THE HEAD COVERING... part 2

The Head Covering ….. part 2

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We are continuing on the Head-Covering Teaching from 1 Corinthians 11, picking up from where we stopped. In review, the first 3 verses establish the Godly governing order in the Christian home and church: man is the head of woman, CHRIST JESUS is the head of man: GOD is the head of CHRIST.

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Every man praying or prophesying,

having his head covered,

dishonoreth his head.

1 Cor.11:4

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Verse 4 today is straightforward and easy to understand… in the KJV. Some modern scholars, however, dislike this rendition BECAUSE the Greek text literally says… “Every man praying or prophesying having down over the head dishonors his head”.
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Upon careful reading, WHAT is “hanging down over the head” is missing in the Greek text. It is grammatically an “understood” element [according to the classic Greek New Testament Lexicon, BADG, p. 405, under kata.]
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It is understood to be a cloth covering and has so been understood in the Early Christian writings of the first 200 years as well as by all the Christian church up to the last few decades!
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Tertullian, a well-known Christian apologist, wrote (circa 211 A.D.) about a soldier who was somehow a Christian. He would not put the Roman laurel band or wreath as a crown on his head because he was Christian. He was martyred because he wouldn’t deny CHRIST before men. Keeping in mind 1 Cor. 11 regarding the head covering issue for both men and women, let us hear what Tertullian said to the church when he gave instruction as to wearing a “band” or crown, as awarded by the Roman government for various government honors:
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Much less may the Christian [man] put the service of idolatry on his own head — nay, I might have said, upon Christ, since Christ is the Head of the Christian man — (for his head) is as free as even Christ is, under no obligation to wear a covering, not to say a band.
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But even the head which is bound to have the veil, I mean woman’s, as already taken possession of by this very thing, is not open also to a [laurel] band. She has the burden of her own humility to bear. If she ought not to appear with her head uncovered on account of the angels, much more with a crown on it will she offend those (elders) who perhaps are then wearing crowns above.
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For what is a crown on the head of a woman, but beauty made seductive, but mark of utter wantonness, — a notable casting away of modesty, a setting temptation on fire? Therefore a woman, taking counsel from the apostles’ foresight, will not too elaborately adorn herself, that she may not either be crowned with any exquisite arrangement of her hair.
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What sort of garland, however, I pray you, did He who is the Head of the man and the glory of the woman, Christ Jesus, the Husband of the church, submit to in behalf of both sexes? Of thorns, I think, and thistles, — a figure of the sins which the soil of the flesh brought forth for us, but which the power of the cross removed, blunting, in its endurance by the head of our Lord, death’s every sting.
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Yes, and besides the figure, there is contumely [contempt] with ready lip, and dishonor, and infamy, and the ferocity involved in the cruel things which then disfigured and lacerated the temples of the LORD+, that you may now be crowned with laurel, and myrtle, and olive, and any famous branch, and which is of more use, with hundred-leaved roses too, culled from the garden of Midas, and with both kinds of lily, and with violets of all sorts, perhaps also with gems and gold, so as even to rival that crown of Christ which He afterwards obtained.
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For it was after the gall HE+ tasted the honeycomb, and HE+ was not greeted as King of Glory in heavenly places till HE+ had been condemned to the cross as King of the Jews, having first been made by the FATHER for a time a little less than the angels, and so crowned with glory and honor. If for these things, you owe your own head to HIM+, repay it if you can, such as HE+ presented HIS+ for yours; or be not crowned with flowers at all, if you cannot be with thorns, because you may not be with flowers.
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Ante-Nicene Fathers, VOL 3. TERTULLIAN, PART FIRST, SECTION 4, entitled: The Chaplet or De Corona (Of the Crown), Chapter 14, pg. 102
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But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth

with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head:

for that is even all one as if she were shaven.

For if the woman be not covered,

let her also be shorn:

but if it be a shame

for a woman to be shorn or shaven,

let her be covered.

1 Cor.11:5-6

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No woman I know is happy about going bald or being bald, as some dear ones have endured with chemotherapy treatments. Every woman who has had to endure baldness has gone to great lengths via wigs or hair-pieces or scarves or hats to avoid looking freakish. It is a great sorrow to her.
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The Apostle here is teaching the church that BEFORE GOD, a woman praying or prophesying unveiled is as outlandish TO HIM+ as a bald woman is to normal society. If she refuses to cover her head properly, then she is to be made bald. It’s a good antidote. She’ll cover her head then, and without a struggle, no doubt!
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There are some teachings out there that affirm the head covering IS hair. That cannot be because substituting “hair” in the above verses for covering makes the entire verses of no sense.
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Next blog on this topic will show WHY … the Biblical reasons… WHY The LORD governs the home and church this way.