Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 11:6
For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
6. but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven ] i.e. with her hair either cropped close or shaven. This was considered a disgrace. It was the sign of a slave (see Aristophanes, Birds, 911), or of one in mourning and humiliation (Deu 21:12).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For if the woman be not covered – If her head be not covered with a veil.
Let her also be shorn – Let her long hair be cut off. Let her lay aside all the usual and proper indications of her sex and rank in life. If it is done in one respect, it may with the same propriety be done in all.
But if it be a shame … – If custom, nature, and habit; if the common and usual feelings and views among people would pronounce this to be a shame, the other would be pronounced to be a shame also by the same custom and common sense of people.
Let her be covered – With a veil. Let her wear the customary attire indicative of modesty and a sense of subordination. Let her not lay this aside even on any pretence of religion.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. For if the woman be not covered] If she will not wear a veil in the public assemblies, let her be shorn-let her carry a public badge of infamy: but if it be a shame-if to be shorn or shaven would appear, as it must, a badge of infamy, then let her be covered-let her by all means wear a veil. Even in mourning it was considered disgraceful to be obliged to shear off the hair; and lest they should lose this ornament of their heads, the women contrived to evade the custom, by cutting off the ends of it only. Euripides, in Orest., ver. 128, speaking of Helen, who should have shaved her head on account of the death of her sister Clytemnestra, says: ‘ , , : “see how she cuts off only the very points of her hair, that she may preserve her beauty, and is just the same woman as before.” See the note on the preceding verse 1Co 11:5.
In Hindostan a woman cuts off her hair at the death of her husband, as a token of widowhood; but this is never performed by a married woman, whose hair is considered an essential ornament. The veil of the Hindoo women is nothing more than the garment brought over the face, which is always very carefully done by the higher classes of women when they appear in the streets.-Ward’s Customs.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: nature itself teacheth, that it is a shameful sight to see a woman revealing the mind and will of God, by an extraordinary pretended revelation, in so indecent a manner, as with her hair all hanging down; let her hair be either shaven off, or at least cut after the manner of mens hair, if she will neither tie it up artificially, so as to make it a covering for her head, nor put on a veil to cover her: for though a woman prophesying from an extraordinary impulse, be not under the common law of women not speaking in the public assembly, but keeping silence; yet she is under the law of nature to do no such grave and solemn actions in such a rude manner, that from the light of nature, or the common account of all that live in that place, she should be judged to be irreverent and brutish in her religious action. From this text a question hath been started: Whether Christian women may lawfully go without any other covering upon their heads than their hair? I must confess, I see not how such a question can have any bottom in this text, where the apostle is not speaking of womens ordinary habiting themselves, but only when they prayed and prophesied, and (if I mistake not) when they ministered in prayer and prophecy (as was said before). We now have no such prophetesses; so as I think that question about the lawfulness of womens going without any other covering upon their heads than their hair, must be determined from other texts, not this, and is best determined from circumstances; for God having given to the woman her hair for a covering and an ornament, I cannot see how it should be simply unlawful; accidentally it may, from the circumstances of pride in her heart that so dresseth herself, or lust and wantonness in others hearts; or other circumstances of ill designs and intentions in the woman so dressing herself.
But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered; if nature teacheth us that it is a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, it also teacheth us that it is a shame for her to be uncovered, either with her hair, or some artificial covering; which latter seemeth rather to be meant in this place, because divines think, that the face is that part of the head which the apostle here intendeth should be covered in their religious actions, which is not covered with the hair, but with a veil, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. A woman would not like to be”shorn” or (what is worse) “shaven”; but if shechooses to be uncovered (unveiled) in front, let her be so alsobehind, that is, “shorn.”
a shamean unbecomingthing (compare 1Co11:13-15). Thus the shaving of nuns is “a shame.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For if the woman be not covered,…. That is, if her head is not covered with some sort of covering, as is the custom of the place where she lives,
let her also be shorn; let her hair be cut short; let her wear it as men do theirs; and let her see how she will look, and how she will like that, and how she will be looked upon, and liked by others; everybody will laugh at her, and she will be ashamed of herself:
but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven: as it is accounted in all civilized nations: the very Heathens a speak of it as a thing abominable, and of which there should not be one single dreadful example: then let her be covered; with a veil, or any sort of covering in common use.
a Vid. Apul. Metamorph. l. 2. p. 21.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Let her also be shorn ( ). Aorist middle imperative of , to shear (as sheep). Let her cut her hair close. A single act by the woman.
