What do we know about head coverings and worship apart from 1 Corinthians 11?

  1. Adam and Eve did not wear head coverings in the garden.
  2. The priest wore a head covering when approaching God in the Tabernacle and Temple.
  3. God restores the church to a garden-like order through Christ.

Why would women need to wear head coverings?

Only if they were performing a function that they would not have had in the garden.

What was this function?

It must be due to something new: a widespread gift of prophecy among women would be a novel phenomenon in the first century.

Because of the work of the Spirit, women were called to speak the word of God in the Assembly,

  1. Something Eve didn’t do.
  2. Something that was necessary as the Spirit ought to be listened to.

Why the head coverings for performing this function?

It conceals her peculiar feminine glory so that she may perform a function typically reserved for men.