Every man praying or prophesying, having [anything] on his head, puts his head to shame.
Paul has just set out an order of headship: God, Christ, man, woman. Here he turns it into something you can see — what a man does with his head when he prays or speaks for God.
One writer weighs the act itself against what it stands for.
If a man prays or prophesies having his head covered, he dishonors his head; in itself a very small thing surely — in what it signifies, not small at all. Everything depends upon the truth which is in it, or the error. For him, the covered head is the place of subjection taken.
Another writer defines the sign, then shows where ignoring it leads.
A covering on the head is the outward sign of being in the place of subjection. An uncovered head means the opposite. God has set an order for the place of man and woman, and His people are bound to respect it. It may appear a little thing, yet if disobeyed, as it was in Corinth (where women seemed to be puffed up and refused to follow this order), it becomes a stepping stone towards more serious evil.
The verse names two activities, and they run in opposite directions. One writer defines both, then shows why a covering contradicts them for a man.
He is speaking about prayer and prophecy. In prayer we speak to God for ourselves or for others. In prophecy we speak to people on God's behalf... If the man prays or prophesies with his head covered, he dishonours himself. He claims to go to God in prayer for others, or to speak to people as from God. Yet at the same time he abandons the place of authority that God has given him. In that case, can he be surprised if neither God nor man will listen to him?
Commentators differ on the phrase "dishonors his head." Hamilton Smith, quoted above, reads it of the man himself: anyone out of his place is dishonoured before God. Another writer looks higher.
A man praying or prophesying with his head covered dishonors his head. Why? Because his head is Christ: he is therefore dishonoring Christ. Christ should not be covered up; He is the One who should be seen. If a man in this case covers his head he is covering up Christ, and in this way he dishonors Him.
The rule now runs the opposite way to Israel's practice. One writer says the reason turns on where Christ is.
If a man prays or prophesies with a covering on his head, he dishonours Christ his Head. With uncovered head the man acknowledges the headship of Christ. In Old Testament days the priests covered their heads, because they stood among visible symbols that displayed divine truth. Now Christ is the substance of those Old Testament shadows (Heb. 10:1 & Col. 2:17) and the image of the invisible God, and He is hidden from view (Col. 1:15 & 3:3). So the man leaves his head uncovered, as the image — that is, the visible representative — of God.
One writer marks out how far this rule reaches, and adds a caution beyond it.
Every man who prays or prophesies with anything on his head — that is, covered — dishonours his head, as did every woman uncovered in these same exercises. This is the order of power, and God wants the fitting behaviour He Himself has set up in those who fear Him and know His grace... But this says nothing about preaching the gospel. Still, a man should always speak reverently and act in a fitting way even when preaching, instead of yielding to nature or chasing popularity in a worldly way.
The same writer notes why these verses were written: some at Corinth "had forgotten or never known the place of men and women in God's service."
- Order. God has set an order for the place of man and woman. What a man does with his head makes that order visible.
- Sign. A covered head marks the place of subjection. On a man, one small act says something untrue.
- Head. Commentators differ on who is shamed. Some say the man shames himself by leaving the place of authority God gave him. Others say he shames Christ, his Head, by covering the One who should be seen.
- Contrast. Israel's priests covered their heads before visible symbols. Christ is now hidden from view, so the man uncovers his head as the visible representative of God.
- Scope. The rule covers praying and prophesying: speaking to God for people, and to people for God. It says nothing about preaching the gospel, though reverence belongs there too.
But every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered puts her own head to shame; for it is one and the same as a shaved [woman].
Paul has just set out an order of headship, and now he applies it to a woman who prays or prophesies out loud. Two questions follow: what does it mean to dishonour "her head," and where was this praying and prophesying happening?
The word "head" shifts between the physical head and the person it stands for. Older translations read "woman" and "man" here, where the ESV reads "wife" and "husband." One commentator sets the two cases side by side.
When a man prays or prophesies with his head covered, he dishonours his head — that is, he outwardly dishonours Christ. His own physical head stands for Christ, and Christ is to be shown, not covered. On the other hand, a woman who prays or prophesies without a head covering dishonours her head — that is, she outwardly dishonours the man. How does she do this? By virtually putting the man in the place of Christ!
Chapter 11 allows a woman to pray and prophesy; chapter 14 tells women to be silent in the assembly. Most of the writers here resolve that by noticing what this verse does not say.
In the eleventh chapter he gives directions for women when praying or prophesying. In the fourteenth he tells them to be silent in the assembly. The one place permits ministry, but does not say where it was to happen. The other says plainly that it is not to be in the assembly. Evidently, then, prayer and prophecy were to be outside of the assembly.
