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Women With Shaved Heads
Who Were the
Women with Shaved Heads (1 Corinthians 11:5)?
Sandra Glahn
The
past fifty years at Pompeii have uncovered an enormous amount of social data
that helps us understand New Testament backgrounds.
Because
the city was buried relatively instantly in A.D. 79, everything was preserved
like a time capsule in the same era in which some of the New Testament was
written.
Interestingly,
one of the places that yields data for us is the brothel.
The
house of ill repute in Pompeii depicts erotic scenes associated with certain
rooms where sexual options appear in paintings with price lists.
And
this unlikely place actually sheds light on Paul’s meaning in 1
Corinthians 11:5.
There he writes,
“But any woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered disgraces her
head, for it is one and the same thing as having a shaved head” (1 Corinthians
11:5).
Perhaps
you, like me, have been taught that having a shaved head identified a woman as
a prostitute. Here are quotes from a couple of commentaries that take such an
interpretation:
“There is the
local and contemporary custom that had prostitutes and the likes shave their
head” [sic].
These women were “cropping
their hair, after the manner of the notorious Corinthian prostitutes.”
(Notice
that in both cases there is reference to the culture of the day to figure out
Paul’s meaning; all commentators resort to culture in trying to figure out the
local practices and what they meant.)
But
we have no evidence whatsoever that head-shaving was a practice done by
prostitutes.
We
do, however, have evidence that doing so was associated with the punishment for
adultery. In fact, we find such a connection in the Old Testament.
In an academic article on the subject, Dr. Phillip Payne
writes, “The article in 'the shorn woman'
implies a recognized class of woman, probably the accused adulteress whose
disgrace paralleled the symbolism of loose hair, since by it a woman places on
herself the accusation of adultery. This allusion perfectly fits the ‘bitter
water’ ordeal of letting down the hair of a suspected adulteress (Numbers 5:11–31) and, if she is convicted, of cutting
off her hair.… This custom is paralleled in non- Jewish customs cited by
Tacitus (A. D. 98), Germania, 19;
Aristophanes 3, 204–07; and Dio Chrysostom (A.D. 100), Discourses, 64.2–3.”
The
brothel art in Pompeii depicts prostitutes with full heads of hair, never
shaved.
Other
erotic art from Pompeii shows sexually promiscuous women with their hair done
up as the matrons wore it (see photo below).
Prostitutes
probably indicated their profession not by their hair style but by their dress,
as is still true in most places today.
So
what does Paul mean if he’s not referring to prostitutes? Payne is probably
right.
Most
likely the wives in Corinth were “letting down their hair,” a practice probably
associated with spiritual freedom in Dionysus worship.
But
doing so was the equivalent to taking off their wedding rings, which shamed
their husbands and suggested they were “available.”
It’s
not that what these women were doing was suggestive or immodest any more than
taking off a wedding ring is sexy. But it was shameful
and dishonoring because of what it communicated.
And
the instruction appears to be something applicable only to wives.
The
“head of a woman” is probably her
husband (cp. Ephesians
5),
not all men everywhere.
Notice,
too, that Paul does not tell all the wives they need to do something about
their hair (which was their covering, verse
15).
He
has in view only those marked as speaking to or for God (i.e.,
praying and prophesying, verse 5).
This
latter detail is often lost in the debate.
Paul
was not discussing whether or not women/wives should speak in the gathered
assembly. That was a given. The question was only about how they
should do so.
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