FAQ’s

Thank you so much for your question.
Your question reminds me of a similar question that was asked in the book, “The Orthodox Church: 455 Questions and Answers,” by Fr. Stanley Harakas.  I am posting both the question and response here in the hope that it addresses your concern.

Q:  In Corinthians, St. Paul said a woman must pray with a covering on her head or she dishonors her husband.  I find that we have changed this rule.  As Christians, aren’t we supposed to follow the teachings that were written in the New Testament?

A:  You refer to the passage in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 11, verses 3-15.  You are not quite accurate, for the exact words are that “any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled dishonors her head – it is the same as if her head were unshaven.” (v. 5).  There seems to be no doubt that in the time when this was written by St. Paul, almost 2,000 years ago, it was felt that a woman should always have her head covered in public.  Thus, it was seen as a real impropriety for a woman not to have her head covered in worship.

This passage is very difficult to understand, in any case.  It has been a subject of much controversy.  Probably, St. John Chrysostom is right when he says that St. Paul, in trying to clarify the basic question of the appropriate relations of men and women, “resorted in this place to common custom.”  The passage deals primarily not with hair, but with the need to keep clear the distinction of roles of men and women.  The Bible gives to the husband a leadership role in the family.  He has, as one Orthodox commentator on this passage says, a “certain primacy of leadership and honor, in his household. “  In that culture and according to the custom of the day, as the 6th century biblical commentator Oecumenios interprets it, to uncover the hair “shows her to be an escapee” from her relationship with her husband.  Another interpreter does not refer this passage to the husband, but to the woman.  “This is equal to proclaiming publicly and officially that she no longer wished to be a woman, but desired to change sex and be a man.  Such an attempt would be interpreted according to the customs of that time as an effort to assume a role and responsibility which was not hers.  Each of the sexes should remain in the appropriate role, which God has given…to try to violate this is equivalent to trying to destroy order and create confusion.”

If these interpretations of 1 Corinthians 11:3-15 are correct, than it is clear that though St. Paul’s message remains the same, the significance of covered and uncovered hair is lost to people who live in a totally different cultural setting.  To enforce this as a rule now would be just legalism –for it would not illustrate St. Paul’s meaning at all.  Only if you were to hold that women should never have uncovered heads in public would it make sense, today, to demand it also in church.

I truly  hope you find this commentary from Fr. Stanley Harakas helpful.  God bless you and may you have a blessed Holy Week and Pascha.
Christ is Risen!  Indeed He is Risen!