Custom or LAW?

By Gary Anderson

O

n most any subject in the Bible, folks seem to have different viewpoints.  Even among us, there are different ones.

One of the larger of the denominations among the  Christian churches has a custom that if you darken the door of their church, and are of the female persuasion, you’ll be handed a scarf, or some cloth to put over your head.  This, of course, is the Catholic Church, and they base their viewpoint on scriptures found in Corinthians.

Today, I’m going to show how others reach a DIFFERENT viewpoint than the Catholics have.

 I heard a fellow one time give about a 2 hour (seemed like it anyway) talk “proving” that women SHOULD have their heads covered, using the same scriptures that the Catholics do.  I won’t be taking up 2 hours of your time with this article, and I WON’T, as he did, be saying: “IF YOU DON’T SEE IT THIS WAY, YOU’RE WRONG!!!”

Let’s start out with a fellow that finds himself on a deserted tropic island... we’ll call him DID. (Deserted Island Dude) DID finds himself alone, and he finds the previous occupant of the island has left living quarters, and a collection of different Bible translations, a Bible Dictionary, and Strong’s Concordance, and a Jamieson, Fausset, & Brown (JFB) Commentary.  DID decides to read the Bible.  He goes through creation, the flood, Abraham, the Exodus, and comes to the setting up of the priesthood. 

Aaron’s sons get ZAPPED for offering “strange fire”.  Le 10:1 ¶ And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before Yahweh, which he commanded them not. 2 And there went out fire from Yahweh, and devoured them, and they died before Yahweh.

DID thinks to himself: Yahweh is SERIOUS about folks doing what he instructed!!!

He reads on, and finally comes to Corinthians:

1Co 11:1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of the Messiah. 2 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you. 3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is the Messiah; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of the Messiah is Yahweh. 4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.

DID has an epiphany: THAT’S where they get the custom of men taking off whatever they have on their head when someone says: “Let us pray”!  Then he says:  HUH???  THAT doesn’t make sense...  You mean I have to take off my hat every time I pray, or come into the presence of Yahweh????  He looks into his concordance, and finds NO command in Torah that he should take off his hat, or scarf, or whatever cloth he has on his head. He CAN’T find ANY command like that.  THEN, he remembers something, and he goes flipping back through his Bible, to: 

Ex 28:3 And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. 4 And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle: and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. (KJV)

He thinks he knows what a mitre is, but he looks in his Bible Dictionary, and finds:

Mitre (Heb mitsnepheth), something rolled round the head; the turban or head-dress of the high priest (Ex 28:4,37,39; 29:6, etc.). In the Authorized Version of Eze 21:26, this Hebrew word is rendered "diadem," but in the Revised Version, "mitre." It was a twisted band of fine linen, 8 yards in length, coiled into the form of a cap, and worn on official occasions (Le 8:9; 16:4; Zec 3:5). On the front of it was a golden plate with the inscription, "Holiness to Yahweh." The mitsnepheth differed from the mitre or head-dress (migba'ah) of the common priest. (See Bonnet.)

He gets his Pictorial Bible Dictionary, and looks up “Priest”, and sees a drawing of a priest with a cloth turban on his head.

He tells himself: SEE???  It doesn’t make sense,,, the priests were ORDERED to wear head coverings when they came before Yahweh, and would they jerk it off when they came into His presence?  After what happened to Aaron’s sons, one wouldn’t think they’d dare!  So, WHAT is Paul talking about when he’s talking about covering? DID reads on:

 5 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.

DID has ANOTHER epiphany: Ah HAH!!!  THAT’S where they get the custom of a woman wearing a “chapel veil” in the Catholic Church.  Then he says to himself: IF a woman doesn’t have a scarf on, she dishonors her husband? He goes flipping through his Strong’s Concordance, and finds that there’s NOTHING in the Torah that commands a woman to wear a scarf.  THIS just doesn’t make sense.  Besides, he says to himself, IF it isn’t talking about the MAN’S “covering” on his head being a cloth, hat, etc., and obviously it isn’t, because the priests were COMMANDED to wear a cloth on their head, it’s NOT talking about that with the woman either. 

He thinks a little, and then looks up a couple of places in the Old Testament, that he remembers about women being covered:

Ge 24:61 And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man: and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way. 62  And Isaac came from the way of the well Lahairoi; for he dwelt in the south country.63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.64 And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel.65 For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself.

