After a hiatus for the past few weeks, we continue with the fourth in the summer blog series on head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16….

Both the Traditional and Hyper-Conservative views of 1 Corinthians 11:21-6 generally assume that the women in Corinth were in some sort of rebellion, which prompted the Apostle Paul to issue some instruction to require the use of head coverings.

But is this “women in rebellion” assumption accurate? Another perspective, the “Symbol of Protection” view, as I call it, seriously questions that assumption, actually flipping it on its head.

Instead of admonishing the women of Corinth to put on a head covering, this perspective suggests the situation was ironically just the opposite. Women in Corinth were being encouraged to ditch the head covering, even though the women were hesitant to do so. Instead, the women of Corinth looked upon the head covering as a sign of protection, and Paul was chastising the Corinthians (mainly the men) for discouraging the women from wearing their head covering.

Everything about head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11 (well, maybe not “everything,” but we try to hit the highlights here at Veracity)

So, what was that all about? Like the Traditional view, this Symbol of Protection view takes the honor and shame principle seriously, but frames the idea very differently.¹

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Announcing the third post in our summer blog series….

When you read 1 Corinthians all the way through, you run into a big problem trying to reconcile 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 with a quirky, often overlooked passage in 1 Corinthians 14. In 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, Paul is saying that women are praying and prophesying in church. He wants to urge these women to have some type of head covering, but the point is “mostly” accepted that the women are not silent in church. They are active participants in the communal worship experience.

The problem is that 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 on the surface says the exact opposite: “the women should keep silent in church….” concluding with, “….For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.”

It looks as though Paul is contradicting himself. Critics of the Bible easily jump on this to say that the Bible can not be trusted because of its internal contradictions. I wrote a blog post a few years ago that explores this “Corinthian Conundrum” in detail, that hopefully makes better sense of this difficult passage, so I will not repeat the discussion here, other than to conclude that most interpreters have discovered that a completely flat reading of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 does not fit the evidence at hand.¹

Everything about head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11 (well, maybe not “everything,” but we try to hit the highlights here at Veracity)

However, there is a school of thought that goes about reconciling 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 and 14:34-35 in a completely different direction. It might be called the “Hyper-Conservative” view of 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, or just simply the “John MacArthur View.” The reason why I call it the “John MacArthur View” is because I first saw this in John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church in Los Angeles about 25 years ago.

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Here is the second post in our summer blog series….

The Traditional view regarding the head coverings passage of 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 actually has a lot of parts to it. This blog series is not an exhaustive study, as there are bulky doctoral dissertations and commentaries that explore this passage in-depth. But here in this Veracity blog series, we will try to hit the highlights in bite-size pieces.

Everything about head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11 (well, maybe not “everything,” but we try to hit the highlights here at Veracity)

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