The number one topic people have requested me to write on over the last seven years has been the head covering, as discussed in 1 Corinthians 11.
For years, I’ve pushed that topic aside.
I pushed it aside partly because I wanted to do it well, considering that most of my audience has grown up in a church tradition that believed women covering their heads is essential to Christian faithfulness even today. I also pushed it aside because there are, in my opinion, greater issues of biblical interpretation and Christian practice for us to focus on than figuring out exactly what we are to do with 1 Corinthians 11.
Regardless of where we come out on the necessity of Christians applying the head covering today, to be focused on external barriers as signs of being saved is to utterly miss the point of the Gospel.
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Signs of salvation include being filled with the promised Holy Spirit who seals us for the day of redemption (Eph. 1:13-14), gives courage to proclaim the Gospel even in the face of persecution (2Tim. 1:7; Acts 1:8, 2:1-13; Phil. 1:27-28), transforms our lives (Gal. 5:22-23; Col. 2:11; Ro. 12:1-2), and fills us with love for God (Ro. 5:5) and the saints (Jn. 13:35; Acts 4:32).
However, because every year at least one reader asks me to write on this topic, and because a few years ago I led a study through 1 Corinthians 11 for our local church (so I already have most of the content prepared), I decided this would be the year I finally dive deep and share what I believe to be, at this point, the most biblically faithful understanding of 1 Corinthians 11:1-16.
(How’s that for a Pauline style paragraph?)
I typically try to be more artistic in my articles, drawing you in by agitating the central problem we’re dealing with. I’ll do this by asking questions, giving illustrations, or telling a story.
However, this article will be more academic in nature. I’m going to first give six preliminary thoughts about the biblical narrative that conversations around 1 Corinthians 11 often neglect. Second, I will share some general observations of the text. Third, I’ll lay out my interpretation of 1 Corinthians 11:1-16. Fourth, I will pose questions I still have about the text and some challenges to my interpretation of it. Fifth, I’ll interact with a few alternative interpretations that I personally find lacking, followed with the conclusion about the text as a whole and how we go from here.
You ready?
Let’s dive in.
To best understand Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 11:1-16, we need to first at least have an awareness of the following components to the biblical narrative up until Paul’s letters to the saints at Corinth.
1. Throughout the biblical narrative, God instructs (even commands) his people to practice certain traditions for the sake of remembering what he has done for them, in them, and through them.
As Americans, we have a rather disillusioning understanding of traditions. If you’re like me, the very word “tradition” sucks the air out of your lungs and makes you feel stifled.
Traditions are a form of legalism and oppression, not?!
However, throughout scripture, God commands all kinds of rituals to be practiced as a way for his people to remember him. Think of the rocks he tells Moses to set up after crossing the Red Sea or the feasts he instructs the people of Israel to keep, including Passover.
Did you know the instruction for a 10% tithe is for the purpose of having a fellowship meal with God in the temple (See Deut. 14:22-29)?
These rituals or traditions are not stifling in the least. Quite the opposite, in fact. They are liberating, celebratory, and crucial for remembering the freedom now experienced in the kingdom of God.
2. Throughout the biblical narrative, traditions are not prerequisites for salvation. They serve as reminders of salvation.
One of those crucial rituals was the Year of Jubilee (see Leviticus 25). However, there is no record, internally or externally from the Bible, that Israel ever kept the Year of Jubilee (we’re not even sure they kept the sabbatical years which came around every seventh year). Israel is certainly older than 49 years, so they should have celebrated many years of jubilee, but to our knowledge they never did.
While Israel’s lack of obedience to keep the commands of the Torah played a part for why they were sent into exile, it was not the keeping of the particular commands that God was looking for. He was looking for them to honor him as God and love their neighbors as themselves (see Is. 58).
Israel turned away from Yahweh as God and turned to other gods. If they had kept the commands, like celebrating the Year of Jubilee, they would have remembered Yahweh as their God (Lev. 25:17). Furthermore, they would have remembered that they were once in bondage and God brought them out of bondage (Lev. 25:38, 42-43) and therefore love their neighbor as themselves by canceling the debt of those indebted to them so they are no longer in bondage.
Not only is this tradition about remembering how God had saved them, God continued to be faithful to them in exile and after exile even though they never kept it. Even though Israel never celebrated a Year of Jubilee, God saved them from their bondage and exile. God sent Jesus — the full culmination of the Year of Jubilee.
