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Long Hair or Uncut Hair: Difference between revisions
→The wording of 1 Corinthians 11
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==The wording of 1 Corinthians 11== | ==The wording of 1 Corinthians 11== | ||
1 Corinthians 11: | 1 Corinthians 11:4-5 states: | ||
''Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head...<ref>The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 1 Co 11:4-5</ref> | ''Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head...<ref>The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 1 Co 11:4-5</ref> | ||
The New Testament was originally written in Greek so we need to look at the original text to understand what is being said. Paul states that the man would shame his “head” if he were to have (something) “hanging down the head”; whereas the opposite would prevail for the woman: she would shame her “head” if she were to prophesy “uncovered as to the head.” <ref>Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1987), 495.</ref> | The New Testament was originally written in Greek, so we need to look at the original text to understand what is being said. Paul states that the man would shame his “head” if he were to have (something) “hanging down the head”; whereas the opposite would prevail for the woman: she would shame her “head” if she were to prophesy “uncovered as to the head.” <ref>Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1987), 495.</ref> | ||
The question, of course, is what “having down the head” means, or to put that in another way, “having what down the head”? | The question, of course, is what “having down the head” means, or to put that in another way, “having what down the head”? | ||
Some have argued that this refers to having long hair “down the head,” Because there was disdain for long hair on men was usually in conjunction with homosexuality, where longer hair was artistically decorated to resemble a woman’s. The problem with this, however, is that these passages always refer to hair, and never remotely resemble the language Paul uses here. If Paul had intended long hair, this idiom is a most unusual way of referring to it. On the other hand, although Paul’s idiom is somewhat unusual, it is not without precedent. In Esther 6:12, Haman is said to have “hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered”. The Septuagint translates this last phrase kata kephalēs (= “down the head”). So also Plutarch speaks of Scipio the Younger as beginning to walk through Alexandria “having the himation down the head,” meaning that he covered his head with part of his toga so as to be unrecognized by the people. Almost certainly, therefore, by this idiom Paul is referring to an external cloth covering.<ref>Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1987), 506–507.</ref> | Some have argued that this refers to having long hair “down the head,” Because there was disdain for long hair on men was usually in conjunction with homosexuality, where longer hair was artistically decorated to resemble a woman’s. The problem with this, however, is that these passages always refer to hair, and never remotely resemble the language Paul uses here. If Paul had intended long hair, this idiom is a most unusual way of referring to it. On the other hand, although Paul’s idiom is somewhat unusual, it is not without precedent. In Esther 6:12, Haman is said to have “hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered”. The Septuagint translates this last phrase kata kephalēs (= “down the head”). So also Plutarch speaks of Scipio the Younger as beginning to walk through Alexandria “having the himation down the head,” meaning that he covered his head with part of his toga so as to be unrecognized by the people. Almost certainly, therefore, by this idiom Paul is referring to an external cloth covering.<ref>Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1987), 506–507.</ref> | ||
There three main pillars on which the “no trimming ” doctrine rests, at least as we have been taught it, which are as follows: | There three main pillars on which the “no trimming ” doctrine rests, at least as we have been taught it, which are as follows: | ||