“A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.”

The first argument, or reasoning, Paul gives for this practice–that men (in a worship setting) should not cover their heads, and that women (in a worship setting) should cover their heads–is an argument from the order of creation.

If you’ve ever taken a class on exegesis/hermeneutics, on how to properly interpret Scripture, you’ll remember that one of the fundamental questions to ask yourself about any given text, in trying to discern a passage’s applicability to us today, is: Does the language being used appear to be cultural, or timeless? Is the writer appealing to culture, or to something more absolute? Based on the writer’s language–in other words–does this sound like a matter of culture, or does it not? The vast majority of Christians today, if they are aware of this passage at all, assume a cultural interpretation. Yet the vast majority of Christians throughout history have held this passage, and the practice it describes, to be one that transcends culture. (More, perhaps, on that later. But for now, an interesting note–though the practice had likely lost its meaning earlier, the covering of the head in worship was only thrown out altogether among churches in this country around the middle of the 20th century–which, incidentally, is also when feminism and the women’s liberation movement was born in our country. It’s also interesting that the vestiges of the man’s direction to remove his head covering still remain in certain settings, as a sign of respect.)

But to return to our main point–when we seek to interpret passages that present difficulties to us, or that differ with something we currently believe, we ought to examine the language used by the writer and determine whether it sounds culturally-based or otherwise.

Let’s begin next time to go through Paul’s reasoning from the order of creation (and then on to his other reasons) with this in mind.

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