever it did not fit with the culture. More and more women were attempting to undermine the authority of the men through clothing and hair fashions.
Our culture, in an attempt to prove, the woman was equal with a man broke down all the differences between the man and the woman, even in the area of the head covering.
Woman was never, “not equal” with a man, her roles were just different. Because most people did not read their Bibles and thus did not understand the ways of God, saw the head covering as a subjugation of women rather than a choice of women to submit to God first and then their husband.
For the past 60 years sociologists who were not born again were employed to enter the seminaries working toward a model of social change that they thought was relevant for the culture rather than what God commanded. Sadly these attitudes entered the seminaries too.
Now we live in a culture that mocks those things that are perceived as counter-cultural, even though they are an expression of obedience to Christ.
What is missing in our culture today? What are missing are our distinctive male and female roles as given to us in God's Word. Women are looking and acting more and more like the men, equally dismal, is that the men are acting more and more like women.
The covering is a symbol for the woman, just as is the lack of covering for the men is also a symbol. Covering for the woman and lack of it for the men.
The gatherings that disallow a woman to pray or prophesy are quenching the Spirit of God and disobeying the Word. These same gatherings are negating the covering, perhaps because they are in disobedience in this area of allowing the praying and prophesying.
There is clear direction from God, that a woman is not to lead over the men, but there is no justification that a woman cannot pray or prophesy at proper times.
In the matter of a woman remaining silent in the church, I have this to say;
When we consider that God tells the women to cover their heads when they pray and prophesy, but then in other passages says to "remain silent", we have a dilemma, how can a woman be commanded what to wear WHEN SHE SPEAKS, but then she is to remain silent, makes very little sense, unless we understand who the Lord is speaking to in the passages having to do with "women remaining silent."
Here is what one explanation might be from Freedom Ministries.
"We must also bear in mind that the Greeks had only one word for both woman and wife-- the word "gune". The same word that Paul uses in 1 Cor 14:34 is translated "wives" in many passages such as Matthew 19:8, "Jesus replied, 'Moses permitted you to divorce your wives...'" and many others including Ephesians 5:25 and 1 Peter 3:1. So when Paul writes, "Let the women keep silent" he uses a word with two meanings! He may well be referring to "wives" who are unconverted and untaught-- the very one that "prophesied" that "Jesus was accursed" as recorded in 1 Cor 12:3. The church at Corinth would know exactly which wife or wives he meant! For us today, we must rely on context clues to reveal whether Paul was talking of women in general or specific wives." Freedom Ministry
Another interpretation of this says that the words for “silence” has to do with idle chatter that is disruptive. The women may have been talking in the gathering, loudly enough to disrupt things.
The subject here is more about the wife complying with the mandate to wear a covering in the gathering as a symbol of her submission to her own husband. This has been answered clearly in the Word.
Each woman must decide for herself, no woman should be forced by anyone else to wear it; it must come out of an expression of her personal commitment to the Word.
When I was questioning this matter and seeking God, I told Him that if He wanted me to do this, because now I saw it as a matter of obedience, then I would present the passage to my husband without commentary and ask his thoughts. I did just that, asking him to read the passage and tell me what he thought, his answer after reading it was clear, "I think you should be doing this."
1 Cor. 11:5-6 "but every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head 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."
I discovered that the word for "covering" in these passages has to do with "veiling or covering oneself." The covering here is not the hair. It occurred to me too that if a man is to be uncovered and the covering were his hair, he would have to shave his head bald to comply with God's Word.
The hair is not the covering in 1 Corinthians 11, it is a separate covering over the hair for the woman, and a lack of covering for the man that is compliant with God's Word.
For 1900 years all women were covered, there was no question that she should be covered. In 1 Corinthians 11:16 Paul says "But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom nor do the churches of God." this passage has been used to say that Paul was saying that we have no such custom of having coverings, when in fact it is saying that "we have no such custom of being contentious about it." All the churches were doing it at that time and Paul takes an entire chapter to explain the covering and God's purpose in it. It would make no sense to go to that much explanation and then say "but we don't do it."
What has changed in 1900 years? What has changed is the attitude of the churches to negate the Word of God wherever it did not fit with the culture. More and more women were attempting to undermine the authority of the men through clothing and hair fashions.
Our culture, in an attempt to prove, the woman was equal with a man broke down all the differences between the man and the woman, even in the area of the head covering.
Woman was never, “not equal” with a man, her roles were just different. Because most people did not read their Bibles and thus did not understand the ways of God, saw the head covering as a subjugation of women rather than a choice of women to submit to God first and then their husband.
For the past 60 years sociologists who were not born again were employed to enter the seminaries working toward a model of social change that they thought was relevant for the culture rather than what God commanded. Sadly these attitudes entered the seminaries too.
Now we live in a culture that mocks those things that are perceived as counter-cultural, even though they are an expression of obedience to Christ.
What is missing in our culture today? What are missing are our distinctive male and female roles as given to us in God's Word. Women are looking and acting more and more like the men, equally dismal, is that the men are acting more and more like women.
