3 Cultures of Head Coverings

Introduction

Going to a Mennonite church for the past fifteen years, I knew about head coverings. Most of the women there, especially the older women, wore them every time they went to church. At first, head coverings struck me as strange because I never saw women in other Christian denominations wear any head coverings. The more I thought about it, though, I did know of a religious rule that stretched across all denominations. Ever since I could remember, church taught me, as a man, to take off my hat during prayer time. I became confused on why I had to uncover my head while women had to cover their head. I became even more confused upon a clear, straightforward reading of 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. I wondered why most church denominations follow Paul’s command for men to keep their heads uncovered, but so few denominations, like the Mennonites, followed through on Paul’s command for the women to keep their heads covered.

When it comes to the issue of head coverings, to get the best interpretation of 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, the cultural context of first headwear needs to be considered. Figuring out that culture does not come easily, though. Corinth began as a Greek city, became a Roman colony upon the Roman Empire conquering it, and the city also had a heavy Jewish population. The culture of Corinth is multifaceted; it cannot be contained to one culture. Therefore, in order to fully understand head coverings in Corinth, first must come an understanding of head wear from the Jewish perspective, the Greek perspective, and the Roman perspective.

The Jews and Head Coverings

No verse in the Old Testament commands women to wear head coverings, nor does any verse even hint that head coverings were a regular practice. This does not mean that women did not decorate their head at all. On the contrary, the Old Testament does record decorating the hair. For example, Isaiah 3:18-24 lists headbands, headdresses, turbans and veils as items the Lord will take away from the women’s heads. By the time of the New Testament, not much had changed in the Jewish stance on head coverings. Women felt no pressure to wear a head covering or a veil. This did not change for a few centuries after the New Testament, when Rabbis began interpreting an early rule from the Mishna that an uncovered head could lead to grounds for divorce. The same goes for men. The famous skull cap which modern-day Jews wear did not become a practice until centuries after Paul’s lifetime.

While Jewish people did not see it disgraceful to not wear a cloth head covering, the Jews saw it as disgraceful for women to wear their hair down. Most, if not all, women wore their hair up with the help of a hair net. Women with their hair down brought shame upon themselves. In Numbers 5:18, a priest would let down a woman’s hair to reveal her as an adulteress. Rabbinic laws does not allow women to let their hair flow loosely because the rabbis believed that men only had the right to free, loose hair. The punishment for any wife with loose hair would be divorce from her husband. Any man who loosed a woman’s hair in public had to pay a fine. The Jewish rabbis carefully made sure women wore their hair up. Therefore, in the first century Jewish mindset, a woman covering her head might simply be her hair up on her head.

The Greeks and Head Coverings

The Greeks did not use head coverings during worship. The concept of head coverings during worship was so foreign to them that they did not understand why other religions did require head coverings. The closest prohibition was the ban of face veils in the pagan temples, as well as any jewelry meant for the hair. Even outside the temple and religious worship, Greek art rarely depicts Greek women wearing any kind of head covering in public. When they do, it depicts them wearing hair nets in order to keep their hair up. The few examples are portraits of noblewomen on coins. Since the coins only depict women of high status wearing the head covering, the head covering in Greek culture might symbolize ruling power. The same goes for veils. Women rarely wore veils in public, too.

The Greeks also had cultural beliefs about hair, and women should wear their hair. At the temple of Dionysus in Corinth, the prophetesses would perform multiple duties, such as engage in sexual acts and prophesying. In all their duties, the prophetesses would always wear their hair down, free flowing. This free-flowing hair practice lies deep with the doctrine of the Dionysiac cult. Dionysus was the Greek god of grapes, vineyards and wine. Because of the alcoholic properties of wine, Dionysus became known as a god all about setting people free. Dionysus set his worshippers free from the daily grind of life. Dionysus set them free from sexual restraints that society put on them. Dionysus set them free from the male oppression brought on by their fathers and husbands. All this became symbolized by letting the hair down and flow freely, another act of freedom. Loose hair to the Dionysiac cult worshipper meant getting far away from social norms and reconnecting with nature. After all, Greek mythology stated that Dionysus always worked with his hair down. While the female worshippers of the Dionysiac cult found freedom in letting their hair down, some Greek men found this to be offensive.

The Romans and Head Coverings

Romans art visually helps Bible readers understand the Roman culture of head coverings. A statue of Caesar Augustus making a sacrifice shows Augustus wearing a part of his toga over his head when making a sacrifice. The head of Nero, which most likely came from a similar statue, also displays the toga over the head. Many marble statues of women have been recovered from the sites of ruins. In almost all of these statues, all the women have their hair pulled back, and none of them have their head covered. Not only does art show what people look like, but all the currency of the day also depicts what people looked like. A coin with the head of Augustus shows the head of Augustus with no head covering or any head gear for that matter. Livia, the wife of Augustus, has appeared on a couple different coins. On one coin, Livia has her hair back, pinned in a knot. On another coin, Livia wears a cloth covering over her head. Augustus’s successor, Nero, appears on coins during his reign. His coins display him wearing a laurel wreath around his head. Another Roman emperor, Emperor Hadrian, is also depicted wearing a laurel wreathe on a coin. These two emperors probably established the idea that laurel wreathes on the head as a sign of an emperor.