If it is a shame ( ). Condition of first class assumed to be true. is old adjective from , bareness, disgrace. Clearly Paul uses such strong language because of the effect on a woman’s reputation in Corinth by such conduct that proclaimed her a lewd woman. Social custom varied in the world then as now, but there was no alternative in Corinth.
To be shorn or shaven ( ). Articular infinitives subject of copula understood, first aorist middle, present middle. Note change in tense.
Let her be veiled (). Present middle imperative of old compound –, here alone in N.T. Let her cover up herself with the veil (down, , the Greek says, the veil hanging down from the head).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Shorn or shaven [ ] . To have the hair cut close, or to be entirely shaved as with a razor.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For if the woman be not covered.” (ei gar ou katakalupetai gune) “For if a woman is not veiled or covered of her own accord.” The uncovered or shaven or shorn head of a woman praying, witnessing, or claiming to be the wife of a Christian husband, showed disrespect for both God and her husband, Paul asserted.
2) “Let her also be shorn.” (kai keirasthai) “Let her even be shorn.” She is a free moral agent, let her act as a base woman, of her own accord; if she is domineering, but she will be judged for such both by the world and the Lord, Ecc 11:9.
3) “But if it be a shame.” (ei de aischron) “But if it be shameful,” and it is, for no woman should, as a Christian, be slave, sex property, or a public prostitute to men of the world.
4) “For a woman to be shorn or shaven.” (gunaiki to keirasthai he kourastho) “For a woman to be shorn or shaven of her own choice.”
5) “Let her be covered.” (katakaluptestho) “Let her become veiled or covered.” The idea is that each woman praying or witnessing for Christ should recognize and respect customs that affect ones’ personal influence. The Christian woman was therefore exhorted by Paul to veil or cover her head, avoid the shorn or shaven head that might characterize her, make her appear as a base woman, or in rebellion against her husband.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(6) Let her also be shorn.The force of this argument depends on the fact that a womans head being uncovered would be regarded by others as implying the same shame as was indicated by a womans hair being cut short (i.e., shorn), or altogether removed (i.e., shaven). It is as if the Apostle saidIf a woman insists on her right to pray and speak in an assembly with uncovered head, let her carry out this principle to its logical result; let her insist on her right to have her hair cut short, so as to show her equality with manand what would be thought of her then! No woman with a spark of shame in her would think of doing that. Accordingly you admit that this principle of sexual equality does not apply in all such matters; and it is illogical to argue in favour of any general principle as if it were of universal obligation, when you yourselves admit that it is not applicable in some cases.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Let her be Let her carry out the principle, and see where it will land her. This is, of course, not a real command; the imperative being simply a form of the argument.
Shorn As with shears.
Shaven As with a razor.
Be covered The obvious impropriety alike of either of the three exposures brings to the conclusion that she should be covered. The shaving of the woman’s head assimilated her, in the existing state of customs, to the disreputable class. “The antiquaries and philologists,” says Bloomfield, “have proved that all the ancient nations agree in accounting this as the greatest dishonour and disparagement to the person of a woman.
Hence it was adopted only as a sign of extreme grief, (see Deu 21:12,) or was imposed as a mark of infamy and disgrace.” Even among the Germans, as Tacitus informs us, the penalty for the adulteress was to be expelled from her husband’s house with a shaven head. A Jewish commentator on the words “uncover the woman’s head,” (Num 5:18,) says: “For what reason? Because it is not the custom of Israelitish women to have their heads uncovered. Wherefore he shaves her and says, ‘Inasmuch as thou hast seceded from the manner of the Israelite women, whose custom it is to cover their heads, and hast followed the manners of the Gentiles, who are accustomed to go with the head shaven, lo! it happens to thee as thou hast willed.’”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Co 11:6 gives the ground of . . [1768] , 1Co 11:5 . That ground is, that the step from not being covered to being shorn is only what consistency demands , while the dishonour again implied in being shorn requires that the woman should be covered; consequently, to be uncovered lies by no means midway between being shorn and being covered as a thing indifferent, but falls under the same moral category as being shorn. For when a woman puts on no covering , when she has once become so shameless, then she should have herself shorn too (in addition). A demand for logical consistency (Winer, p. 292 [E. T. 391]) serving only to make them feel the absurdity of this unseemly emancipation from restraint in public prayer and speaking (for 1Co 11:5 shows that these rules cannot be general ones, against Hofmann). To understand it simply as a permission , does not suit the conclusion; comp on the contrary .