The covering is a symbol for the woman, just as is the lack of covering for the men is also a symbol. Covering for the woman and lack of it for the men.
The gatherings that disallow a woman to pray or prophesy are quenching the Spirit of God and disobeying the Word. These same gatherings are negating the covering, perhaps because they are in disobedience in this area of allowing the praying and prophesying.
There is clear direction from God, that a woman is not to lead over the men, but there is no justification that a woman cannot pray or prophesy at proper times.
In the matter of a woman remaining silent in the church, I have this to say;
When we consider that God tells the women to cover their heads when they pray and prophesy, but then in other passages says to "remain silent", we have a dilemma, how can a woman be commanded what to wear WHEN SHE SPEAKS, but then she is to remain silent, makes very little sense, unless we understand who the Lord is speaking to in the passages having to do with "women remaining silent."
Here is what one explanation might be from Freedom Ministries.
"We must also bear in mind that the Greeks had only one word for both woman and wife-- the word "gune". The same word that Paul uses in 1 Cor 14:34 is translated "wives" in many passages such as Matthew 19:8, "Jesus replied, 'Moses permitted you to divorce your wives...'" and many others including Ephesians 5:25 and 1 Peter 3:1. So when Paul writes, "Let the women keep silent" he uses a word with two meanings! He may well be referring to "wives" who are unconverted and untaught-- the very one that "prophesied" that "Jesus was accursed" as recorded in 1 Cor 12:3. The church at Corinth would know exactly which wife or wives he meant! For us today, we must rely on context clues to reveal whether Paul was talking of women in general or specific wives." Freedom Ministry
Another interpretation of this says that the words for “silence” has to do with idle chatter that is disruptive. The women may have been talking in the gathering, loudly enough to disrupt things.
The subject here is more about the wife complying with the mandate to wear a covering in the gathering as a symbol of her submission to her own husband. This has been answered clearly in the Word.
Each woman must decide for herself, no woman should be forced by anyone else to wear it; it must come out of an expression of her personal commitment to the Word.
When I was questioning this matter and seeking God, I told Him that if He wanted me to do this, because now I saw it as a matter of obedience, then I would present the passage to my husband without commentary and ask his thoughts. I did just that, asking him to read the passage and tell me what he thought, his answer after reading it was clear, "I think you should be doing this."
I have been wearing the covering ever since. Each woman must go before God and ask Him, read His Word praying for a clear answer from Him. No one should be practicing anything because someone else says so, but because they have sought the Lord and have determined to obey Him. And, a woman must be strong enough to obey God no matter what everyone else is doing.
Over the years the fashions changed to allow for women to replace the covering made more like a shawl to include fashionable hats rather than draping cloth. Once the Biblical norm was violated, the scripture on the matter was neglected, the women began to become used to hats forgetting why they wore them.
Just an observation that was an indication of how much the culture has neglected to seek God’s Word for their direction, was the fact that before 1960 all women wore a hat to church gatherings. We never knew why, it was just the way it was. All women wore a hat or a covering on their head when attending church gatherings. There were no exceptions in this and the women didn’t object as long as the entire culture was into fashionable hats.
I once asked my mother why she always wore a hat to church and to town, her response was that a famous fashion designer once said “an outfit without the hat is like the cake without the frosting.” That response was the indicator that women, having left the use of the cloth in favor of fashion, had lost the meaning and purpose for something on their head. Now we go into any church in the United States and very likely we will see no hats or coverings at all on the women.
It is interesting that if a man walked into a church building with a hat on his head, someone would approach him to remove his hat…..the question might be “why.” Some people would say out of respect for the gathering. But why would the women not asked to remove her hat or covering but the man would?
Where did the custom of removing a man’s hat when they pray at ball games before the game prayer come from? The traditions that we still follow, albeit without knowledge as to why, are still in practice for the men. But for the women they have not remained.
Perhaps the reason the tradition of covering a woman’s head has been removed, is to placate the feminists who have worked to encourage a woman to resist any form of submission or subjection to a man.
There are women in churches today are actually embarrassed at the sight of a woman covered. Over the years I have been in churches that practice the covering and in some that did not. In the gatherings where the women did not, but I continued to do so, I was ignored and avoided by the other women as if I was doing something very strange, not always but often.
I came away from gatherings at times wondering what was so frightening about a piece of cloth on someone’s head. They treated me the way they would have treated a man if he were to walk into a gathering with a hat on.
Since the Lord does not command which sort of covering He wants us to wear, we have the option to choose as long as our hearts desire is to please God.
There is an important order in the bio family and an order in God’s family. Even the nature of the relationship between the man and the woman is a clue as to this order.
It is natural for men to be the leaders, they are born to it just as the women is born to follow and depend upon her husband. It is also more natural for the man to protect the woman, than for the woman to protect the man. The problem we face now is that our culture has labored to remove all gender differences as well as the pecking order that was created by God.
