Judge In Yourselves - Uncovered

by Jason Young

This is another interesting aspect of the hair issue.

While every 'uncut hair' advocate takes a different part of 1 Corinthians 11 to back their argument, one of the most common arguments they make is that 'uncovered' = 'cut at all'. Notice this scripture, however:

1 Corinthians 11:13 "Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?"

Paul is suggesting here that we can tell if a woman is uncovered by looking at her, as 'comely' refers to how one appears. If uncovered = cut at all, then how would one be able to tell by looking at a woman that she was uncovered if she had only trimmed, say, the dead ends off of her hair?

I am currently enrolled in a Humanities course and we have been studying Greco-Roman culture, particularly that in the 1st Century. This is the same time period in which Paul wrote to the Corinthians. One thing I have invariably noticed is that most all artwork depicting women of that era showed women veiled.

Considering the overwhelming practice of veiling, both in the Greco-Roman and Jewish communities of that time, I don't see how anyone can conclude that Paul was referring to anything other than veiling. Considering this, it is difficult to accept the argument that in vs. 15 Paul is saying that a woman's hair is given her *instead* of a covering. What he is saying, is that a man made veil even has a counterpart in nature - a woman's long hair. So then, Paul is only referring to hair in this passage because it backs up his argument for a man made covering, in that even nature has provided a covering for a woman's head.

Page Added April 13, 2002. You may read more of Jason's articles here.

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