] “Plus est radi ( .) quam tonderi,” Grotius. Comp Valckenaer. . means to shave , with the razor ( ). The two words occur together in Mic 1:16 , LXX. Note the absence of any repetition of the article in connection with the double description of the one unseemly thing.
[1768] . . . .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
Ver. 6. For a woman to be shorn ] Our Hic muliers hold it now no shame. If Henry VI had seen such creatures, he would have cried out, as once he did at the sight of naked breasts, Fie, fie, ladies, in sooth you are to blame. (Daniel’s Hist.)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
6. ] the argument see above.
. , is to be unveiled , the pres. indicating the normal habit .
. , let her ALSO, besides being unveiled, &c.
. . ] ‘plus est radi quam tonderi,’ Grot.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Co 11:6 , with a second , presses the above identity; the Ap. bids the woman who discards the veil carry her defiance a step further: “For if a woman is not veiled, let her also crop (her head); but if it is a disgrace for a woman to crop (it) or to keep (it) shaven, let her retain the veil” ( , pr [1619] impv [1620] , continuous ). P. uses the modus tollens of the hypothetical syllogism: “If a woman prefers a bare head, she should remove her hair; womanly feeling forbids the latter, then it should forbid the former, for the like shame attaches to both.” The argument appeals to Gr [1621] and Eastern sentiment; “physical barefacedness led to the inference of moral, in a city like Corinth” (Ev [1622] ). and , aor [1623] mid [1624] , denote a single act on the woman’s part, “to cut off her locks”; , pres. mid [1625] , a shaven condition; the single art [1626] comprises the infs. in one view. Paul’s directions do not agree precisely with current practice. Jewish men covered their heads at prayers with the Tallith ( cf. the allusion of 2Co 3:14 ff.) this custom, retained probably by some Jews at Christian meetings (1Co 11:4 ), P. corrects without censure; women were both veiled and kept behind a screen. Amongst the Greeks, both sexes worshipped with uncovered head, although women covered their heads at other times (see Hermann, Gottesdienstl. Alterthmer , 36, 18 f.; Plato, Phdo , 89B, ), while Roman men and women alike covered their heads during religious rites (Servius ad n ., iii., 407). The usage here prescribed seems to be an adaptation of Gr [1627] custom to Christian conceptions. With us the diff [1628] of sex is more strongly marked in the general attire than with the ancients; but the draped head has still its appropriateness, and the distinction laid down in this passage has been universally observed. The woman is recognised by the side of the man as “praying” and “prophesying” (see note on 1Co 12:10 ); there is no ground in the text for limiting the ref [1629] in her case to the exercise of these gifts in domestic and private circles (thus Hf [1630] , Bt [1631] , and some others); on the contradiction with 1Co 14:34 , see note ad loc [1632] Under the Old Covenant women were at times signally endued with supernatural powers, and the prophetess occasionally played a leading public part ( e.g . Deborah and Huldah); in the Christian dispensation, from Act 1:14 onwards, they receive a more equal share in the powers of the Spirit (see Act 2:17 f., Gal 3:28 ). But in the point of there lies an ineffaceable distinction.
[1619] present tense.
[1620] imperative mood.
[1621] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.
[1622]
[1623] aorist tense.
[1624] middle voice.
[1625] middle voice.
[1626] grammatical article.
[1627] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.
[1628]
[1629] reference.
[1630] J. C. K. von Hofmann’s Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht , ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).
[1631] J. A. Beet’s St. Paul’s Epp. to the Corinthians (1882).
[1632] ad locum , on this passage.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
if. App-118.
not. App-105.
covered. Greek. katakaluptomai. Only here and 1Co 11:7.
also be shorn = be shorn also.
shorn. See Act 8:32.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
6.] the argument see above.
.,-is to be unveiled, the pres. indicating the normal habit.
., let her ALSO, besides being unveiled, &c.
. .] plus est radi quam tonderi, Grot.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 11:6. , let her be shorn) As the hinder part of the head is by nature in the man and the woman respectively, so in general it is becoming the forehead to be in its mode of dressing: 1Co 11:14. The imperative here is that of permission, but a permission, which has in it mimesis, or a deduction to something unsuitable.[91] So shaving is unbecoming in nuns.-, a shame) So 1Co 11:14. The opposite, comely, 1Co 11:13 : glory, 1Co 11:15.- , ) the one is more than the other. Mic 1:16, . , the back part of the head; , the forehead. In Mic. already quoted, there follows a gradation in the enlargement of the baldness occasioned by shaving.