Well, says DID to himself, Rebekah covered herself, let’s look and see what the other translations might say, and they didn’t help, because they all basically said the same thing.  He checks his JFB commentary and finds:

The CUSTOM in THOSE DAYS was that the veil was an essential part of female dress. In country places it is often thrown aside, but on the appearance of a stranger, it is drawn over the face, as to conceal all but the eyes. It was a sign of modesty and chastity, and in a bride it was a token of her reverence and subjection to her husband. 

DID says,,, “That makes sense,,,  it was a CUSTOM... she wasn’t wearing it with the folks that she was traveling with in the camel train, and only put it on when a “stranger” appeared, since she wasn’t anyone’s bride at that time.”  DID thinks to himself: “Maybe it was because she considered herself ‘betrothed’”.  Then he says, NO, if we go by what the scripture tells us, Abraham’s servant told her it was his master out there; for all Rebekah knew, that was Abraham, the servant’s master, so it appears that she did it because it was a stranger.  DID smiles to himself, thinking, that if a woman wanted to follow the custom in the OT, she’d have to wear a hood, or Burqa to only have her eyes showing.

Then DID flips over to the other place he can think of, which is in NUMBERS 5:  and reads about when a man gets jealous of his wife:

Nu 5:11 ¶ And Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying, 12 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him,13 And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the manner; 14 And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled 15 Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance. 16 And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before Yahweh:17 And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water:18 And the priest shall set the woman before Yahweh, and uncover the woman's head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse:

AHHHH, says DID,,, he has never seen a command in the Torah for a woman to cover her head, but here it’s mentioned “UNCOVER”... let’s see what the other translations say: and he finds of the 13 different translations of the bible he has, 5 of them say uncover her head, and the other 8 say: The Priest is to: let the hair of the woman go loose, unbind the hair of the woman’s head, loosen the woman’s hair, and one says dishevel the woman’s hair.  So, he says to himself, the MAJORITY of these translators read the Hebrew and translate it having the “COVER” being the woman’s hair. 

He decides that the LAW doesn’t command a woman to wear a cloth on her head, but that it was just a custom in those days.

And he reads on in I Cor. 11, to see if he can make sense out of what Paul is saying:

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. 7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of Yahweh: but the woman is the glory of the man. 8 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. 9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. 10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in Yahweh. 12 For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of Yahweh. 13 Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto Yahweh uncovered? 14 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?

DID says: NOW WHAT???  Paul suddenly jumped to HAIR, and SHORT hair on a man.... and he reads on:

15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.

DID has an epiphany!!! AH HAH!!!  In a woman, LONG HAIR = COVERING!!!  Paul is talking about HAIR LENGTH when he’s been talking about men and women being covered or uncovered!!!  With the man he couldn’t have been talking about a hat, or scarf, because of what Yahweh ordered the priests to do when they came before him.

 SOOOOO, says DID to himself, Paul has given us the KEY to what he’s talking about when he says “covered”, by telling us that the covering for a woman is her HAIR.   Let’s see if it will fit, and make sense that way, by substituting the appropriate hair length for men and women into the places where Paul used the word “covered”, or “uncovered”, etc.   So he reads I Cor. 11: with those substitutions in the appropriate places to see if it makes sense.  He also puts in Messiah, and Husband in the appropriate places:

1Co 11:1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Messiah. 2 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you. 3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Messiah; and the head of the woman is her husband; and the head of Messiah is Yahweh. 4 Every man praying or prophesying, having LONG HAIR, dishonoureth Messiah. 5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with SHORT HAIR dishonoureth her husband: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. 6 For if the woman has not LONG HAIR, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her have LONG HAIR. 7 For a man indeed ought NOT to have LONG HAIR, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of Yahweh: but the woman is the glory of the man. 8 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. 9  Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. 10 For this cause ought the woman to have LONG HAIR on her head because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in Yahweh. 12 For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of Yahweh. 13 Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto Yahweh with SHORT HAIR? 14 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have LONG HAIR, it is a shame unto him? 15 But if a woman have LONG HAIR, it is a GLORY to her: for her HAIR is given her for a COVERING.

DID says to himself: YEAH, now THAT makes sense.  And he comes to the viewpoint that men don’t have to yank off their hats, and women don’t have to wear a scarf, or chapel veil, when they come before Yahweh. It’s just a custom, and not a law of the Torah.

In conclusion, I’ll have to say that I agree with DID in his viewpoint, and IF YOU DON’T SEE IT THIS WAY, then that’s OK.  We can still be brothers and sisters; we’ll just be brothers and sisters with a different viewpoint. HALLELUYAH! ~