Commentators differ on whether the setting is public. Another writer rejects that deduction. He reads the verse as saying what a woman would do if she prayed uncovered in the assembly:
It is sometimes deduced from 1 Corinthians 11:5 that Christian women prayed in the churches. Otherwise why should praying with their heads uncovered be spoken against? The deduction does not appear to us to be legitimate. If a Christian woman prays or prophesies in the assembly with her head uncovered, she does two things. First, she defies the order about the sexes that Paul gives elsewhere. Second, she dishonours her head. Only the second is mentioned here, because the first has no direct bearing on the subject, which is the hair: how should Christian men and women wear it?
Whatever the woman here is doing, it is not the same activity forbidden elsewhere. The distinction turns on what prophesying is.
1 Corinthians 11:5 applies to no meeting of sisters. It might be in their father's house, without any formal meeting at all, as Philip's four daughters. It refers to inspiration, not to teaching. A woman is not permitted to teach.
The verse assumes God really did give women this power. What it corrects is the assumption that a gift carries its own permission slip.
We are told in Acts 21:9 that Philip the Evangelist had four unmarried daughters who prophesied. If God gives spiritual power, He means it to be used. Still, He has chosen to regulate how it is used. The Christians had made a mistake that many have made since. They supposed that having a spiritual gift means unlimited freedom to use it at all times and in all places.
The comparison sounds harsh until you see what a shorn head meant in Israel.
When a woman's head was uncovered or shaven in the Old Testament it was a mark of shame. You can see it in Numbers 5:18, where a wife was under suspicion by her husband, and in Deuteronomy 21:10-13, about a woman taken captive by an Israelite... She must have no marks of shame upon her in the presence of the Lord. She is not to appear before God as one who is suspected of being unfaithful to her husband. The covering on her head would show that she acknowledges him as her head and enjoys his fullest confidence.
One writer puts the covering into words, and shows why the same act would be wrong for a man.
The apostle shows by her hair that God had covered her, and her mind and will are put on the same ground. A woman ought to be covered at family prayers, or like one of Philip's daughters prophesying in her father's house... The man is her real head, and she must cover her own head as a sign that she is under him. In effect she says, I have no head myself. The man is my head, and I am in subjection. The man could not do that, or there would be no visible head.
- Order. Headship made visible. A woman who prays uncovered "dishonors her head" — the man — by putting him in the place of Christ.
- Gift. Women really did receive the gift of prophecy. God means a gift He gives to be used. He also decides when and where.
- Place. Chapter 11 says a woman may pray and prophesy but never says where; chapter 14 says not in the assembly. Commentators differ on whether the setting here is public.
- Sign. An uncovered head is like a shaved head, because a shorn head was a public mark of shame. The covering says the opposite: she acknowledges her husband and has his full confidence.
- Practice. The settings named are family prayers and a father's house, as with Philip's daughters. Small acts, carrying a truth that is not small.
For if a woman be not covered, let her hair also be cut off. But if [it be] shameful to a woman to have her hair cut off or to be shaved, let her be covered.
Confusion had crept into how the Corinthian believers appeared when praying and prophesying. Paul answers bluntly: a woman who refuses the covering may as well lose her hair, which raises two questions — what shame he means, and whether the covering is just her own hair.
The verse pushes a refusal to its logical end. It is a challenge, not a permission, and it shows why hair alone cannot settle the matter:
Some have also said that God gives a woman her hair as a covering, so that is enough. But God has given her long hair as a covering, and for that very reason He expects her to cover her own head too. That shows her agreement with what God has done. Notice the clear answer Scripture gives: "For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short" (v. 6). Can this mean, "if a woman does not have hair, let her also cut her hair off?" Of course the Word of God does not indulge in such foolishness. The force of this verse is this: if the woman refuses to cover her head, she might as well go all the way. She might as well refuse what God has done in giving her long hair. Honest simplicity of faith can only bow to the facts as God gives them.
Verse 6 assumes the woman still has hair to cut. So the covering must be a second thing. (Older translations read "woman" here, where the ESV reads "wife.")
First, long hair is not the covering the apostle means, as people sometimes argue. In verse 6 he says, "For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head." So the covering is something in addition to the long hair. Second, the instruction is for women — not wives only, but women — and not for children. Finally, this is no set of rules for women's dress. It is only a direction about what is fitting for them when they are praying.
The shame Paul names has a background in the law, and the covering says the opposite:
What shame did a woman's shaved or cut head confess? To answer that, we must look at the Law. There we find two occasions when the woman was shaved, or uncovered. First, when she was a suspected wife (Numbers 5). Second, when a man had recently taken her captive in battle and she was mourning her father's house, not yet joined to him (Deuteronomy 21). A woman's shaved state showed that she was not enjoying either the full confidence or the full joy of a husband. So the woman should not appear with such marks on her. The church should not look as though Christ suspected her, or as though she still felt herself a sorrowing captive. That would be her shame! But the covering on her head shows the church in neither of these states. It shows her happy in the affection and confidence of Christ, and this is her glory.
