Covered by What?

I was thinking a few days ago about posting my/our views of the headcovering verses to go along with the post on how I make mine (which I plan to put up tomorrow). Then for some reason the topic has popped up on several blogs, so rather than be redundant, I will just post a link to Stephanie's answer which is great, and add the three points I was going to make in my own post.

*To those who say a woman's hair is her covering, I ask why the word ALSO is in verse 6?

*And if it is all spiritualized, then verse 16 cancels out all the other verses that say women ought to submit to their husbands, and that makes God the author of confusion (and a liar).

*And for anyone interested in original languages, check out the word for cover in the Greek!

κατα-κᾰλύπτω, f. ψω, to cover up, Il., Hdt., Att.:—Med., in tmesi, κατὰ κρᾶτα καλυψάμενος having covered his head, Od.; so -καλυψάμενος alone, having veiled oneself, Hdt.; and -κεκαλυμμένος Id., Plat.(1)

2619 κατακαλύπτω [katakalupto /kat·ak·al·oop·to/] v. From 2596 and 2572; TDNT 3:561; TDNTA 405; GK 2877; Three occurrences; Authorized Version translates as “cover” three times. 1 to cover up. 2 to veil or cover one’s self.(2)


Case closed.

PS- I wasn't going to get into the context of the chapter since I didn't think it was necessary, but someone else pointed it out and I decided to add it. Chapter 11 is literal, concise instruction for a group worship. The language does not shift from literal to figurative to literal again. It is all meant to be literal instructions.


1. Liddell, H. (1996). A lexicon : Abridged from Liddell and Scott's Greek-English lexicon (Page 407). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

2. Strong, J. (1996). The exhaustive concordance of the Bible : Showing every word of the text of the common English version of the canonical books, and every occurence of each word in regular order. (electronic ed.) (G2619). Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship.