Head covering for Christian women
Christian head covering, also known as Christian veiling, is the traditional practice of women covering their head in a variety of Christian denominations. Some Christian women wear the head covering in public worship and during private prayer at home, while others believe women should wear head coverings at all times. Many theologians of the Oriental and Eastern Orthodox Churches likewise teach that it is "expected of all women to be covered not only during liturgical periods of prayer, but at all times, for this was their honor and sign of authority given by our Lord", while others have held that headcovering should at least be done during prayer and worship. Genesis 24:65 records the veil as a feminine emblem of modesty.
Manuals of early Christianity, including the Didascalia Apostolorum and Pædagogus, instructed that a headcovering must be worn by women during prayer and worship as well as when outside the home. When Paul the Apostle commanded women to be veiled in 1 Corinthians, the surrounding pagan Greek women did not wear head coverings; as such, the practice of Christian headcovering was countercultural in the Apostolic Era, being a biblical ordinance rather than a cultural tradition. The style of headcovering varies by region, though Apostolic Tradition specifies an "opaque cloth, not with a veil of thin linen".
Those enjoining the practice of head covering for Christian women while "praying and prophesying" ground their argument in 1 Corinthians 11:2–16. Denominations that teach that women should wear head coverings at all times additionally base this doctrine on Paul's dictum that Christians are to "pray without ceasing", Paul's teaching that women being unveiled is dishonourable, and as a reflection of the created order. The consensus of Biblical scholars conclude that in 1 Corinthians 11 "verses 4–7 refer to a literal veil or covering of cloth" for "praying and prophesying" and hold verse 15 to refer to the hair of a woman given to her by nature.
Christian headcovering with a cloth veil was the practice of the early Church, being universally taught by the Church Fathers and practiced by Christian women throughout history, continuing to be the ordinary practice among Christians in many parts of the world, such as Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, Ethiopia, India and Pakistan; additionally, among Conservative Anabaptists such as the Conservative Mennonite churches and the Dunkard Brethren Church, headcovering is counted as an ordinance of the Church, being worn throughout the day by women. However, in much of the Western world the practice of head covering declined during the 20th century and in churches where it is not practiced, veiling as described in 1 Corinthians 11 is usually taught as being a societal practice for the age in which the passage was written.
History
Scriptural and Second Temple background
During the time of Moses, the Bible records that it was normative for women to wear a head covering. In Numbers 5:18, the sotah ritual, in which the head of a woman accused of adultery is uncovered, is explicated, implying that normally a woman's head is covered; the Talmud thus teaches that the Torah commands women to go out in public with their heads covered. This head covering worn during biblical times was a veil or headscarf.In the Old Testament's Book of Daniel, Susanna wore a head covering and wicked men demanded that it be removed so that they might lust after her. records that Rebecca, while traveling to meet Isaac, covered her head for modesty, demonstrating "her sense of propriety on meeting her betrothed." The removal of a woman's veil in the passage of is linked with nakedness and shame. The biblical book Song of Songs records "the erotic nature of hair from the verse, 'Your hair is as a flock of goats', i.e., from a verse praising her beauty." Jewish law around the time of Jesus stipulated that a married woman who uncovered her hair in public evidenced her infidelity.
Apostolic period (1st century)
Paul first established the Christian community in Corinth around 51–52 AD after arriving from Athens. The church was culturally mixed, composed mostly of Gentiles with some Jewish presence. During his extended stay in Ephesus, Paul received reports of divisions and disorder in the Corinthian church. In response he wrote 1 Corinthians, probably in the spring before Pentecost, and sent it from Ephesus by trusted messengers in the late winter or early spring of 56 AD.In his greeting Paul calls them "the church of God" in Corinth but also includes "all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ," indicating the following directives were framed for the wider Christian audience.
In chapter 11, verses 2–16, Paul first praises the Corinthians for remembering him in everything and for holding fast to the traditions just as he handed them on.
He then states a hierarchy in which Christ is the head of every man, the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ.
