Date: Wed, 3 Dec 86 18:43:22 est From: rutgers!unipress!mg@lll-crg.arpa (required by law) Subject: no question hairYou people have been discussing long hair on males as if there were any question about it being wrong. Paul settles the question quite convincingly in the scriptures. Of course, I missed that the first time I read it, probably because it wasn't the question that was on my mind at the time. But luckily I found the following interpretation of the passages that clearly show that Jesus Christ himself doesn't approve of men's long hair. The following is from a book titled "Adam's Rib" by R.B. Thieme, Jr., Berachah Tapes and Publications, Houston, Texas, copyright 1973. The book, which is intended for adolescents, deals largely with the proper relationship between men and women. It was given to a friend of mine while she was being indoctrinated into a fundamentalist church.
I am glad to see that groups with such bents are becoming politically successful. Hopefully they will apply the same scholarship and zeal to interpreting the Constitution as they do the Scriptures, so that all law-abiding citizens may apply these principles in their daily lives.
I present these excerpts under my own title:
What Paul really meant to say was ...
[verbatim text follows]
Every nobleman praying or prophesying, having something down over his head, dishonors his head (1 Cor. 11:4).
Here "every man" is used for a male believer only, in contrast to the female believer in the next verse. "Praying and prophesying" are both part of the worship service, although prophesying today is only bona fide through the teaching of the Word of God in eschatalogical passages. Up to now, the word "head" has been used for superior rank; but it now changes to mean the literal head, by the addition of a prepositional phrase in the Greek, KATA plust KEPHALES. The man has something down of (KATA) his literal head (KEPHALES). Now what does this mean? It means LONG HAIR.
A man wears short hair if he's a man in his thinking. Hair style on a man is strictly a matter of what he THINKS... THINKS... THINKS! It all comes from the soul. If he's something other than a man, then of course, what comes out of the top of his head manifests what goes on inside the head. A man who has his hair loong because some doll told him he looked good that way, obviously is a responder. He has all the male accouterments, but he's a "woman" in his soul. A man is to be the authority over the woman, and the badge is his SHORT HAIR! The woman's badge of submission is her longer hair.
People often ask, "What are the signs of the times?" And they expect a dissertation on the Jews going back into the Land or something on the Communist conspiracy. But the signs of the times today are reflected in the male's long hair. Long hair reflects confusion, rebellion and rejection of the laws of divine establishment. How long is long hair on a male? "Down over the head" is the standard for a man's hair, according to this verse. A good rule of thumb would be that if you can comb your hair so that it comes down over your eyes or nose, it's too long! It's a veil! And that's exactly the way "veil" is used here, though you can't find the word "veil" in the English -- only in the Greek. Long hair, or even a hat on a man's head in a church service, covers up his authority as a man.
If a man's wife has hair shorter than her husband's, it indicates that she dominates -- she is the aggressor, and this principle has been violated. Hair is the sign. You may have thought that hair was designed only for beauty, and this is partly true for the woman. The most beautiful thing God ever built was the woman, and her hair is her visible glory. However, it is also designed to be her badge of submission to her right man.
Now, when a male believer prays or prophesies having "something down over his head," he dishonors his head. I love the humor here. "Something down over his head," KATA KEPHALES, is something over his LITERAL head; but he dishonors his KEPHALE -- his head or authority! This is what we call a "thought paronomasia,"out of the top of his and it is very humorous in the Greek. The same word is used, but it means two different things: a physical head and superior rank. KATA KEPHALES indicates that a man is growing his own veil, and it's a disgrace. He disgraces grace! It's actually not a question of how it looks; the problem is the condition in the soul, and the condition in the soul is wrong. More often than not, long hair is an outward sign of rebellion against God and God's design.
Long hair dishonors the man's authority over the woman; but more than that, it dishonors Jesus Christ. Who designed the woman? Jesus Christ, the SAME ONE who went to the Cross and bore your sins! And He gave the woman first. Down through the ages man has rejected the principle of right man -- right woman -- through fornication, adultery, homosexuality, autoerotism, and other perversions. Now, let's see this from the standpoint of the woman.
But every woman praying and prophesying with the head unveiled dishonors her head; for it is one and the same as if she had been shaved (1 Cor. 11:t).
We have a word in this verse that we must examine -- AKATAKALUPTOS. We'll see this word without the "A" later on. This is a very rare Greek word in the New Testament. "A" indiacates a negative; KATA means "down," KALUPTOS "hidden" (something hidden and down). "Hidden and down" is a veil. KATAKALUPTOS is the veil that goes over the feminine head and face. The addition of "A" means literally, "with the head UNVEILED." Paul is using a clever piece of sarcasm here. The legalists don't realized that he is not talking about hats or veils, but about hair. He has already set up the thought paronomasia in relation to the man's hair, and when he gets all the legalists nodding, he will lower the boom!
So far, the legalists have been agreeing with everything Paul has said in principle. Now Paul goes on: "But every woman praying and prophesying with the head unveiled disgraces her head ..." The legalists are still nodding: "Amen brother, if a woman isn't veiled, she disgraces her head!" But what they fail to recognize, because Paul hasn't actually said it yet, is that the veil is her hair!
