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.

It is a glory to her ... This would have been the ideal place for Paul to have said that a mantle thrown over a woman's head and shoulders is a glory to her, if he ever had such a thing in mind. On the contrary, it comes out here, as it does in every verse in the whole passage, his subject was "hair"!

Her hair is given her for a covering ... Here again is an enormous mistranslation; and one may only wonder at the efforts of commentators to make this conform to the misinterpretations they have foisted upon this innocent passage. For example, Johnson declared that "This does not mean that her hair is her covering";[30] but a glance at any interlinear Greek New Testament will reveal the meaning instantly. Nestle gives it, "instead of a veil."[31] The Emphatic Diaglott has "Her hair is given her instead of a veil."[32] Echols emphatically stressed this expression "instead of" as follows:

The idea conveyed by "instead of" is that if the noun preceding this preposition is available, the noun following the preposition is not required. Therefore, the conclusion is quite inescapable that, if a woman's hair conforms to apostolic standards of propriety, she requires no artificial covering.[33]

But of paramount importance in this verse is the noun [@peribolaion], here rendered "veil." This is the one noun in the whole passage that unmistakably refers to a head covering. Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament translates it, "a covering thrown around, a wrapper." This is the "veil" which has already been imported into the passage five times; but this is Paul's first reference to anything of the kind; and, significantly, it is mentioned in the same breath with woman's hair which is given to her "instead of" any such covering.

The only conceivable situation in which it may be inferred that Paul expected women to wear the kind of mantle, or veil, spoken of here, would be one in which a woman's hair had been lost, from disease, accident, or something of that kind. Echols thought that "instead of" in this verse "forces us to accept the alternative that, if a woman's hair does not fulfill its proper function, then she should wear a mantle or hood."[34] However, this seems to be an unnecessary conclusion, since the natural modesty of almost any person would lead to the wearing of a head covering in such a circumstance.

[30] Ibid.

[31] Nestle's Greek text

[32] The Emphatic Diaglott

[33] Eldred Echols

[34] Eldred Echols