The dishonour lies in leaving the place God gave:
If she prays or prophesies with her head uncovered, she claims to express her place of dependence upon God, or to come from God. At the same time, she abandons the place of subjection in which God has placed her. In either case they have dishonoured themselves, for everyone out of his place is dishonoured before God. The uncovered woman is in effect taking the place of a man with a shaved head. It is a shame for a woman to have her head shaved, and that alone should teach her to cover it.
The covering is a sign, and one writer marvels that so small a sign sits in a letter about eternal things:
She was to have a covering on her head, a sign that she was subject to another. This may seem a very little thing. Yet what a wonderful thing it is, and what power it shows, to combine eternal things and the smallest matter of personal decorum in the same letter! The wearing of long hair or short, the use of a covering on the head or not! ... It is the smallness of man that needs big matters to make him important. But the smallest things of God have meaning when they bear on the glory of Christ, as they always do.
- Sign — the covering is a visible sign that the woman is subject to another, the place God gave her.
- Not hair — verse 6 assumes she still has hair to cut. So the covering is something added to the long hair God gave her.
- Shame — a shaved head marked a suspected wife or a mourning captive. The covering says the opposite: no suspicion, no captivity, but happy confidence.
- Dishonour — the fault is leaving your place. Anyone out of the place God gave is dishonoured before Him, man as much as woman.
- Small yet weighty — God joins the smallest matter of decorum to the greatest truths. Even small things bear on the glory of Christ.
For man indeed ought not to have his head covered, being God's image and glory; but woman is man's glory.
Paul has just said that a man who prays with his head covered shames his head, while a woman who prays uncovered shames hers. His reason reaches back to creation, and it turns on two words — "image" and "glory" — and on whose glory should be seen when the church meets.
"Image" here is not about looking like God. One writer explains it from the statues of the gods in the ancient world:
As to the "image of God" in verse 7, "image" is something that represents another, and so a man represents God, though he has certainly failed to fill the place up. The image of Jupiter was not necessarily like Jupiter, but it was made to represent him. So man keeps the place, though he has fallen in it — the same place in which God put him.
Scripture uses two words — image and likeness — and they do not mean the same thing. That difference shows how fallen people can still carry God's image, and it points to the One who represents God perfectly:
Scripture speaks of "image" and "likeness." The difference is that likeness means being like another — having the same traits and features. "Image" gives the thought of representing another, whether like or not... Man is still said to be in the "image of God" (1 Cor. 11:7), though, as fallen, he is very unlike God... The Son is "the image of the invisible God," and One who in His own Person perfectly represents God in His character and moral attributes, before the whole universe.
Man's place is not just one rank among creatures. One writer points to a dignity no angel ever had:
He was made sinless. But beyond that, he stood as the centre of an immense system. No angel was that. No angel was the one single centre of a system all around him. Adam was.
The practice follows from the place. One writer sets the bare head and the covered head side by side as a sign of two glories:
When we gather as a Christian assembly, the men remove their hats and the women remain covered... Man was made in the image of God, in His likeness, and man's place in God's creation is to stand in the image and glory of God. He is head over the creation below him; so it would not do to cover up the glory of God. The man remains uncovered, but the woman was given to the man to be his helper. The woman is the glory of the man. So in God's presence the glory of man is covered, but the glory of God is uncovered.
Notice what Paul does not say. He does not call the woman the image of man. He calls her his glory, and the proof runs back to creation, not to later custom:
So the apostle points out that man stands directly as God's image and glory. Woman is man's glory, and she has no such place of public representation for God. Whatever she has in that respect comes indirectly, through him. Creation is the proof — not the way things have gone since. So no one can judge this rightly without looking back to the beginning... It is easy to see why, where people deny creation, or even ignore it, they argue and work for equality.
One glory belongs in the assembly, and another does not:
But the woman was created for man and of man, and she is the glory of man; therefore her head must be covered when she prays or prophesies, for man's glory must not be seen, especially in the gathered assembly. Christ's glory, and not man's, is to be displayed there.
The covering is not a mark of lesser value. The place she takes is itself called her glory:
"But the woman is the glory of the man." This glory is not the one to be displayed. Indeed, it is her very glory to be in lowly subjection that seeks no public place.
- Image — the word means standing for God, not looking like Him; man still holds that place, even though he has fallen in it.
- Place — that place is a real dignity: Adam stood at the centre of a whole system, and no angel ever held it.
- Glory — Paul calls the woman man's glory, not God's image; the proof lies in creation, not in later custom.
- Covering — in God's presence the glory of man is hidden and the glory of God is left uncovered; the covering makes that visible.
- Christ — when the assembly gathers, no human glory is on show, only Christ's; and for the woman, taking that place is itself her glory.