QUESTION: Will you please explain the passage in 1 Cor. 11:5, "Every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head," and verse 13, "Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?”
ANSWER: In order to understand the force of the teachings of the Apostle in these verses attention must be given to verse 3, which forms the groundwork of what follows it. "I would have you know," he says, "that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God." We have here the divine order and relative position of man and woman, which was to have its recognition and display in the assembly.
Man praying and prophesying in the assembly did it in the presence of his invisible Head-Christ, whom he represented, and to cover his head would be to dishonor Christ as his Head. A covering being the visible sign of subjection to another, it would have looked as if he were praying or prophesying in recognition of some other head than Christ, and was not conscious of representing Him.
Now the woman's head is man, and in praying or prophesying she was to recognize her visible head, and thus a visible sign of her subjection to him was to be worn. This is the meaning of verse 10 where it is said, "For this cause ought the woman to have power [the sign of subjection to man] on her head because of the angels." Angels, who are the observers of God's ways in the assembly, as well as in creation, should see in the woman the intelligent recognition of the position in which God has placed her with reference to the man.
The point here is not whether the woman may actually pray or prophesy in public, but the outward appearance she is to bear in the presence of men in the assembly while praying and prophesying are going on. To find in these passages authority for women praying and speaking in public, as is often done, is to pervert the plain teaching of the passage. It might with as much reason be inferred that it was only while a man was actually praying or speaking that he was to take off his hat, or, in other words, that all the men in the assembly were to be there with their heads covered except the one actually praying or speaking.
The simple meaning of the Apostle we believe to be this, that, when assembled before God with Christ in their midst, all the men were to be uncovered as the sign of their recognition of His presence as their Head. In like manner, all the women, when so gathered, were to have their heads covered as a recognition of their sense of being in the presence of their head.
Having laid down authoritatively the divine order on this point in verse 13, he appeals to the Corinthians to judge for themselves. From the analogy of nature, was it comely that women, when in the assembly where God was recognized and looked to in prayer, should have their heads uncovered?
And here again, "pray unto God" does not mean audibly addressing God. Women silently lifting their hearts to God, or when joining in the Spirit-given prayer that some man as the mouthpiece for all is uttering, are surely praying to God. They should, therefore, be covered with something in addition to their hair, which according to nature was given them apart from any question of God's presence in the assembly, as a veil or covering before men. From nature itself, then, they should have learned what was fitting in the assembly without the Apostle having to formally prescribe it in teaching.