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An exposition
of 1 Corinthians 11:2-16
The Head Covering part 3
Peter DitzelVerse 4: Every man praying or prophesying, having
his head covered, dishonoreth his head. Paul has just explained in verse 3 that the head of
every man is Christ. Therefore, the obvious meaning here in verse 4 is that
every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered (having on a head
covering) dishonors Jesus Christ, his spiritual head. The reason is given in
verse 7. Man is God’s glory and God’s glory should not be covered
during public worship. To cover his head in public worship would be to
symbolically abandon his God-given place of authority and, so, dishonor the
One in authority over him, Jesus Christ. I want to address what Paul means by praying and
prophesying. The meaning of the latter has especially been debated. I believe that the prophesying Paul refers to is
the gift of receiving direct revelation from God, especially concerning
future events. The Bible does not support the position of those who say that
this word also refers to preaching. I think if you use a concordance and look
up the New Testament occurrences of the word, you will see what I mean. In 1
Corinthians 13:8, Paul specifically identifies prophesying, speaking in
tongues, and receiving directly revealed knowledge as gifts that were to end.
Most non-Charismatics understand that this ending took place when God’s
revelation for this age was complete—that is, when the Bible was
completely written. Preachers today do not prophesy. They tend to do a
mixture of preaching (that is, evangelizing and proclaiming), teaching, and
exhorting. Preaching, teaching, and exhorting are all translated from their
own Greek words. They are not prophesying. Praying, of course, continues. But I must now ask
what I believe is an important question: Why did Paul name praying and
prophesying and not such things as speaking in tongues, speaking directly
revealed knowledge, preaching, exhorting, teaching, or singing? The essence
of these things is the same. That is, they are all a form of speaking
authoritatively—either giving direct revelation, proclaiming
revelation, calling to action based on revelation, or explaining revelation
and how it can be applied, or worshipping through prayer or singing. Surely,
there can be no reason why Paul chose praying and prophesying except that
they are two examples from the list. In other words, I believe that Paul
would agree that it is just as wrong for a man to preach or teach with his
head covered as it is for him to pray and prophesy with his head covered.
Paul simply named two activities of public worship to stand for all. Some like to point to 1 Samuel 10:5 and 1
Chronicles 25:1-3 as proving that singing is also prophesying. But nothing in
these verses says this. The most natural understanding of what these verses
say of the relationship between singing and prophesying is that a prophet may
sing a prophecy. But not all singing in worship is prophesying. Verse 5: But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth
with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head: for that is even all one as if
she were shaven. Again, with verse 3 in mind, we see that
Paul’s inspired instruction here is that every woman who prays or
prophesies with her head uncovered (not having on a head covering) dishonors
her head (her man, whether husband, father, or guardian). Again, the reason
is given in verse 7 (the woman is man’s glory, and man’s glory
should be covered during worship). I will comment on “for that is even
all one as if she were shaven” in my comments on verse 6. As explained under verse 4, praying and
prophesying are two parts of public worship that represent all of public
worship. In 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, Paul orders, “Let your women keep
silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they
are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will
learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for
women to speak in the church.” Paul could hardly have been clearer. He
repeats the instruction in 1 Timothy 2:11-12: “Let the woman learn in
silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp
authority over the man, but to be in silence.” In fact, the directions
regarding women in 1 Corinthians 14 come right after instructions relating to
speaking in tongues and prophesying. How could the women speak in tongues or
prophesy if they were to be silent? Obviously, they were not to speak in
tongues or prophesy. And Paul’s commands about women in 1 Timothy 2 are
specifically contrasted to the men praying aloud (verse 8). Again, it is
obvious that the women were not to pray aloud. I discuss this more fully in
“The Role
of Women in the Church.” Here, I want to simply point out that
Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, unmistakably forbids women
from speaking in public worship. Speaking involved authority that women do
not have. What, then, does Paul mean in 1 Corinthians 11:5
when he writes of “every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her
head uncovered”? I will give three possible answers. I. Perhaps Paul is addressing behavior outside of
public worship. Women must be silent in church meetings. They may, however,
pray and prophesy outside of church as long as their heads are covered. The context, however, presents a hurdle to this
being a satisfactory solution. In verse 2, Paul is introducing the topic of
decorum in the church, and he continues this topic even beyond the chapter.
