Journal: Journal of Ministry and Theology
Volume: JMAT 04:2 (Fall 2000)
Article: Headcoverings in the Old Testament
Author: Alan D. Ingalls

JMAT 4:2 (Fall 00) p. 41

Headcoverings in the
Old Testament

Alan D. Ingalls

Assistant Professor Of Old Testament
Baptist Bible Seminary, Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania

There is a problem which has long perplexed this writer: Why does Paul argue that it is a shame for a man to pray or prophesy with his head covered (1 Cor. 11:4) when the priests of the Old Testament cultus were required to wear a turban in their leadership of and participation in Israelite worship?1 Most of the studies in 1 Corinthians 11 have focused on Greco-Roman customs and the question of whether women were required to wear a veil in that culture.2 Such studies widely fail to account for the OT material, to distinguish between early and late usage, to distinguish between what was required in the culture and what was acceptable, and to distinguish between differing kinds of headcoverings.3 For example,

JMAT 4:2 (Fall 00) p. 42

Meir Ydit in Encyclopaedia Judaica (EJ) equates the OT practice of covering the head in mourning with that of Talmudic times saying that “[a] mourner, one on whom a ban had been pronounced, and a leper, were, in fact, obliged to cover their heads (MK 15a)….”4 Moed Katan, the tractate of the Babylonian Talmud cited by the EJ, says this: “A mourner is obliged to muffle his head. Since the All Merciful enjoined Ezekiel: And cover not thine upper lip, we infer that everybody else is obliged [to do so].”5 The passage in Ezekiel 24:17 actually suggests that it was normal for a man to wear his turban while going about bareheaded was a sign of mourning:

¹⁵Also the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, ¹⁶Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. ¹⁷Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men. [KJV unless otherwise noted.]

Ezekiel was to act contrary to custom by not showing the normal signs of mourning for his wife. Further, Leviticus 13:45 explicitly demands that one determined to have “leprosy” must go about with his head bare a...