USA Today
10-05-06
What does the Bible say about it?
Biblical scholars say the New Testament does not require women to cover their
hair while praying.
“I think it's mistaken but I appreciate (hair-covering women's) desire to do what
they think the Bible is telling them to,” says Wayne Grudem, research professor
of Bible and theology at Phoenix Seminary and a former president of the
Evangelical Theological Society. He says covering the hair was a sign of being
married among women in the Roman empire.
Grudem, who was on the translation committee for the recent English Standard
Version of the Bible, says, “In light of that evidence, when we came to 1
Corinthians 11, in every verse that had to do with head covering, we translated it
as wife and not as woman.”
So the verse became “but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head
uncovered dishonors her head.” Today, a wedding band identifies a married
woman, Grudem notes.
Rebecca Denova, professor of religious studies at the University of Pittsburgh,
says Paul is telling the women of Corinth that “if you're going to stand up in
church, look like nice, decent, matronly women,” and in that time and place, that
meant covering your head.
But they were wearing veils “because the culture said to, not because they were
Christians,” Denova says.
Head covering “survives in sporadic, fragmented ways that people don't
understand historically anymore,” says Hector Avalos, a professor of religious
studies at Iowa State University. But for daily wear in America, only very
traditional groups such as the Mennonites, Hutterites and Amish still practice it,
Avalos says.