Should women cover their heads in church?

Whenever we establish a doctrine, we want to be careful not to build it on one Scripture that might stand by itself. This is the only place in the Bible that mentions women having their heads covered in this situation. In this passage, Paul is insisting that women who pray or prophesy in public during corporate worship do so with their heads covered.

The argument is: Was this a tradition or not? If you go to the Middle East now, it’s easy to see that women dress very differently than us. Many of them dress as Bible women dressed. They were extremely modest, maybe to a fault, back then. There was certain attire for prostitutes in the Roman Empire; if a woman didn’t want to appear to be a prostitute, she would cover her head when in public. That doesn’t mean she veiled her face, but she would cover her hair. In that day, it became a custom of respect—similar to a man wearing a tie to a formal event in our day.

Evidently, some churches felt it was wrong for women to pray in public with their husbands present and their heads uncovered. It was considered immodest. It could have been merely a tradition of the time, but the principle of respect still applies.

The Bible says, “Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being. … Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved” (1 Corinthians 10:24, 31–33).

We should respect others in the way we dress for church. More important, our worship attire should always honor God.

Key Bible Texts

But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. (1 Corinthians 11:5 KJV)