Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
Veils, hair and head coverings
In much of the eastern Mediterranean a respectable woman covered her hair in public, while fashionable rich women showed theirs off. Romans covered their heads to worship and Greeks did not, so in Corinth a covered or bare head sent several signals at once.
In some places a woman still covers her hair when she goes out, and people read something into it when she does not. In Paul's world a woman's hair was thought alluring, and in much of the eastern Mediterranean respectable women covered it in public. Rich women in fashion showed off their hairstyles instead. A shaved head shamed a woman. Among men, Romans pulled a fold of the toga over the head to pray to their gods, while Greeks prayed bareheaded. So in a church where men and women both prayed and prophesied aloud, what each wore on the head said something about modesty, class, marriage and worship.
Keener writes that women's hair was a common object of lust. Across much of the eastern Mediterranean, custom required women to cover it, and Jewish Palestine even used face veils. Upper-class women keen to show off fashionable hairstyles did not cover. Men often saw women's hair as sexually attractive. A shaved head humiliated a woman, the greatest physical shame, in Keener's words. Bailey reports that most female statues he examined in Greek museums have covered heads, and writes, "We can assume that prostitutes did not cover their heads". Wright suggests that in Corinth the only women seen in public uncovered were prostitutes, while noting that Paul does not say so. The ESV Study Bible says a married woman who uncovered her head in public shamed her husband. In worship, "Romans covered their heads for worship but Greeks uncovered them" (the cultural backgrounds notes). The CSB Study Bible links the man's covered head to the Roman habit of pulling the toga over the head in pagan worship. It also suggests that women sometimes led prayer uncovered at pagan clubs meeting in private homes. Shorter hair was in fashion for men, though Greek heroes and Nazirites wore it long, and arguments from nature were a Stoic habit. Jewish interpreters commonly read Genesis 6:1-4 as angels lusting after women, and Heiser argues that the angels of 1 Corinthians 11:10 are those Watchers. Jewish and Greek moralists alike mocked women who dressed to turn other men's heads. Jewish writers warned of temptation, Greek and Roman writers of showing off, and wealthy women sometimes braided gold into their hair.
An analogy: a wedding ring. It tells everyone who sees it something about the wearer, and taking it off in public is read as a message whether or not one was meant.
A covered or bare head sent signals about modesty, class and worship, so the instructions of 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 concern what the congregation's dress said to one another and to outsiders. 1 Timothy 2:9 and 1 Peter 3:3 warn women against display in braided hair and gold.
Not a personal choice with one meaning. A ring says married, and leaving it off is a private decision. A woman's covering was expected by custom, and a bare head could signal wealth and fashion, sexual availability or disrespect to a husband, depending on who was watching.
What was at stake. Keener sees a clash of class, fashionable rich women against lower-class concern for propriety. Bailey and Wright point to what a bare head signaled to outsiders. The ESV Study Bible makes the covering a married woman's sign; the CSB Study Bible suggests copying pagan clubs. Head may mean authority, as the ESV and CSB Study Bibles take it, or source, as Bailey reads it; Keener calls the matter vigorously debated. On the angels of 11:10, Heiser and the first option in Keener's two works see the Watchers of Genesis 6. The ESV Study Bible and Keener's second option, which cites the Dead Sea Scrolls, see angels present at worship. Keener's third option sees the angels believers will judge (1 Corinthians 6:3); the CSB Study Bible thinks of the church's witness to the angels. Bailey reads the covering as the woman prophet's sign of her authority to speak; the ESV Study Bible reads it as marking her submission to her husband. Whether the covering is a garment or long hair (11:15) is also debated. The Zondervan dictionary favors an outer covering such as a shawl and says first-century worship practice is hard to reconstruct.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1corinthians-11-2-16\/","n":"1 Corinthians 11:2-16, Heads covered and uncovered","s":"Paul tells men who pray or prophesy to keep their heads uncovered and women who do so to cover theirs, arguing from headship, creation, the angels, nature and the custom of the churches.","r":"1 Corinthians 11:2-16"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1timothy-2-8-15\/","n":"1 Timothy 2:8-15, Lifted hands, braided hair, women learning, Eve and childbearing","s":"Paul wants men to pray without anger or arguing and women to dress modestly; women are to learn quietly, and he does not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man, arguing from Adam and Eve, before a hard saying about being saved through childbearing.","r":"1 Timothy 2:8-15"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1peter-3-1-7\/","n":"1 Peter 3:1-7, A wife who does not share her husband's gods","s":"Wives are to submit to their husbands so that husbands who do not believe may be won without a word, by their conduct. Their beauty should be a gentle and quiet spirit rather than braided hair and gold, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him lord. Husbands must be considerate and honor their wives as co-heirs of the gracious gift of life.","r":"1 Peter 3:1-7"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/angels\/","n":"Angels","s":"A word that means messenger and describes a job, not a species of being.","r":"2 Kings 19:35"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/the-watchers-enochic\/","n":"The Watchers (Enochic)","s":"Angels who, in 1 Enoch, come down to earth, marry women, and teach humanity things it should not know.","r":"Daniel 4:13"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/bene-elohim\/","n":"Bene elohim","s":"Sons of God: a group of lesser divine beings who show up at God's throne.","r":"Genesis 6:2"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/1-corinthians-11-10\/","n":"1 Corinthians 11:10","s":"A woman ought to have authority on her head, because of the angels.","r":"1 Corinthians 11:10"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/genesis-6-1-4\/","n":"Genesis 6:1-4","s":"The sons of God take wives, and the Nephilim are in the earth.","r":"Genesis 6:1-4"}
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, and on 11:3-4, 11:5-6, 11:10 and 11:13-15
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Corinthians 11:3-4, 11:6, 11:10 and 11:14
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes, section 4.1
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians, comment on 1 Corinthians 11:2-16
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on 1 Corinthians 11:5-6 and 11:10
- CSB Study Bible, notes on 1 Corinthians 11:4, 11:5a and 11:10
- Michael S. Heiser, Reversing Hermon, ch. 8, The Sin of the Watchers and the Head Covering of 1 Corinthians 11
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Timothy 2:9
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on 1 Timothy 2:9-10
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry covering the head