 

 

Head coverings were not foreign to the Romans at all. The most famous head gear of the Romans is the wreath they would wear around their head. Most commonly they were laurel wreathes, but they could also be made from celery, pine and olive trees. These crowns were given to royalty and military leaders. Winners of sports games would also receive these wreathes when they won. Occasionally they would be worn in religious rituals.

In the Roman culture, worshippers did wear head coverings. These head coverings were not separate pieces of cloth. The Roman worshippers would simply pull his or her toga over his or her head. Both men and women wore this head covering in worship. While this practice was custom in worship, no rule required worshippers to wear a head covering. The only time when worshippers of the Roman gods needed to wear head coverings were during special sacrifices. These sacrifices were rare, though. Only priests would perform these sacrifices, as well, possibly hinting that only religious leaders would need to cover their heads.

More often than head coverings, Roman art displays Roman women wearing their hair up on their heads. Women hairstyles ranged between braided up and tied up, but they are always up and never covered with a head covering. Sometimes women did wear head coverings. They had special head coverings for special events. For example, brides had a wedding head covering, which was a red veil. At the same time, special events like weddings and funerals would allow women to let their hair down in a socially acceptable fashion, usually with a head covering. Men, however, kept their head uncovered at all times, even through these special events.

Conclusion

 

Despite three different cultures living in Corinth all the people of Corinth probably shared similar views on head coverings because of the similar stances on head coverings between the Jews, Greeks and Romans. Neither Jews nor Greeks nor Romans had any rule, law or command in the political realm or the spiritual realm that required men or women to cover their heads. In all three societies, most men and women kept their heads uncovered, and those who did wear coverings on their head were few. In all three cultures, women wore their hair up as the cultural norm. On the flip side, all three cultures frowned upon women who wore their hair down in a free-flowing fashion. Women who did so could bring shame and embarrassed on themselves and anyone close to them.

With a better cultural understand of head coverings and hair styles in first century Corinth, a Christian can make a better interpretation of 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 and can better understand the message Paul attempted to get across to his readers. 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 could serve as another call from Paul to be counter culturally, just as Paul does in Romans 12:2. From this cultural study of head coverings and hairstyles, a Christian can safely conclude that when Paul calls for women to cover their heads, Paul calls for them to put their hair, or on the flip side, Paul speaks against worshipping with their hair down and free-flowing. Such worship the people of Corinth associated with worship of Dionysus. Worship of Dionysus included sexual revelry and liberal lifestyles. Therefore, by transitive property, women who wear their hair down got associated with sexual revelry and liberal lifestyles. Paul wanted the Christians or Corinth to display to the rest of Corinth that Jesus was nothing like Dionysus by living lifestyles completely different from the pagan worship of Dionysus. God would not tolerate such sin in worshipping him. The Christians in Corinth were to worship the Holy One in a holy manner during worship.

Today, Christians still debate how to interpret this passage. The literalists still want women to cover their heads, whether it is a skull cap or a bandana. If they really wanted to go literally, this cultural study would tell them to cover the woman’s head, the woman should wear her hair up, not apply cloth to the skull. Yet this literal interpretation still misses the point Paul tries to communicate with the Corinthian Christians and Christians around the world. This is where the literalist answer is not the best answer, but rather the contextual literalist answer is. Paul wants to Christians to live lives counter-cultural to the world, especially in worship. Paul doesn’t want Christians merely “Christianize” a pagan religion, but rather worship in a way that is set apart as holy to the Lord. In the first century Roman Empire, it looked like women wearing their hair up, but it wouldn’t look like that in twenty-first century. To accurately apply this passage, Christians would need to figure out a way to worship God that does not conform to every other religion, including atheism, but really set them apart as Christian. For starters, this could mean rejecting styles of worship that were borrowed from other religions. Simply adding the adjective “Christian” to eastern practices like yoga and meditation that empties the mind to find inner peace does not make them Christian. After rejecting foreign worship rituals, Christian can further set apart their worship by focusing on the doctrines that make Christianity unique to other religions and find out ways to live them out. For example, since Christians believe Jesus is God Incarnate, they could worship in ways that involve both the physical body, as well as mind and spirit. Since Christians believe in the resurrection, Christians should live out a lifestyle that has them focusing on and preparing for their second life. Since Christians believe they are co-heirs with Christ, Christians can practice it by taking care of the earth they will co-reign with Christ. By practicing Christianity in this way, instead of focusing on what men and women put on top of their heads at church, Christians can truly live out Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16.