Paul, Women, and Veils in Corinth

For me, what is easily one of the most perplexing passages in all of Scripture is 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 about women and head-coverings. In particular, v. 10, “For this reason a woman ought to have authority over her head, because of the angels.” And Paul is adamant about this: “But if anyone is disposed to be contentious—we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God” (v. 16)!

Photo by javad allahyari on Unsplash

Paul brings together a heap of things in this passage:, Corinthian gender norms, honor and shame, clothing, his reading of Genesis 1, the God-Christ relationship, propriety in prophecy, and even appeals to “nature.”

I’m a professional biblical scholar and even I find this section confusing and hard to follow!

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My boss Brian Rosner and his co-author Roy Ciampa have some wise comments in their Pillar New Testament Commentary. They think Paul is responding to a question along the following lines:

Paul, we want you to know that we have faithfully kept the traditions you passed on to us, but some of us are wondering whether those traditions have been faithfully implemented even in the way we have worshipped since you founded this church. For instance, as things are now, our men come to worship with their heads uncovered, but women have been covering their heads. Some of us wonder why we continue to distinguish between men and women in this way since among the traditions you passed on to us is the fact that we are all parts of God’s new creation and that in this new creation there is no longer Jew nor Greek, slave or free, or even “male and female.” More and more women are out in public these days with their heads uncovered, just like men. Some find this very offensive, but others feel that the offended are merely old-fashioned and that the gospel would have us celebrate our sameness in Christ (pp. 501-2).

On the whole, I think Rosner/Ciampa are correct about what Paul’s primary intention is. They write:

Despite its obscurities, Paul’s teaching in this passage clearly affirms three things: a balance between (1) respect for a creation mandate to maintain and even celebrate the gender distinctions with which we have been created; (2) a respect for culturally specific approaches to guarding moral and sexual purity; and (3) a commitment to fully integrating women and their gifts into the experience of the worshiping community (p. 503).

Interesting too is how they note that the main point of contention is not about authority but attire. Men and women can exercise the same gift of prophecy, the question is what, in Corinth, is the appropriate way to dress for the occasion!

Paul distinguishes not between their roles (both men and women are free to pray and prophesy), but between the proper attire expected for either of them to engage in those activities (p. 504).

One newish article on head coverings is by Janelle Peters, “Slavery and the Gendered Construction of Worship Veils in 1 Corinthians,” Biblica 101.3 (2020): 431-443 (which you can read at Peters’ academia.edu page). She looks at the intersection between culture and socio-economics. She concludes:

Paul’s instructions give the veil to women in addition to restricting it from men. While recent scholarship has contended that Paul only removes honor from the men, I have shown that Paul extends honor to women by allowing all women to veil. The position that Paul takes away honor from men to assign women marriage veils presumes different contexts for male and female veiling occurring at the same event. As Pitta has advanced, this view is not corroborated by the lack of male veiling in many religious contexts in Corinth, including that of the cult of Isis. It also ignores the significant frequency of female headgear in secular and religious roles.  Paul is concerned with messengers, outsiders of angelic or human origins, in 1 Cor 11,1-16 in a manner similar to his relativization of glossolalia as an activity that could be incomprehensible to visitors (1 Cor 14,23). However, as in his instruction with glossolalia, church remains a liturgical activity. The ecclesial gathering does not represent a return to ordinary time in public, non-church settings with accompanying lesser expectations for veiling. By having the Corinthian Christians veil according to their gender during their assembly, Paul implies that the Corinthians should identify by their gender instead of by their social class, which would have proscribed the veil from some of them. Paul progresses through his instruction trying to unravel the hierarchies whose formulations he mimics at the beginning of the pericope. Just as men and women are explicitly found to be inter-dependent rather than hierarchically ordered, so free and enslaved persons gain tacit equality.

In other words, all women, whether well-to-do or poor, must veil, as this assigns honor to them irrespective of class.

To be honest, I don’t have all the answers to every issue that 1 Cor 11:2-16 raises, but I find these points a good place to start to try to get some clarity on the whole “head coverings” thing.

Feel free to share your thoughts!