Paul is one writer among the New Testament authors whose theology and teachings often challenge contemporary minds and even great theologians to understand. However, this observation about Paul is not new. Peter called it the wisdom God has given to Paul, yet he also remarked that Paul’s letters contain some things that are hard to understand. According to Peter, Paul’s letters are easily twisted by ignorant and unstable people to their destruction (2 Pet 3:16 NIV). Paul’s instruction to the Corinthian women to cover their heads is still controversial in some Christian circles today. Some believe the contemporary woman should cover her head, especially during church service. On the contrary, some hold that Paul was instructing Corinthian women, not women of our day.

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For those who believe that Paul was speaking to the women of his day and not our day, some cannot properly articulate why they believe head covering is not for today. In my own experience, I often hear answers like “It was a cultural issue,” “Times have changed,” or “A woman’s hair must not be covered for God to answer her prayers.” These responses are highly unsatisfactory for curious minds; even if they are authentic, they keep reflecting because more explanation is needed than these simple statements for an answer.
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Because what we believe informs our conduct, one of the places to start, if we are to make decisions to guide proper worship regarding head covering, is examining Paul’s context. At the time, Romans ruled the Corinthians though they lived in a Greek cultural context. This knowledge is essential to understanding Paul’s instruction because there were often tensions between Greco-Roman rules and regulations.
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Undoubtedly, the Corinthians were very religious, had a great commercial center, but one of their challenges had to do with sexual vices. Sexual experiences of all kinds were readily available. If someone said, “Act like a Corinthian,” it meant to be open to sexual pleasure and gratification. The phrase “Corinthian girl” was an expression for a prostitute in Corinth. The sexual behavior of women in Corinth had some relationship with the covering of hair and veiling, which I will address in detail momentarily, but first, it is essential to note that upper-class women in Corinth were required to cover their hair or wear veils whiles lower class women were prohibited from this practice. Considering the date the book of Corinthians was written (AD 53/54), this was the background of Paul's instruction.

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The membership of the Corinthian church was a mixture of upper-class and lower-class women.
What would the church do to manage those who covered their head during worship and those who were prohibited by law from covering their head? That was the challenge before Paul. In 1 Corinthians 11:4, Paul instructs that women who prayed or prophesied without covering their hair dishonored their head, but who was the head of the woman? In Paul’s instruction, the head of the woman was her husband.

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On the one hand, the issue surrounding a woman’s head covering concerned her husband, and not God. If covering the head was a spiritual requirement God demanded, it could imply that men would have to cover their heads, but that was not the case. On the other hand, some Corinthian men insisted that the slaves who entered the Corinthian house churches should not wear head coverings because the law barred them. From reading Paul, it becomes clear that long hair was an issue. In Paul, a woman’s long hair is her glory and must be covered, but why? An uncovered hair distracted some men during worship, could stimulate them sexually, and was a sign of sexual availability.

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The reaction some have today when a married woman goes public without a ring was a similar concern in the culture at the time about a woman who went public without covering her hair – she was signaling availability; this was shameful to the husband and not God directly (though honoring one’s husband meant honoring God). A woman with uncovered head was saying she was sexually open. For this reason, enslaved and freed women insisted on wearing a head covering or veil. This is why conservative Jewish and Muslim women still wear a head covering or veil in public today. However, head covering and veiling are not mandatory in all cultures worldwide. Therefore, the appropriate response in churches should be that those who prefer to cover their heads must have the liberty to do so, while those who come to the church with their head uncovered must be exhorted to be moderate in their appearance to the glory of God. In our day, while some hairstyles raise an eyebrow, wearing cleavages and short dresses that expose a woman is what the contemporary church is dealing with.

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Paul exhorted Corinthian enslaved and free women to cover their heads because worship time was not the place to signal sexual availability. In today's church, a woman whose hair is well-kept and moderately dressed but uncovered does not symbolize sexual availability. Such women must be left alone. Those who go beyond what is moderately acceptable by the local church need counsel and teachings so that their beauty will come from their inner personality and a gentle quiet spirit, not necessarily what is external (1 Pet 3:3-4). Paul did not come out of the blue to instruct that women everywhere should cover their heads in worship because God required it; he advocated for enslaved converts whom some in the church prevented from head covering because of the law.

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