Does culture affect the application of 1 Corinthians 11:2-16?
For most commentators, the answer is an emphatic “Yes! Thiselton (2000) quotes Rousselle (“Body Politics in Ancient Rome”), “A veil or hood constituted a warning: it signified that the wearer was a respectable woman and that no man dare approach her,” i.e., as one potentially or actually sexually “available”. Thiselton later draws what he sees as an application: “To employ a dress code which hints at sexual availability while leading worship is unthinkable.” While that certainly is “unthinkable”, so is a woman leading the worship of the church, regardless of her wardrobe (14:34-38). Despite spending 48 pages commenting on this section of Scripture, Thiselton does not cite a single primary source to confirm his assertions about the covering in Corinthian culture. Blomberg (1994) says, “If an external head covering is meant, Paul probably wants married women to wear a shawl over their hair and shoulders, as many Greek women still did in public, and not to resemble those who discard