Sermons and articles 2: Alistair Begg's sermons on the head covering Part 2

Thirdly, in Greek, Roman and Jewish cultures long hair that was flying loose, or disheveled hair or hair that had been severely cut off and shorn was a sign that its wearer had been set off from the community. The same thing that you had in the movie "Ryan's Daughter" if you recall it, where the woman was severely shorn of her hair because of her adultery. In Greek, Roman and Jewish culture that would have been normally the case.

Yes, that's true about the shorn hair from what I've read, certainly in Jewish culture, and pictures of Greek women at that time usually show their hair arranged up on their heads with a band holding it in place, so it seems likely that long loose hair was not acceptable for those two cultures at least and probably the Roman as well. Not sure there's any evidence that having long loose hair was a sign of being cut off from any culture, however, although shorn hair could mean that if it was because of adultery. In Greek culture it could also simply mean the woman was in mourning.

And fourthly, the word which is used here for "covering" throughout, apokalupto, is related to another word that is a much more unpronounceable word, a word which is found in Numbers chapter five and verse eighteen ... talking about a woman who is being challenged in terms of her faithfulness to her husband.

16 The priest shall bring her and make her stand before the Lord. Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water... He shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the remainder of the offering.

And this word for the loosening of her hair, of allowing her hair to hang down and to fall is the word which Paul uses here throughout this section.

I'm confused. I thought he earlier said that peribolaion was used "throughout." Actually, apokalupto means to UNcover (as in "reveal" or "revelation"), not cover or covering, and the word Paul uses throughout 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 (except in Verse 15) is not APOkalupto but KATAkalupto, which refers to a down-hanging covering. It COULD refer to down-hanging hair but in 1 Corinthians 11:15 Paul does not use a variation of kalupto to describe the hair at all, he uses peribolaion which can ALSO be translated "covering" but implies a wrap-around sort of covering. Again, EITHER of these words COULD be translated "veil" as well as "covering" depending on what you mean by "veil." Paul seems to have chosen to use a different word for the hair to distinguish his meaning from the covering he is advocating the woman herself put upon her head. **

Now it is for those four primary reasons that some commentators would argue that what is being referred to here is hair and nothing other than hair. That's View Number One.

OK, it doesn't hang together logically that I can see, and perhaps because it isn't his own view he isn't doing the best job of representing it, but in any case he's now going on to his own view:

View Number Two, to which I personally subscribe, is that Paul is in actual fact speaking of some kind of covering other than hair. Apart from anything else, and I have four reasons under this, but apart from anything else you've got this idea of a man being uncovered or praying uncovered. If it is hair then it's kind of like he's talking about baldy men, you know -- that if the covering that is supposed to be on a woman is her hair and that's the covering that isn't supposed to be on a man is his hair, then he's essentially supposed to be kind of bald when he prays and prophesies. It just doesn't ring for me.

Now, in favor of the view that there is some kind of covering involved here, and it's not a veil, not in terms of the Islamic faith or anything like that, but some kind of covering, we might produce this as grounds for that conclusion.

1. The verb that is translated ... "covering," which comes three times in Verses 6 and 7 and elsewhere -- that verb in comparative usage most commonly refers to an actual covering of some kind. In other words, when the word for "cover" is used other places, like in Isaiah Chapter 6 where it says of the cherubim and the seraphim that they covered their faces it is referring to an actual covering, to put something over their faces. It's not referring to letting their hair hang down over their faces, because we have no indication that cherubim actually had hair in the first place. So that's the first thing. The comparative usage of the word "covering" refers to an actual covering.

[Secondly] Philo, which is contemporary with Paul, 30 BC to AD 45, uses the same terminology to refer to the removing of a kerchief by the priest. He removes the covering. And in the literature he is referring to taking something literally off the head of the individual, a kerchief that had been draped over their head.

Thirdly, in Esther Chapter 6...verse 12, we find the same expression used as in Verse 4 [in 1 Cor 11} in relationship to this covering, and in Esther Chapter 6 you will find the account of Haman whom we are told hurried home mourning and covering his head in shame. And it is not a reference to anything that was happening with his hair. He was covering his head in shame. It was an actual literal covering, in the way that a man who is ashamed may pull his jacket over his head; in the same way that when we see people being arrested and tried in the high court often when the car pulls up they will cover themselves in shame. That is the phrase that is used in Esther 6 of the same phrase that is used here in Verse 4 and following.

And fourthly, again in contemporary literature, Plutarch, using the same exact terminology as Paul, speaks of the head being covered with part of the toga.

OK?

So, on balance, in relationship to my study at least, I've concluded that what is referred to here by Paul is a head covering of some kind. Some kind of shawl or whatever it might be. There is no indication that we should think of it in terms of a veil in the way that we have become accustomed to in terms of the Middle East.

Now maybe it's clearer what he meant earlier by "veil," apparently something that covers the face. That wouldn't have occurred to me because the word is used also for something that merely covers the head, as in the quote from Tertullian in the previous post. But that doesn't make sense of the idea that supposedly peribolaion which is used to describe the hair in Verse 10 means "veil" Well, perhaps too much has been said about this already. It doesn't make much sense no matter how you look at it but it's also not his own point of view so I'll drop it here.

As for his arguments in favor of an actual covering over the head, his observation that if hair is the covering the command for men to be uncovered then means they must get rid of their hair is a very good argument against hair as the correct interpretation. Then his four arguments from Isaiah 6 and Esther 6 and Philo and Plutarch all appear to be very solid evidence indeed for that use of the word "katakalupto" to refer to an actual covering one puts over the head, which he says is his understanding of it.

Now, the major point is clear. Namely, that women are to adorn themselves in a certain way. Right? That's his major point.

Oh I wouldn't say so. I have to say that this is LESS clear than what he's just been saying. I'd say he's done a very good job of mustering the evidence here and that it's very very clear now that Paul's major point is that women are to cover their heads. Period. The four reasons just given are the evidence he's given for that, and quite good evidence. But now instead of the clear summing up we should be getting we go from clear sharp statements about an actual headcovering to the vague and fuzzy "adorn themselves in a certain way," even using "adorn," that false word of Dr. Schreiner's that implies something for the purpose of beautification, which is not at all a part of the meaning of katakalupto.

TO BE CONTINUED.

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** On reading this it occurred to me for the first time that since it most likely was the case that women in Paul's day all wore their long hair up on their heads in one form or another and never let it hang down what Paul meant by "peribolaion" might refer to that. I automatically picture long loose hair to explain the idea of a covering, no doubt because that's such a common way it is worn today, while Paul was probably picturing hair put up on the head. That doesn't suggest to me that the problem he was dealing with was women's not putting their hair up, as the theory being considered here argues, since it seems highly unlikely that Christian women would ignore such an ingrained custom if to do so would tarnish their reputation. But it does suggest that when Paul used the term peribolaion to describe the way the hair is a covering he might have been picturing the hair as put up on the head or "wrapped around" the head, as very long hair would certainly do, perhaps in long braids. That could explain why he used that particular word for "covering" here, as the other word for the added covering he used, katakalupto, suggests a down-falling covering, such as a shawl or a cloth large enough to drape over the head and hang down a ways.