Now we all can enter the rest and freedom provided in Jesus Christ (Jn. 8:32 and Heb. 4) even though the Year of Jubilee was not kept. That’s because the point of the tradition was not the tradition itself, but what it reminded us of. Yes, Israel missed out on many blessings because they did not keep the tradition — it would have been good and right for them to let debtors go free. But keeping it was not a prerequisite for God’s salvation. Traditions never are.
They serve as reminders of God’s salvation.
3. The traditions that Paul discusses in 1 Corinthians 11 were traditions he had apparently taught them beforehand and traditions he saw good for them to keep.
The chapter begins with Paul saying, “Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.”
Paul says this a few different places in this first letter to the Corinthians. It makes you wonder if there is a previous letter. Or maybe he’s talking about when he visited them. Either way, Paul is glad to see the church at Corinth maintaining the traditions he taught them.
Apparently, however, there had developed some confusion about the purpose behind the traditions or maybe he had never really explained it before. We don’t know why, but the next verse goes on to say, “But I want you to understand that…” He immediately launches into an explanation for the purpose behind this tradition, which is the rest of the passage (3-16).
By nature of how Paul intended his letters to be used (circulated among churches — see Col. 4:15), Paul seems to view these traditions as good for all Christians to keep.
*(Note: Corinthians is not the only New Testament letter where “traditions” are encouraged. He mentions them in 2 Thessalonians as well.)
While Corinthians was written specifically to the church at Corinth, we can assume it is written for all Christians because of how he instructed the churches to share his letters with each other and because of how he mentions such in the passage (vs. 16).
4. To best understand this passage, we must understand what we know about honor-shame paradigms in ancient near eastern culture.
It’s easy to reframe language, when talking about passages of scripture. One might say that in 1 Corinthians 11 Paul says men should not cover their heads when praying and prophesying and woman should cover their heads when praying and prophesying. But that’s not actually what he says.
He says,
Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head…
The emphasis is on honor and dishonor, not on what they should or shouldn’t do.
*(Note: At the end of this essay, I’ve linked a couple articles that dive into the honor-shame context of Corinthians more.)
5. To best understand this passage, we must be honest about the complex cultural background.
1 Corinthians 11 is arguably the most challenging passage in the New Testament for scholars to interpret. Almost every commentary I read on the passage begins with this caveat.
Part of the reason for that is because there isn’t a clear consensus on what, exactly, the cultural context is for the church in Corinth. Some writings on the cultural background emphasize Corinth as having more Greek influence while others bring out the cultural elements that would have been introduced by the Romans.
Corinth had been the home of the temple to the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation, Aphrodite. This temple promoted a culture of promiscuity, including prostitution. However, when Corinth was torched in 146 BC, activity at the temple of Aphrodite ceased. It wasn’t until 44 BC that Julius Caesar colonized the desolate Corinth and eventually restored the temple. But the temple never regained its former glory. You can read more about this here.
By the time Paul arrived in Corinth (AD 50-51), it would have had the largest population in all of Greece and the population would have been made up by many different types of people with the three main people groups consisting of Greeks, Romans, and Jews. The letter of 1 Corinthians was likely written between AD 53 and 54. By this time, the religious influences on its culture extended far beyond Aphrodite, Judaism, or even Christianity.
Some popular interpretations of 1 Corinthians assume a cultural context of largely Greek influence. However, it’s unclear how genuinely Greek the Corinth of Paul’s day actually was. By the time of Paul, there would have been Roman, Jewish, and even Gnostic influences on the culture of Corinth. There were also several major cults that had developed within the city of Corinth.
Therefore, it seems most honest to acknowledge that Corinth was a bit of a melting pot and likely did not have a strong undercurrent culture because, as a Greek city, it was practically destroyed before being rebuilt as a Roman city (a hundred years later) and then being infiltrated by many different ethnicities and religions.
6. The most counter-cultural element of 1 Corinthians 11:1-16 is Paul’s suggestion that men should not cover their heads when praying or prophesying.
In our Western culture today, no one really covers their head. If they do, it’s for temporary events where they want present a particular fashion.
In the cultures of Corinth, men and women regularly covered their heads. There is debate among biblical scholars as to why they covered their heads, but it is pretty well known that they did (regardless of wether they were Greek, Roman, Jewish, or something else). Some suggest it was for religious reasons, others say it was for signifying a certain social status, and others think it was simply the fashion of the culture.
Whatever the case, the most counter-cultural statement Paul makes regarding coverings would have most likely been that men who pray or prophesy with their head covered dishonors their head.
Before interacting with my interpretation of the text and how I get there, I’d like to point out a few casual observations of 1 Corinthians 11:1-16.
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