Research ~~- Balanced Theology

Head Covering Is A Powerful Symbol Of Authority


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Now that we live among the Amish, people ask us, does your wife wear a head covering?
Yes.
Bonnets are really not a fun answer for us or most people.
But there are lots of other wonderful head-covering choices.

A woman should be modest.
A woman's body, including her hair, is for her husband, not the world, to enjoy.

A woman's long hair is her "glory."
Long feminine hair is sexually attractive to men.
For the same reason a woman covers her private parts when not alone with her husband, she should cover her gorgeous hair while in public.

head covering is a universal symbol that the woman is under the covering of her husband and her spiritual authority.
Doctors, judges, policemen, and others tend to respect the privacy of such a woman.

For a while we skipped out on this issue by saying that we understood the 1 Corinthians 11 passage to be culturally-based, or just refers to hair covering the scalp.
But Paul says that this is a lesson from "Nature" and the practice in all of the Ecclesia of Yah (at least of that time.)
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Let's look at the verses:

1Cr 11:4 Every man praying or prophesying, having [his] head covered, dishonors his head.


When we enter a formal situation like a courtroom, to petition (pray to) a judge, I (the man) take my hat off.
My wife, however, leaves her veil on her head.

5
But every woman who prays or prophesies with [her] head uncovered dishonors her head; she might as well have no hair at all!
6
For if the woman be not covered let her come to church with her head shaved if she wants: but if it's 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, for he is the image and glory of God
(that is, displaying a masculine power and readiness to do outdoorsy, brutish work best done with short hair that won't get caught in the lawnmower): 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
(a symbol of her acceptance to the traditional power role of the feminine, with a masculine authority figure over her) because of the angels.

Wow, that sounds pretty bigoted, but read on...

11
Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
12
For as the woman [is] of the man, even so [is] the man also by the woman; but all things of God.

(That is, we're not bigots - women and men of course have equal standing before Yahweh.
This hair stuff is about appearances and order.)

13
Judge in yourselves: is it comely (proper) that a woman pray unto God uncovered?

(That is, appear in an official prayer session uncovered, thus appearing to reject the general system of orderliness in a patriarchal society.)

14
Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
15
But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for [her] hair is given her for a covering (peribolaion).
16
But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the Ecclesiae of Elohim.


Some have said that the Greek word here, erroneously rendered 'covered' is 'Kata', which means 'flowing down from top to bottom.'
We did not see this clearly in the Greek, yet we agree that KATA is an ambiguous word.