Paul and Women’s Hair:
A Better Translation of 1 Cor. 11:3-16

The following is my loose translation into English of this difficult passage. You can read a full discussion of the passage and why I made the translation choices I did by clicking here.

I want you to understand that Christ is the source of every human alive, and Adam was the source of Eve, and God is the source of Christ. “Head” as in the head of a river. The source of nourishment, what sustains our being. God created, redeemed, and sustains us.

Any man who leads public worship with something on his head disgraces his head, but any woman who leads public worship with her hair disheveled disgraces her head — it is one and the same as having her head shaved. For if a woman who wants to be in a position of leadership does not conform to the customary idea of what is proper for women, she might as well cut her hair short, like a prostitute, or go all the way and shave her head, as if she were in mourning.

As you Corinthians have known all your lives, it has been long customary for both men and women to pray with their heads covered, as Moses covered his head when the glory of God was upon it, lest his people be blinded or killed. But I say that a man ought not to lead worship services with a prayer shawl hanging down his back, because he is the image and glory of God’s possessions. For him to cover his head would make it look as though he were ashamed of Christ, the image and glory of God.

Woman, on the other hand, is the glory of man — what God created after a little practice. Indeed, the standard understanding of Genesis 2 is that instead of the woman giving birth to the man, the man “gave birth” to the woman. By the same token, the man wasn’t created because the woman needed him; the woman was created because the man needed her.

In our modern society of approximately 50-60 C.E., nice women keep their hair properly braided and covered up. That way, they’re not mistaken for priestesses of orgiastic cults, or prostitutes, or worse. So when a woman is leading a worship service, she ought to be wearing some kind of symbol of her authority, so people know she has the right to be up there.  AND so that the messengers from Peter in Jerusalem will get off my back about how relaxed I, Paul, am about “uppity” women.

I have to insist, however, that no matter what Peter says, in Christ, a woman is not fundamentally different from a man, nor a man from a woman. Both of them were created by God. Just as the first woman was “born” from the first man, so today all men are born from women — so if you say that women are inferior to men because of Genesis 2, what you’re really saying is that all men are inferior to their mothers.

Judge for yourselves, you Corinthians of 50 C.E.: If you saw a woman leading a worship service with her hair hanging loose and all messed up, would you think she was an authoritative leader, or would you think she was a priestess of Dionysos in mid-orgasm? Isn’t it customary for people to sneer at men with long hair? Isn’t it customary for people to consider a woman’s long hair her “crowning glory”?

But, you know, if anyone is going to quarrel or pick nits, the heck with it. It’s approximately 50-60 C.E., and the Jesus Movement is only a few years old. We’re making this stuff up as we go along.