Which Bible Commentaries Teach Head Covering?
Last Updated: Jan 19/15 (added Reformation Heritage Bible)
What follows is a list of all the commentaries that teach that head covering is for today. We will update this list as we discover new ones and verify them.
If you know of a commentary or study bible that is not mentioned, please let us know by leaving a comment below or e-mailing us so we can look into it.
The Wycliffe Bible Commentary
Commentator: S. Lewis Johnson
Editor(s): Charles F. Pfeiffer & Everett F. Harrison
(Moody Press, 1962)
Purchase: Book
“In the final analysis, the hat, or veil, is not the important thing, but the subordination for which it stands. The prescence of both is the ideal.” (Pg 1248 – 1987 Version)
Believer’s Bible Commentary
Commentator: William MacDonald
Editor(s): Charles F. Pfeiffer & Everett F. Harrison
(Thomas Nelson, 1989)
Purchase: Book / Logos
“In verses 7-10, Paul teaches the subordination of the woman to the man by going back to creation. This should forever lay to rest any idea that his teaching about women’s covering was what was culturally suitable in his day but not applicable to us today.” (Pg 1785 – 1995 Version)
Commentaries on Romans and 1-2 Corinthians (Ancient Christian Texts)
Commentator: Ambrosiaster
Translator(s): Gerald L. Bray
Editor(s): Thomas C. Oden & Gerald L. Bray
(IVP Academic, 2009)
Purchase: Book
“Paul says that the honor and dignity of a man makes it wrong for him to cover his head, because the image of God should not be hidden. Indeed, it ought not to be hidden, for the glory of God is seen in the man.” (Pg 172 – 2009 Version)
The Church’s Bible (1 Corinthians)
Commentator(s): Ambrosiaster, Augustine, John Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret, Severian of Gabala & a dialogue of a Montanist with an Orthodox Christian
Editor(s): Judith L. Kovacs
(Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005)
Purchase: Book / Logos
“…the business of whether to cover one’s head was legislated by nature (see 1 Cor 11:14-15). When I say “nature,” I mean “God.” For he is the one who created nature. Take note, therefore, what great harm comes from overturning these boundaries! And don’t tell me that this is a small sin.” (pg 180 – 2005 version – Quoting John Chrysostom)
The Ryrie Study Bible
Various Bible Versions
Various Publishers
Purchase: Book
“Women should be veiled or covered in the meeting of the church, and the men should not. Paul’s reasons were based on theology (headship v.3), the order of creation (v.7-9), and the presence of angels in the meeting (v.10). None of these reasons was based on contemporary social custom.” (page 303 – 1976 NASV by Moody Publishers)
The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Black’s New Testament Commentaries)
Commentator: C.K. Barrett
General Editor: Henry Chadwick, D.D
(A&C Black Publishers, 1971)
Purchase: Book / Logos
“This makes it the more necessary to ask the question whether Paul is here simply dependant on custom, so that ‘in communities where it is no longer a disgrace for a woman to be “shorn”, the argument has lost its point” (Hooker, N.T.S. x410—see below, p. 253). This is probably not so; Paul thinks that nature (see verse 14) expects a woman to be covered, so that for her to be uncovered is not only an offense against custom but also an unnatural act.” (pg 251 – 2nd Edition, 1971 Version)
Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians
Commentator: Frédéric Louis Godet (1812-1900)
(Originally published by T&T Clark, 1886)
Various Publishers offer an English reprint
Purchase: Book / Logos
“Was this conviction solely a matter of time and place, so that it is possible to suppose, that if he lived now, and in the West, the apostle would express himself differently? This supposition is not admissible; for the reasons which he alleges are taken, not from contemporary usages, but from permanent facts, which will last as long as the present earthly economy.” (pg 133 – Vol II – Zondervan, 1957)
The Numerical Bible (Volume 6)
Commentator: F.W. Grant (1834-1902)
(Loizeaux Brothers, 1902)
Purchase: Logos Read: Online
“There are some practical consequences in the exhibition of this order of things upon the earth. If a man pray or prophesy having his head covered, he dishonors his head; in itself a very small thing surely,–in that which it signifies not small at all. Everything depends upon the truth which is in it…All this has reference, of course, to present display. It is not a question of what is final, what is heavenly, what is eternal. It is God’s order as He has instituted it, and which we are bound to respect. There is meaning in it also, and we shall suffer if we refuse it…” (pg 501)
The First Epistle to the Corinthians
Commentator: H. L. Goudge
Editor: Walter Lock
(Methuen & Co, 1903)
Purchase: Logos
“…the Jewish and Gentile members of the Corinthian church would have grown up with diverse customs, and in the interests of orderly worship, it was well for the Christian practice to be definitely settled. S. Paul’s decision, though not ignoring the dictates of natural propriety, is based upon Christian doctrine. The rule of faith here, as everywhere, gives the rule of worship.” (page 94)
F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testament Commentary
Commentator: F.B. Hole
1947
Purchase: Book Read: Online
“Now if any believer, man or woman, has to do with God and His things, whether it be in praying (i.e., addressing oneself to Him), or in prophesying (i.e., speaking forth words from Him), there is to be the observance of these directions as to the uncovering or covering of the head, as a sign that God’s order is recognized and obeyed.”
A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians
Commentator: Thomas Charles Edwards
(Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1885)
Purchase: Logos
“…the reference in [1 Cor 11:2] to the ordinances or traditions suggests that the use of the veil by the women and by them alone was a peculiarly Christian arrangement, imposed on the Churches partly to distinguish Christian worship from that of Jew or Greek, partly to symbolize the mystical doctrine of the headship of Christ.” (page 270 – from the 1979 reprint by Klock & Klock)
The Expositors Greek Testament
Commentator: G.G. Findlay
Editor: William Robertson Nicoll
(Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1956)
Purchase: Logos Read: Online
“Paul’s directions do not agree precisely with current practice. Jewish men covered their heads at prayers with the Tallith…Amongst the Greeks, both sexes worshipped with uncovered head…while Roman men and women alike covered their heads during religious rites. The usage here prescribed seems to be an adaptation of Greek custom to Christian conceptions. With us the difference of sex is more strongly marked in the general attire than with the ancients; but the draped head has still its appropriateness, and the distinction laid down in this passage has been universally observed.” (page 873)
Practical Reflections on Every Verse of the New Testament
Commentator: Anonymous Clergyman
(London : Rivingtons, 1883)
Read: Online
“Let us have no other faith or worship but such as was set up at the first, and has prevailed throughout the Church. We should believe and worship like the saints of old, that is enough for us. Stand on the old ways and you will be safe. This applies not only to small things, like women covering their heads, but to all matters which are in dispute amongst Christians.” (page 319)
The Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible
General Editor: Joel Beeke
NT Editor: Gerald Bilkes
(Reformation Heritage Books, 2014)
Purchase: Hardcover / Kindle / Logos (Pre-pub)
“When You come to the house of God for corporate worship, how you conduct yourself matters. Paul argues for proper decorum in public worship according to His created order.” (page 1661)
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