[91] A woman would not wish . But if she wishes to be uncovered in front, let her also be uncovered behind, i.e., . This allusion to the supposed words of the woman, whom he refutes, constitutes the mimesis. See Appendix.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 11:6
1Co 11:6
For if a woman is not veiled, let her also be shorn:-[The word also in this verse plainly shows that the two veils- the natural hair and the veil with which the head was covered -are under consideration. If her head be not covered with a veil, let her hair be shorn. Let her be consistent by laying aside all the usual and proper indications of her sex. If it be done in one respect, it might with the same propriety be done in all. In verse 13, he says: Judge ye in yourselves: is it seemly that a woman pray unto God unveiled? The impropriety of it, he seems to take for granted as apparent to all.]
but if it is a shame to a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be veiled.-[It is a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven because it fashions her, to that extent, as a man, and it is Gods will, distinctly revealed in the Scriptures, to keep the sexes distinguishable. For a woman to remove her hair is in part to obliterate this outward distinction, and is therefore a trampling under foot Gods will. And as further defense of womanly modesty and morality, God forbids the sexes wearing each others clothes: A woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a womans garment; for whosoever doeth these things is an abomination unto Jehovah thy God. (Deu 22:5).]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
but: Num 5:18, Deu 22:5
Reciprocal: Gen 24:65 – a veil Deu 21:12 – and she shall 1Co 14:35 – a shame
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Co 11:6. If the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. This does not endorse a woman’s shearing her hair but rather condemns it, for Paul compares it to something else that we know he condemns because it is a dishonor to her. If it be a shame is a phrase that takes it for granted that the thing named is commonly thought to be a shame, namely, for a woman to have her hair cut.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Ver. 6. For if a woman is not yelled, let her also be shorn.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Our apostle here proceeds by many arguments to evince and prove the woman’s inferiority and subjection to the man, and that she ought to have a covering upon her head as a sign and token of it.
First, because the image of God, that is, the image of his majesty, dominion, and power, shineth forth most brightly in the man, therefore he ought to have his head uncovered: Man is the image and glory of God.
But is not the woman so likewise?
Ans. Consider the woman according to her specifical nature, and so she was created after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness, as well as the man: but then consider the woman according to her personal relation to her husband, and in that regard the woman is not the image of God because dominion, which is the image of God, is the man’s privilege; and subjection the woman’s duty.
But she is the glory of the man; that is, it is the glory and honour of man, that God hath given him superiority over so excellent a creature as the woman; for if his dominion over the irrational creatures be his glory and honour, then what a glory and honour it is for a man to have so excellent a creature as the woman, a creature endued with reason like himself, subject to him?
But as in this sense the man is the glory of the woman, so in another sense the woman is the glory of the man. She communicates with him in all his dignity, how great soever; whatever natural or civil excellency is in him, reflects on her: Uxor fulget radiis mariti, the wife shines with the rays of her husband’s honour.
And the woman being thus in a state of inferiority, she ought to profess her subjection to her husband by wearing a veil.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
VV. 6. To impress the revolting character of such a course, the apostle supposes it pushed to extremity. There is something of indignation in his words: If this woman has effrontery enough to do the first of these acts, well and good, better also do the second! The repulsive character of the one should make that of the other felt. The word is usually accented, as if it were the present infinitive passive of (). But why should it not be regarded as the aorist infinitive middle, like , of the form ()? See Passow. There is a gradation from the one of these verbs to the other: To cut the hair or even to shave the head.
The word , shameful, includes the two notions of physical ugliness and moral indecency.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
For if a woman is not veiled, let her also be shorn: but if it is a shame to a woman to be shorn [with shears] or shaven [with a razor], let her be veiled. [Paul does not command that unveiled women be shorn, but he demands it as a logical consistency, as a scornful reductio ad absurdum. For a woman to want only to lay aside her veil was an open repudiation of the authority of her husband, and such a repudiation lowered her to the level of the courtesan, who, according to Elsner, showed her shamelessness by her shorn head, and likewise to the level of the adulteress, whose penalty, according to Wetstein and Meyer, was to have her head shaved. Paul, therefore, demands that those who voluntarily seek a low level, consent to wear all the signs and badges of that level that they may be shamed into rising above it. Having thus deduced a law from human custom, Paul now shows that the same law rests upon divine and creative relationships.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 6
Let her also be shorn; that is, she may as well be shorn. Being shorn was a badge of deep disgrace.