Read Part One HERE
In this post I will continue to discuss the subject of head covering since today there is a movement called the Head covering Movement based on 1 Corinthians 11:5 and beyond
And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonours her head - it is just as though her head were shaved...
In this post I will share the viewpoint of well know Protestant Reformer Martin Luther (1483 - 1546 A.D.)
On 15 January 1525 Martin Luther preached a message on marriage. In his sermon he said this: "Women, be subject to your husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife." Ephesians 5:22-23. Again to the Colossians in the third chapter (Colossians 3:18): "Because of this, the wife has not been created out of the head, so that she shall not rule over her husband but be subject and obedient to him." For that reason the wife wears a headdress, that is, the veil on her head, as St Paul writes in 1 Corinthians in the eleventh chapter, that she is not free but under obedience to her husband."
My Comment
Protestant Reformer Martin Luther makes a direct connection between veiling and the creation order. He points out that woman was not created out of the man's physical head. Luther sees the place she was created from as important due to the symbolism. She wasn't created from man's head, as if she's head over him, but rather wears a headdress to show she's under her husband and obeys him. Luther was one of the Protestant Reformers, who addressed the false teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and had eventually been ex-communitated because he had begun to understand the importance of the priesthood of all believers. Sadly, he did not apply that teaching to women but still kept to the teaching of these Roman Catholic Church Fathers, who had been influenced by the pagan culture around them, when teaching on women. This meant that he believed the husband as head of his wife, was in authority over his wife basing this on the fact that the first woman had not been created out of the head of the first man. This is indeed true. However, she was created from the side of the first man (not from the rib), which confirms her equality to the man as we know from Genesis 1:26-28 where we read that both the man and the woman were given the task of ruling over creation. As for the woman wearing a headdress, or a veil on her head as a sign of her obedience to the man, Luther was here referring to 1 Corinthians 11:5. These words are not Paul's words but are part of a quotation from some of the religious leaders in the church in Corinth who were trying to keep women in their place. Paul corrected these leaders later on in the chapter.
Read Part Six HERE
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