Notice that in verse 2 he says, “Now I praise you.” But in verse
17, he says, “I praise you not.” Verse 17, as verse 18 plainly
shows, is about the assembly of the church. These two phrases show the
cohesiveness of the entire chapter. If verses 17 and 18 and those that follow
are about “when ye come together in the church,” so are verses 2
through 16. II. Possibly, the Corinthians were allowing two
errors in this regard, and Paul is treating them separately. He is saying in
1 Corinthians 11, You are allowing your women to speak with their heads
uncovered. This is a shame. And, furthermore, it is wrong to allow the women
to speak in church at all (1 Corinthians 14). This “solution” makes us ask the
obvious: Why would Paul address this problem of women speaking with their
heads uncovered in two distinct arguments that are separated by 95 verses
(between 1 Corinthians III. Praying and prophesying can refer to more
than speaking. When someone leads in prayer or in prophesying (or in
preaching, teaching, etc.), the entire assembly participates, even if
silently. Therefore, everyone present can be said to be participating in that
aspect of worship. After all, men do not sit in church wearing head coverings
and remove them only when they stand up to speak. All of the men and women
are participating, whether vocally or silently. Therefore, the men’s
heads should be uncovered and the women’s heads covered during the
entire meeting. For women, praying and prophesying refers to
their role in the public worship, which is done in silence. The context of 1
Corinthians 11 is public worship, not some sort of praying or prophesying outside
of this. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul is not addressing the idea of women
speaking. It is not what he has in mind. He has public worship in mind, and
for women public worship is silent. This is not unique to 1 Corinthians 11.
Paul does the same thing in at least two other places. In 1 Corinthians 14,
he also talks of public worship, and he instructs the men about speaking in
tongues and prophesying and says the women are to be silent. In 1 Timothy 2,
Paul again instructs about proper decorum in public worship and tells the men
how to publicly pray and says that the women are to worship by dressing
modestly and being silent. So, Paul considers public worship to not just be
praying and prophesying, but also many other things (such as preaching and
teaching), and to not just be the speaking, but also the silent
participation. Therefore, in public worship, men, whether speaking or not,
are to not cover their heads, and women, who are not to speak, are to cover
their heads. I see this explanation as satisfactory, but there
is another question. In Acts 2:17 and 18, Peter, quoting Joel, says,
“…your sons and your daughters shall prophesy…and on my
servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.” And Acts 21:9 tells us that Philip the
evangelist “had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.” We
have already seen that the gift of prophesying has since ceased. But in what
way did daughters, handmaidens, and virgins prophesy? Philip lived in Caesarea, on the coast of the
northern part of Samaria. Yet, although his daughters “did
prophesy” (Acts 21:9), God had the male prophet Agabus come all the way
from Judea to Caesarea to prophesy to Paul (Acts 21:10-11). Apparently, God
did not give Paul the prophecy through the four daughters even though they
were close at hand. From the time that Peter announced the commencement of
Joel’s prophecy to the end of the Bible, what words of a woman prophet
are recorded? None. It seems clear to me that whatever these daughters,
handmaidens, and virgins did in the way of prophesying, it was not public. It is also likely that only a few daughters,
handmaidens, and virgins chosen by the Holy Spirit prophesied and that the
prophesying they did may very well have been in the confines of their
father’s or master’s homes in a family setting. This was not a
gift given to women in general, and it was not done in public. I think it is
safe to say, then, that Paul was not at all addressing in 1 Corinthians 11
the private prophesying of these daughters, handmaidens, and virgins. I would like to make another point concerning
verses 4 and 5. They clearly show the inconsistency of the position, often
taken by Mennonites and Amish, that a woman is to always wear a head
covering. These verses teach that a woman is to wear a head covering in
exactly the same situations that a man is not to wear a head covering. If a
woman is to always wear a head covering, then a man must never cover his
head, whatever the weather. But Mennonite and Amish men often wear hats. The
way they get around this is to artificially define the head covering in
unbiblical terms. According to their definition, a man’s hat is not a
head covering. In fact, these Mennonite definitions get so specific that they
often define a head covering as precisely the type of covering worn by their
particular branch of Mennonites. This can go so far that some Mennonites will
consider the women’s head coverings of other Mennonite churches
improper coverings. But the Bible does not give us such precise definitions
of head coverings. Those who teach that women are to always wear a
head covering miss the relationship between the long hair that a woman has
all the time and the extra covering worn during public worship. This is
discussed below. Copyright
© 2006 wordofhisgrace.org |
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