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[...] However, I'm not convinced of the "veil = long hair" position either, like Candy, but I arrived at it on a different train of thought. Going by what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:5-6—in addition to what I see married women / engaged women doing in the Old Testament—it's a cloth / veil of some sort, not one's hair.

For example, in Genesis 24:64-67, Rebekah covers herself with a veil (not with her hair) when she's about to meet her betrothed (Isaac).

Genesis 24:64-67 (NIV)

64 Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel 65 and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?”

“He is my master,” the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself.

66 Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. 67 Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

In Numbers 5:18, as part of the jealousy offering, when the married woman is suspected of cheating on her husband, her hair is loosened.

Numbers 5:18 (NIV)

18 After the priest has had the woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse.

Numbers 5:18 (CJB)

18 The cohen will place the woman before Adonai, unbind the woman’s hair and put the grain offering for remembering in her hands, the grain offering for jealousy; while the cohen has in his hand the water of embitterment and cursing.

Women, who were married/once they were promised to be married (and they approved of the husband apparently, and that approval was supposed to be demonstrated by loyalty and keeping her hair covered) did not have their hair out and about in its full glory for all to see—and in their case, they're not even praying or prophesying. This is just about being married and having your head covered in response to this.

So, by the time I got to 1 Corinthians 11 and read verses 5-6:

1 Corinthians 11:5-6 (NIV)

5 But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head shaved. 6 For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head.

...I was already operating on a conviction that it had to do with a cloth / veil (not hair), but I still considered the opposite stance to see if it made cohesive sense: I asked myself, if "covering one's head" = "long hair", then "uncovered" means, what exactly? bald head / hair-shorn off? If so, then we have to plug that in, and it resulted in a problem for verse 6, "For if a woman does not cover her head [is bald/has her hair shorn off], she might as well have her hair cut off [...]". That makes no sense. Her hair is already shorn off / she's already bald, what is there to cut?

However, if to "cover one's head" = "take a veil and cover your long hair", thus "uncovering one's head" = "taking the veil off of your long hair", then verse 6 does make sense. "For if a woman does not cover her head [does not cover her long hair/takes off the veil/has no veil on her long hair], she might as well have her hair cut off [...]" because this woman is married and she should not be doing this as a married woman, dishonoring her husband like that, by showing off her long hair as if she wasn't married or is not in agreement/approval of having him as her husband/head, nor being loyal to that husband/head.

What throws people off is verse 15, and I think there's an assumption being made here: that's it's still talking about a covering for the head, as opposed to a covering for the body.

1 Corinthians 11:14-15 (NIV)

14 Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, 15 but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering.

The hair on top of a man's head should not be long enough to cover their body. That's why, even in the Old Testament, the priests (who were male) were instructed to keep their hair within a certain length.

Ezekiel 44:20 (NIV)

20 “‘They must not shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but they are to keep the hair of their heads trimmed.

So not only were the priests prohibited from shaving their heads buzz-cut short, but they were also prohibited from growing their hair long (special case being the Nazirite Vow i.e. Numbers 6, which people like Samson and John the Baptist were under). The question now became: what constitutes "growing your hair long"? It's extra-biblical but I came across "past the shoulders" (possibly from a Michael Rood video, do not recall which one at the moment) and that makes sense. "Past the shoulders" goes into "covering your body" territory. Thus, Paul suggesting men should not be growing their hair long, because it's been given to women as a covering, not men. Ergo, it is a covering in that sense (past the shoulders, to cover the body).

Granted, if I were solely relying on the Old Testament commands, I would not have enough evidence to apply this ("do not grow hair long") to men who weren't priests. The Old Testament commands only require this of the priests. It's only in addition to what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 11 (about men not growing their hair long) that I'm convinced: not even common men should grow their hair out to the point that it covers their body.

Though, considering we're called a "royal priesthood" in the New Testament (1 Peter 2:9), no wonder Paul includes all men, not just the Levitical Priesthood. They're all priests now, in spirit, making intercession for others through prayer (not necessarily through animal sacrifice) in our Father's "house of prayer" (Mark 11:17). Prayers have been likened to animal sacrifices (Acts 10:4; Hosea 14:2 [compared to bull/calf offerings depending on which version you read]; Hebrews 13:15 [praise instead of prayer, but an example of a spiritual offering instead of literal animal one]).

But back to women covering their long hair with a veil: according to Paul, all the churches did this, all the assemblies of believers were united in this practice (1 Corinthians 11:16).

1 Corinthians 11:16 (NIV)

16 If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God.

I know up until 1983, the Catholic church would make all females (even little girls, which means even unmarried/not-betrothed females) wear a head covering inside of their church, but after that, they just... stopped. A lot of churches still do this though: Anabaptists, Mennonites, Amish (and these groups encourage a headcovering for married women at all times so they can pray wherever, whenever, no problems—regardless of whether inside or outside of a church building), while groups like the Eastern Orthodox and Russian Orthodox only require women to wear it while in a church building (and they too, like the Catholics use to, require all females, both women and girls, not just the married/engaged, to wear a headcovering inside the church building). But Spirit of the law would have married women (or betrothed women who approve of their soon-to-be-husband) wearing a hair covering wherever it is they pray.

John 4:20-24 (NIV)

20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

It's not about worshiping in a specific building.


Based on all that, I concluded that married women (or engaged women who approve of their fiance and choose to be loyal to him) should cover their long hair with some type of covering when they pray or prophesy. And men should not grow their hair to the point that it covers their bodies (beyond shoulder length). That's all that the bible requires.

Personally, I started wearing a head covering before becoming a believer (for worldly reasons: it was protective for my natural hair type)—and even before that, I had this tendency to wear the hoodie of my sweater because I felt inexplicably safer (and considering that I do interpret Genesis 6 to be talking about angels and that they fell for women's beauty, imagine my surprise when I read that women were instructed to wear headcoverings "because of the angels" 1 Cor 11:10 in Paul's epistle to the Corinthians. Inexplicable no more!).

After reading Paul's epistle and studying what women in the bible did, I decided to continue wearing a headcovering for spiritual reasons—despite being celibate (ergo not married, nor engaged; at least not to any mere mortal. I am "engaged" to/in covenant with Jesus and I do approve emotion_awesome ). After that point, I did it for modesty reasons: to curb a certain type of attention I would receive for wearing my hair down. People would get more "grabby" and on two separate occasions some random guys (who I did not even know) came up to me, to hit on me, precisely because of my hair, one even running his fingers through my hair which, as a celibate person, I was not/am not interested in.

Yeah... emotion_sweatdrop

But to reiterate: the bible only requires about-to-be-married / married women to cover their heads when they pray or prophesy—for two explicitly stated reasons: (1) to not dishonor their head (2) because of the angels. Needless to say, for little girls who don't even know what it is to be saved, born-again, turned away from wickedness, in covenant with Jesus/ are not even in covenant with Jesus...it's kind of meaningless for them to wear it.

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