How does all this fit in with the absence of the head covering? I am convinced that the head covering disappeared when the feminists began to infect our culture and when the preachers were silent on the matter, not wanting to influence women to go against the cultural fashions of our day, they neglected the scripture pertaining to it.
In many countries all over the world the head covering is still practiced, because clothing is less of a distraction, than in America. We are a fashion crazed country that bases a person’s very worth on their clothing, we use phrases like “power dressing.” Even our prosperity preachers appear as though they have just stepped out of an upscale department store window.
All of these things seem like side lines to the real controversy, but in fact they are the underlying reasons why many preachers and their wives have set aside a command of God, twisting scripture, negating God’s will, not realizing that they thwart God’s purposes in order to remain popular in our culture. Being accepted by the world, and the world in the church, is more important to them than God’s Word and obedience to it.
Any woman who wants to seek God on this and has decided to put on a covering, needs to understand that the style, color and shape of the covering is not important. There are those who would counsel women to wear a certain style, my answer to this is to forget what others are doing, seek the Lord and do what your conscience before Him demands.
He is capable of guiding your choice of covering.
Remember too, that I do not judge a woman as unsaved because she does not wear the covering, but I would challenge her to ask the questions, on her knees before the Lord, 1. Should I do this Lord and 2 please help me understand all this.
May the Lord fill you with His wisdom and love as you seek Him on this matter.
Over the years the fashions changed to allow for women to replace the covering made more like a shawl to include fashionable hats rather than draping cloth. Once the Biblical norm was violated, the scripture on the matter was neglected, the women began to become used to hats forgetting why they wore them.
Just an observation that was an indication of how much the culture has neglected to seek God’s Word for their direction, was the fact that before 1960 all women wore a hat to church gatherings. We never knew why, it was just the way it was. All women wore a hat or a covering on their head when attending church gatherings. There were no exceptions in this and the women didn’t object as long as the entire culture was into fashionable hats.
I once asked my mother why she always wore a hat to church and to town, her response was that a famous fashion designer once said “an outfit without the hat is like the cake without the frosting.” That response was the indicator that women, having left the use of the cloth in favor of fashion, had lost the meaning and purpose for something on their head. Now we go into any church in the United States and very likely we will see no hats or coverings at all on the women.
It is interesting that if a man walked into a church building with a hat on his head, someone would approach him to remove his hat…..the question might be “why.” Some people would say out of respect for the gathering. But why would the women not asked to remove her hat or covering but the man would?
Where did the custom of removing a man’s hat when they pray at ball games before the game prayer come from? The traditions that we still follow, albeit without knowledge as to why, are still in practice for the men. But for the women they have not remained.
Perhaps the reason the tradition of covering a woman’s head has been removed, is to placate the feminists who have worked to encourage a woman to resist any form of submission or subjection to a man.
There are women in churches today are actually embarrassed at the sight of a woman covered. Over the years I have been in churches that practice the covering and in some that did not. In the gatherings where the women did not, but I continued to do so, I was ignored and avoided by the other women as if I was doing something very strange, not always but often.
I came away from gatherings at times wondering what was so frightening about a piece of cloth on someone’s head. They treated me the way they would have treated a man if he were to walk into a gathering with a hat on.
Since the Lord does not command which sort of covering He wants us to wear, we have the option to choose as long as our hearts desire is to please God.
There is an important order in the bio family and an order in God’s family. Even the nature of the relationship between the man and the woman is a clue as to this order.
It is natural for men to be the leaders, they are born to it just as the women is born to follow and depend upon her husband. It is also more natural for the man to protect the woman, than for the woman to protect the man. The problem we face now is that our culture has labored to remove all gender differences as well as the pecking order that was created by God.
How does all this fit in with the absence of the head covering? I am convinced that the head covering disappeared when the feminists began to infect our culture and when the preachers were silent on the matter, not wanting to influence women to go against the cultural fashions of our day, they neglected the scripture pertaining to it.
In many countries all over the world the head covering is still practiced, because clothing is less of a distraction, than in America. We are a fashion crazed country that bases a person’s very worth on their clothing, we use phrases like “power dressing.” Even our prosperity preachers appear as though they have just stepped out of an upscale department store window.
All of these things seem like side lines to the real controversy, but in fact they are the underlying reasons why many preachers and their wives have set aside a command of God, twisting scripture, negating God’s will, not realizing that they thwart God’s purposes in order to remain popular in our culture. Being accepted by the world, and the world in the church, is more important to them than God’s Word and obedience to it.
Any woman who wants to seek God on this and has decided to put on a covering, needs to understand that the style, color and shape of the covering is not important. There are those who would counsel women to wear a certain style, my answer to this is to forget what others are doing, seek the Lord and do what your conscience before Him demands.
He is capable of guiding your choice of covering.
Remember too, that I do not judge a woman as unsaved because she does not wear the covering, but I would challenge her to ask the questions, on her knees before the Lord, 1. Should I do this Lord and 2 please help me understand all this.
May the Lord fill you with His wisdom and love as you seek Him on this matter.