Next he addresses men who pray or prophesy with covered heads and women who do so with uncovered heads, behaviour he describes as dishonouring the "head," and he instructs men to remain bareheaded while such women should be veiled. To support this, he sets out the chain of heads, distinguishes between man as image and glory of God and woman as glory of man. Then appeals to the woman’s creation "from" and "for" the man and to her having "authority" on her head "because of the angels", and then balances this with an affirmation of the mutual dependence of man and woman "in the Lord".
Paul assumes the Corinthians know what is proper, and his "nature" appeal functions as part of a battery of arguments from theology, Scripture, custom, and reason. Aware that his complicated arguments may not convince everyone, he concludes what he insists is the universal Christian custom, the practice of the churches of God..
Between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, Paul made what is known as the "painful" visit to Corinth, which left both sides distressed, and then sent a severe letter now lost. According to 2 Corinthians, Titus later reported that Paul's rebuke produced "godly sorrow," leading the Corinthians to repent and show renewed zeal and loyalty.
Paul expressed consolation at this change and even boasted of their readiness to believers in Macedonia, using their example to stir generosity. The letter is also addressed to "all the holy people in the whole of Achaia," and Collins suggests that Christians from other towns in the province may have joined the Corinthian assembly at times, indicating that practices circulated regionally.
Patristic period (2nd–5th centuries)
Early Christian writers broadly wrote on the practice of women's head coverings, teaching that Paul's instructions applied to both prayer and daily dress. Taken together, these sources present a largely unified patristic expectation that modest Christian women cover their heads not only in worship but in ordinary life. Many scholars infer that, as Christianity gained imperial standing in the fourth century, such clerical ideals increasingly shaped social practice. Some of the reasons by the Church Fathers for covering include: associating a woman's hair with erotic allure; arguing that women should assume the veil at puberty; treating it as integral to women's attire; and appealing to "natural law".Early Christian art and architecture indicate that women prayed with cloth veils on their heads; catacomb depictions from the second and third centuries show women praying with head coverings.
2nd century
Starting in the second century, Irenaeus treats 1 Corinthians 11:10 as authentic apostolic instruction tied to women's prophecy. In Against Heresies 3.11.9 he defends Paul's witness to prophetic gifts "of men and women" in the church, implying that the Pauline regulation on women's head coverings applied in worship.Clement of Alexandria, an early Christian theologian, instructed in Paedagogus that women should be fully covered in public and may uncover only at home. He presents this dress as sober and protective against public gaze, argues that modest veiling prevents both personal lapse and provoking others to sin, and states that women ought to pray veiled as fitting the will of the Word.
3rd century
Into the third century, Tertullian in De virginibus velandis addresses a Carthaginian dispute in which virgins, that is, unmarried females who have reached puberty, appeared in church unveiled. Citing 1 Corinthians, some argued that Paul's veiling rule bound only "wives," not virgins. Tertullian replies on three grounds. First through custom: the practice of the major, apostolic churches is veiling; going unveiled is immodest and disrupts ecclesial unity. Second by definition: "woman" is a single gender embracing virgins, widows, and wives; Eve before marriage and Mary show that virgins are still women. Thirdly by nature and lineage: long hair, cosmetics, and the veil are "testimonies of the body" marking a shared female nature, linked to Eve's transgression and the "daughters of men" narrative; the veil signifies penance and restrains seduction. He reframes the debate from bodily practice to scriptural argument, claims unveiling compromises virginity, and bases the issue in church order: if virgins formed a separate gender they might claim teaching or baptizing. Since they do not perform male functions, they share the same genus as matrons and must remain veiled.Hippolytus of Rome while giving instructions for church gatherings said "...let all the women have their heads covered with an opaque cloth, not with a veil of thin linen, for this is not a true covering."
The apocryphal Acts of Thomas, preserved in both Greek and Syriac versions, includes a "tour of hell" section describing punishments for various sins. In the Greek version, the narrator reports that "those that are hung by the hair are the shameless who have no modesty at all and go about in the world bareheaded."