John Calvin's View: Head Covering P/8

                                                      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 John Calvin (1509 - 1564).

John Calvin has made the following comment on 1 Corinthians 11:5

 And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonours her head...

1.John Calvin: "When he (Paul) says her hair is for a covering, he does not mean that as long as a woman has hair, that should be enough for her. He rather teaches that our Lord is giving a directive that He desires to have observed and maintained. If a woman has long hair, this is equivalent to saying to her, "Use your head covering, use your hat, use your hood, do not expose yourself in that way. Why? Even if you have no head-covering, nor hood, yet you also have something to conceal yourself. You see that it would not be fitting to go bare-headed; that is something against nature. This is how this passage of St. Paul's must be understood."

2.John Calvin wrote as well: "Women ought to have theirs heads covered when they pray or prophesy; otherwise they dishonour their head. For as the man honours his head by showing his liberty, so the woman by showing her subjection. Hence, on the other hand, if the woman uncovers her head, she shakes off subjection.... involving contempt of her husband....

My Comment

1. As for John Calvin's teaching that women are to use their hat or hood as a covering, he he is referring here to 1 Corinthians 11:5 "And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovers dishonours her head"... The covering mentioned here is about "something coming down from the head." We are not entirely sure what it means exactly but we can be sure it is not talking about a hat or a hood.....since neither of them is an item" that comes down from the head." Moreover, 1 Corinthians 11:5 is  part of a quotation by some of the religious leaders in Corinth which Paul corrects later on in the chapter. What we see then is that Protestant Reformer John Calvin, like other Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Knox, still adopted the teachings of Roman Catholic Church Fathers, who were influenced by their pagan culture, if it suited hm eventhough he vehemently came against other teachings of them.

2. As for John Calvin writing that women who uncover their head shake off subjection, he did not understand that 1 Corinthians 11:5 is part of a quotation by some of the religious leaders in Corinth which is corrected by Paul later on in that chapter. Therefore, women do not shake off their subjection to their husbands since they were never placed under subjection to their husbands as we know from Genesis 1:26-28 where we read that God made the man and the woman to rule together over creation as a team. This was confirmed in Genesis 2:18 were we learn that God formed the woman as the man's equal partner or "ezer kenedgo."

Read Part Nine HERE