The woman's head is covered with hair. God designed her hair, as well as her body, to be different from the man's. Her hair is a sign of submission both to God and to her right man. Therefore, the veil is the woman's hair -- a veil which nature has provided. but the woman's harir must be long, just as the man's hair must be short. In this way, both recognize not only God's grace provision in Category Two love but the principle of establishment as well. A prostitute is a woman who has rejected the authority of one man and sold her body to any or all; therefore, Paul makes the analogy to the prostitutes of that day who had been branded or punished by the shaving of their heads. It was a sign of disgrace, and it is still the custom today. During World War II women who fraternized with the enemy were subjected to having their heads shaved. Paul is simply in the process of clarifying the criticism and also adding some principles of doctrine with regard to right man -- right woman.
For if a woman does not veil herself [be not covered], shave her; but if it be indecent for a woman to have her hair cut off or shaved, keep on veiling her (1 Cor. 11:6).
Paul is saying in effect that if a woman does not have long hair so that it hangs down over her face like a veil, then shave it off! Here is his sanctified sarcasm. While the legalists are nodding their heads because they're thinking of literal veils, Paul is getting ready to shock them by saying that the veil is actually the woman's hair! This is a debater's technique as well as sarcasm. It is, of course, a bad moment for the women without veils who are listening to the reading of Paul's dissertation; but he is making a great stand against legalism. The legalists say that a woman is uncovered if wshe doesn't wear a veil (today it would be a hat). Paul says that the only way a woman can come to church and be uncovered is to have her hair shaved off!
The sarcasm is completed but reversed at the end of verse 6. Paul uses two different words for "shave" in this verse. The first, KEIRO, means to take some kind of a knife or cutting tool and shave off the hair right down to the scalp. The other, ZURAO, means to use the knife edge to cut it down close. So he says, "If it's indecent for a woman to have her hair cut off or shaved, keep on veiling her." To the legalists, this still meand that she must wear a veil or hat. But Paul is still working up to his coup de grace: the woman's hair is her veil, and it is the sign of her submission to her right man. The issue is not hats -- but doctrine!
[Here I omit two sections titled "MAN, THE GLORY OF GOD" and "WOMAN, THE GLORY OF MAN". -mg]
Because of this the woman ought to have authority [of her right man] upon the head because of the angels (1 Cor. 11:10).
EXZOUSIA, mistranslated "power," is always "authority," and it is always used in grace principle. It is used here for right man -- right woman. It is used in John 1:12 for salvation:
But as many as received him, to them gave he AUTHORITY [EXZOUSIA] to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
"Because of this" -- because the woman was designed for right man... because of Category Tow love... because the man has authority over the woman ... because the woman is an empty vessel designed to repond to the right man -- the woman ought to wear the badge of her design on her head! God designed her head to be covered with the sign that the man is her authority. her head is veiled with long hair; his head has short hair to show that he is HEAD over the woman!
Extreme shortness of hair on the woman is often a sign of some soul kink, some hangup. It represents mental attitude sins, reversionism or reverse process reversionism, which are the great enemies of the right man -- right woman relationship. In the practice of reverse process reversionism, the woman fornicates with inconsequential persons. She responds to the wrong man -- "operation nymphomania"; she goes for women -- "operation lesbianism"; with animals -- "operation bestiality," or she responds to herself -- "operation masturbation." These are all manifestations of reversionism and are perversions of Category Two love. This is why a woman condemned under these conditions had her hair publicly shaved in the ancient world.
There's a time in a girl's life when almost anything that wears trousers looks good. Theoretically she gets over that; but all of her life she's going to see men that are attractvie to her for one reason or another. That isn't why a woman wears long hair -- she is not at the disposal of any man who is attractive to her. There is only one man who is her right man, and that's it -- period! A doctrinally oriented woman with long hair is saying, "I recongize the grace of God. He has given me a man. I am an empty vessel without this man. There is only one man that can fulfill me. There is only one man who can turn me on (the 'burning' of 1 Cor. 7:9) or who can turn me into a true woman -- only one man: not a dog, not another woman, not the wrong man, and not even an angel" These are pseudo-lovers!
A woman should wear her hair long as a reminder to angelic creation as well as to the human race. Women are designed for men of the human race only -- not for angels. Why? Our first clue is found in Genesis 6:1-9. The angels had been observing the woman and "flipped" over her. Finally, when there was an excess of women during the period before the flood, the angels decided to get into the picture. At that time the angels had the capability of cohabitation and were able to produce children by means of angelic infiltration into the human race. These children became the great superheroes of the ancient world, the heroes of Greek and Roman mythology. These supermen -- such as Castor and Pollox, Achilles, Hercules, etc. -- all had human mothers and "gods" for fathers.
The fact that the women submitted to the angels indicates that these women were "wearing their hair too short"; they failed to recognize what God had provided! Of course, the time before the flood was one of the greatest periods of apostasy in human history. God put a stop to the cohabitation of angels after Genesis 6 so that Satan would never be able to use that strategy again; however, the principle remains because of the angelic conflict. Before the flood, the long hair on the woman was to remind angels that women were off limits to them. After the flood, it's to remind angels of God's grace in the woman's function in this state of the angelic conflict.