How come women no longer cover their heads in Church? By whose authority was this changed ?

Question

The Bible clearly states in 1stCor.Ch 11-vs 5+ "For a woman however it is a sign of disrespect to her head , if she prays or prophesies unveiled; she might as well have her hair shaved off. In fact, a woman who will not wear a veil should have her hair shaved off.If a woman is ashamed to have her hair shaved off, she ought to wear a veil.
Also 1st Tim Ch 2 vs 11+ ; During instructions, a woman should be quiet and respectful.I am not giving women permission to teach or tell a man what to do.
Vs 15: Never the less, she will be saved by childbearing, provided she lives a modest lifeand is constant in faith and love and holiness.
That is from the Bible, not The Qu'ran.

That would be John XXIII, but he had no authority over non-catholic religions

Whitehorse and others: so what you are saying is it is optional what you decide to follow from the Bible

Misskate1-checked your link- Just says that PaulVI did not include the practice in the new missel because it was such an accepted custom.

Mitch- That is called taking it out of context, go back to the Ch. before.
Doomer- I agree with you 100%, but that doesn't change what is written.

Debra I agree, it had nothing to do with Vatican II but rather Paul VI. However that only involves Catholics, how about those who do not accept the authority of the Pope.

Cindy- What you said was interesting. By extension then, because homosexuality was so wide spread among the Romans, that would explain why in Romans, Paul forbids the practice, as it would make it appear that the person was a pagan. So now, that doesn't apply anylonger, interesting.

Bigez- If you are referring to vs 16 "To anyone who still may want to argue:it is not the custom with us, nor in the churches of God." He is reffering to "argueing" as not being the custom, thereby closeing any discussion of the matter.

Beka: I've searched but I cant find anywhere a "veil" is synomous with a human. It seems like picking & choosing to me

Answer 1

Why not become Muslim? Then you'll only see women's eyes. Would that make you happy?

Why should women have to be covered up, they aren't disgusting creatures or grotesquely deformed are they? Why treat women as 2nd class people?

Answer 2

Some of us do still cover. I am a Catholic and I do. Go to a Traditional Latin Mass and you will see most of the women covered. I recently learned that during Vatican II a reporter asked if women's requirement to cover their heads was being discussed and the Cardinal replied it was not a topic on the table. The next day papers printed that women no longer had to cover their heads for Mass. The Church did not reply to this for reasons unknown, perhaps keeping the peace. Women mostly stopped veiling. I would never enter a Church uncovered. I cover as a sign of respect.

Answer 3

Many proper Christian woman still do cover their heads in church.

The woman here who states it was done away with by Vatican II, as was Latin Mass, is wrong on both accounts.

If you watch mass on EWTN, you'll see most women still have their heads covered. It's still part of canon law. If you are a regular church going Catholic you'll see a few women in church with the veil on.

Latin Mass has never been done away with. It is still active and WONDERFUL. One absolutely MUST cover their head to attend a Latin Mass. Just be sure you're attending a Vatican approved "Ecclesia Dei" Latin Mass and not a schizmatic SSPX mass.

Answer 4

Culture in Corinth at the time was mostly pagen.

There were very large and powerful pagen temples that included with normal practice prostitutes of both genders. It was normal for the female prostitutes to have very very short hair, or shaven heads, and it was just as normal for the male prostitutes to have long feminine hair.

This practice is what Paul was writing about and Timothy as he was trained by Paul. Also it was very common in the pagen temples to have high priestess. Men were not a governing authority in the pagen temples.

With this background Paul was charged with teaching these pagen converts to Christianity a new way to live for God instead of themselves.

So, he was telling them to leave their old ways and adapt new ways apart from the prevailing culture. They were to be seen as different. SO, women should cover their heads with hair, not veils or bonnets or hats. Men should have short hair and not try to look like a female.

Now another problem, Jewish converts had a different culture. They did not allow their women to worship inside the temples at all prior to Jesus Christs ministry. Now that they were allowed in, they had no idea what was being taught and they were on opposite sides of the room as the men. So, they shouted across the room to their husbands to explain to them what was just taught. It was causing much disruption inside the church. Paul was simple stating that the women should be quiet in church and ask their husbands questions after they returned home.

It was never meant that women could or would never teach, but they did have to know and understand Gods word before they could do this. Paul himself, put women in charge of churches that he founded in different cities. These women were knowledgeable of Gods word and very capable of teaching.

For the bible not to be wrong, we need to put the culture and the times together along with what Paul wrote and with what he did.

Only then can we get the full picture of what Paul was trying to teach at a particular time to a particular church of very new believers.

Edit: Pagen practices were then and now a "religion" of worshipping the created rather than the creator.

With this in mind, Paul was teaching them the exact opposite was true. They were to worship God and his will and his way. Prostitution and homosexuality are both forms of following your own desires and thoughts above and beyond Gods will and way. There are many other parts of the bible that state this very thought over and over again. Homosexuality was never stated in the old or the new testament as acceptable, in fact it was used to show the darkened and depraved hearts and the downward spiral of man even in the book of Romans itself.

Romans is a good book to read if you are interested in how a human can reject God and be given over to their own thoughts and desires to the point that they feel there no longer is a God and they have only themselves and what they desire to rely on.
After reading chapter one and two of Romans, you may have more questions, I be happy to explain further if I can. I have read the bible through and most parts many times, but I assure you I do not yet understand it all. I am trained by the bible alone, no college degrees in theology. I do however, use secular historical writings about culture to get the feel of what was going on at a given time in history.

Answer 5

1 Corinthians 11:15 But if a woman have long hair,it is a glory to her; for her hair is given her for a covering............You have too many words in your bible that don't belong. Read it in the KJV. It doesn't say a thing about a "veil". It just says "covered" It also says"but if it BE a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. That is not taking something out of context. Blessings.

Answer 6

As far as the Catholic Church goes, there was a series of reforms to the church in the 1960's (sometime around there) including that mass was to be said in the language of the people (instead of Latin), the priest faced the congregation, you could eat meat on Fridays etc... One of the restrictions removed was the covering of women's heads in church. The authority was the Pope I guess, in regards to the Catholic church.

Answer 7

Thank you for pointing out that the Bible also says that a woman should cover her hair. I have never heard this before. I am tired of hearing the criticism of the Koran, that it is discriminatory to women when in fact Islam gives women many rights that other religions don't.

Answer 8

If you read the rest of that chapter in 1st corinthians, you find that it was a custom and Paul points out that not all churches have such customs

Answer 9

I'm going to guess a pope, probably when people had more choices of religion with the different sects of Christianity.

Answer 10

that was a custom back in that particular time for that particular area. and honestly women should not be confined to thsoe scriptures what about teh righteous woman in Proverbs? is she chopped liver? its not a commandment from God that women cover their head. its a symbol for how we are covered and protected.although a womans hair is her glory. so long or short it should look very nice and let people know that you are well covered by God or your husband.