"THE WOMAN'S HEAD COVERING" 

By: H. B. Taylor, 1920

I Corinthians 11: 1-16

The above  passage is  God's Word on women wearing hats, bonnets, or veils when they go to the  house  of  God or  the place  of worship. There is no need  not knowing God's will if she wants to know it.  The Bible was not written to conceal but to reveal the will of God to honest seekers.   The Master said,  "If any will to do His will,  He shall know the teaching,  whether it be of God,  or whether  I speak  of myself." (John 7:17)

If it  is  God's  will  for women to go to church bare-headed, women ought to do it; If it isn't God's will,  women who love the Lord and want  to obey Him won't do it.   What saith the Scriptures?"   To the Law and to the testimony; If they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them."  (Isaiah 8:20)

It is significant  that  the  church,   to which  the Holy  Spirit  gave specific instruc­tions  about the  women wearing  a covering on their  heads in attendance  during worship, was the church in which  Paul had the most trouble. The Church  at Corinth had trouble with worldly wisdom,   and  with women  speaking out in the mixed assemblies.   Educated  women  who  think they know more than the preachers and who claim that the Bible is out of date, wtill give God's churches a good deal of trouble.

In this  passage of Scripture three things are clear and plain.

(1)  The hair is not the covering that God com­mands a woman to wear "in sign that she is under  authority"  to the  man  who is her head.   This  is  plain for  three or four reasons.

a.  Why should  Paul  have  mentioned  the matter  at  all  if  the  hair was the covering that God required.

To suppose  or argue that the hair was what  Paul was  speaking of makes Paul guilty  of writing  the  veriest  non­sense;  For it  makes him take sixteen verses  in  a  letter  to  a  critical church  to exhort  and enforce the ex­hortation with the  arguments to prove that women ought to wear their hair to the house  of God, when they could not help but wear it everywhere they went. Paul's argument  wasn't about the hair but about the covering  in addition to the hair.

b.  Again,  the  "ALSO"  in vs. 6,  is the indisputable proof that Paul was talking  about a covering  in  addition to the hair.

Note  the language.   "If the woman be not covered,  let  her ALSO be shorn." Suppose ,the  covering was  the hair, what then?   Then  Paul  is  guilty of making  the  silly  remark  that  if a woman hasn't  any hair,  let her .also be shorn.   How could  she be shorn if she had no hair?

What Paul really said,  and what makes good sense, was:  "If a woman does not  have  a covering  on her head in addi­tion to her hair,  let her hair be cut or  head  shaven  as  a  badge  of her shame fulness.

c.  But says someone:   "Doesn't  Paul say in vs. 15 that the hair is given for a covering?"  No, he does not.   The word for cover in verses 6 and 7  is  katakaluptetai. Greek word pronounced ka- ta-ka-lup-te-tai. In verse 15 the word for cover is peribolaion, pronounced  per-ib-ol-ah-yon.  This latter  word is used in only one  other place in the New Testament, and that is in Hebrews 1:12.   Here it is used of  the  heavens, and is trans­lated "vesture".   In  verse 15 and in Hebrews 1:12 it is used of what is put on by God Himself such as hair in  verse 15 and  vesture in Hebrews 1:12.  It is something  that cannot  be put on and off.

The covering  enjoined in verse 6 is a veil or hat or something the woman can put on herself.   One thing  sure and plain  is  that  the  hair  is not the covering enjoined by God.  The covering God enjoins is one they can and are to voluntarily  put on as a sign they are under authority.

Paul was  not writing for Corinthian women only.

    a.  The reason  he assigns for wearing the covering applies to all women.

    b. He makes this known in verse 16. He plainly says that the churches of God have no such         custom as the women of Corinth were going to the church with their heads uncovered. Paul         says, "The other churches have no such custom."

(3) God does not always condescend to give reasons for His commands. Sometimes, He Sovereignly commands and expects us to blindly obey.   This is not so concerning the head covering. Four reasons are given why holy women who love the Lord God should wear a veil or hat or something for a covering to the house of God or place of worship.

a. Man is the head of the woman and the woman who does not wear a covering on her head, "dishonoreth her head".

For example, her husband or father; In Numbers 5:18, if a husband was jealous of his wife, she was brought before the Priest and he set her "Before the Lord" and uncovered her head while the test Co her virture was being made. A bare­headed woman being before God was a woman whose fidelity to her husband was in question.

b. Woman was created as man's helpmate and for man.

As a sign of her submission she ought to wear a covering on her head. Here is the crux of the whole matter. Women rebel against God's curse in commanding them to be in subjection to their hus­bands .  The modern feminist movement is boldly proclaimed as a movement against God and the Bible.  Going "hatless" is the red flag of woman's "rebellion".

c.  Verse 10,  Women  are  told  to have a covering on their heads as a sign they are under authority of their husbands, and because of "The Angels".

d.  The churches  everywhere had  no  such custom as women going to their place of worship with uncovered heads, (vs 16)

These are God's reasons for the command given for women to wear a covering when they come to the house of God.  So we believe and teach  this great truth.  So must all others do and teach, who believe I Cor. 11,1-16  to be inspired Word of God, and understand  it and obey it.

Bryan Station Baptist Church
3175 Briar Hill Road
Lexington, Kentucky 40511

Sent free to those that will prayerfully use them as the Lord provides.