Is it true that a woman's hair serves as her veil during worship?

Yes it is.

In ALL religions -- u can go to church, temples, hindu temples, mosques, some buddhist temples (rural China) and even grudwaras -- u can see women and men covering their hair, the moment they enter the place of worship or even praying at home.

No. 1 Corinthians 11:3-10:"Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is just as though her head were shaved. If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off; and if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head. A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. For this reason, and because of the angels, the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head."

What Paul is saying here is that it is disgraceful for women to worship God without their hair being covered. Such a practice was indicative of a lack of respect in that particular society, and covering the hair a sign of submission. Our society does not have that same cultural idiom, so neither covering or not covering is wrong, unless your society holds to such. For us American Christians, I think the equivalent would be for women not to work short skirts in church, or anything else that takes away from her glory or that can be a stumbling block for others. Same applies to men.

No. And those women's culture is to wear the veil ok.

no 1 Cor 11 say that women should wear a covering when praying and the bible tells us to pray without stopping.

A Bible Helps Tract -- No. 19

We are often asked the question: "What is that cap you wear on your head? What's the significance of a sort of veiling worn over your hair?" This little tract will be an attempt to answer such questions.

The woman's veiling is something that is taught in the Bible. If you have a copy of the New Testament, you will find God's teaching about the woman's veiling in 1 Corinthians 11. Verse 6 of that chapter says that if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off, or her head shaved, let her cover her head.

But what is the background for this commandment? Why does God say to the woman, "Let her cover her head"? The answer is that the veiling worn by the woman in a symbol. It is a symbol of at least three things:

1. The woman's acceptance of man's leadership.

2. The purity that characterizes Christian living

3. The prayer-life of one who is serving Christ.

1. The Woman's Acceptance of Man's Leadership

God has an orderly arrangement for all creatures -- kings and subjects, teachers and pupils, husbands and wives, parents and children, and so forth. And wherever two or more parties are interdependent upon each other, one must have authority and the other must be submissive.

In God's order of things (according to the Bible) the basic unit of society is not the individual, but the family. God says that the captain of the family team is the man. In the New Testament Letter to the Christians at Corinth (in Greece), the Bible says that Christ is the head of the man and that man is the head of the woman (1 Corinthians 11:3). This New Testament Letter was addressed to all Christians everywhere (1 Corinthians 1:2).

The man (according to God's order) is to respect the woman, to show her kindness, to treat her with love, to listen to her counsel (Ephesians 5:24-25; 28-29) -- but final responsibility for decision-making should rest upon the man -- and the woman should graciously accept this place of leadership on the part of the man (whether he be the husband in the home, the father in the family, or an elder in the church). The veiling on the woman's head is a symbol of her acceptance of the place of subjection to man's leadership. The veiling acknowledges the authority of the man, and symbolizes the fact that the woman is taking her rightful place in God's divine order. The woman who follows Jesus Christ and seeks to obey him, rejoices because she is liberated from the responsibility of lots of final decision making.

2. The Purity That Characterizes Christian Living

One who serves God and represents Jesus Christ, is different from the majority of people who live in the present wicked world. This is evident in the way we live, the kind of company we keep, what we eat and drink, our manner of speech, and even in our outward appearance.

The woman's veiling symbolizes purity. In the forest regions of northern Europe there lives a small weasel-like animal called the ermine. Instinctively, the ermine protects his fur against anything that would soil it. Fur hunters take advantage of this instinct. The ermine lives in the hollow part of an old tree and in order to catch the ermine, hunters smear the entrance to the animal's home with garbage and filth. And then when the dogs start to chase, the animal flees toward his home -- but when he finds the entrance covered with garbage and dirt, he faces the yelping dogs (and even meets death), rather than soil his beautiful fur.

The ermine instinctively preserves his purity -- and just so the Lord wants His followers to be a people who keep themselves from the filth of the world. Gods' people reject immodesty of dress (1 Timothy 2:9), immorality in conduct (Titus 2:5), and frivolous vanity in appearance (1 Peter 3:3). The veiling symbolizes a pure, devoted, submissive Christian life -- and the woman who wears the veiling tries to be careful not to bring reproach upon its meaning.

3. The Prayer Life of One Who Is Serving Christ

The Christian woman is one whose life is marked by prayer. Nearly all persons pray at some time or other, but the true follower of Jesus makes prayer one of the sources of his daily strength. Prayer does not necessarily deliver a person from some terrible situation, but it enables the believer to face and master the situation.

For the Christian woman, God has become the Friend of all friends. The Bible says we should pray often and continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17). The perfect friend is the friend to whom we can go at any time without ever feeling a nuisance. Since God is the Friend in the believer's life, we find ourselves often speaking with Him. God is omnipresent, and does not merely dwell in temples made by human hands (Acts 7:48), and so we can pray in the quiet of our own rooms, while on the street, while riding a public conveyance -- anywhere and at all times.

The Christian woman is "a praying woman" (1 Corinthians 11:5). She prays for her family, relatives, neighbors, friends, enemies, and world conditions. The veiling on her head is a symbol of her communion with God through prayer. She believes the God of the Bible is real and that He is infinite in power, and that there are needs in life which cannot be met in one's own strength. The woman who prays, daily puts herself in touch with the God of the universe, and thus is given wisdom and discernment, and is refreshed for the duties of life.

The Bible says that short uncovered hair for men, and long veiled hair for women, are symbols which God expects His children to observe -- and in this way show their acceptance of His divine chain of authority -- God, Christ, man, woman. In the early days of the history of the church (and in the early days of the Protestant Reformation), nearly all Christian women wore the sign of respect for authority taught in 1 Corinthians 11. The Council of Gangra (in the Fourth Century A.D.) strictly forbade women to cut off their hair. Rembrandt's painting of Preacher Anslo giving a message of comfort to a woman (from God's Word), was completed in 1641 -- and in that painting, the woman is wearing a veiling.

If the message of John 3:16 is true (and it is), then the message in 1 Corinthians 11:6 is equally true, and calls for our obedience. It is out of simple obedience to the teachings of the Bible, that Christian women wear a veiling on the head. There is a real blessing in recognizing God's order, and in accepting one's proper place in that order.

That is the old testament,

Not the new,

Jesus is our covering now.

Not in Islam

Never heard anything like it!!

No that is what the prayer outfit is for.

Verse 6

For if a woman is not veiled, let her also be shorn: but if it is a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be veiled.

Here again the sense of this place is destroyed by the traditional rendition "veiled." No artificial covering of any kind has thus far been mentioned by Paul in this chapter, nor will there be any reference to any kind of garment or artificial covering until 1 Cor. 11:15, below, where it is categorically stated that her hair is given her "instead of" any other covering. Paul is only repeating here the obvious truth that for a woman to adopt the Aphrodite hair style was the same thing as being shaven. The shaving of any woman's head was considered either a sign of deep mourning, or a fitting punishment for adultery; and the overwhelming inference here is not that the Corinthian women had thrown off the oriental style "veil" that obscured almost all of the female person, there being no evidence at all that first-century Christian women ever wore such a thing, but that they had adopted the chic hair-styles of the women of Aphrodite. Can it be believed that Paul was here pleading for the Corinthian women to put on "veils" in the style of present-day Moslems, when he was about to say in 1 Cor. 11:15, below, that their hair had been given them "instead of" such a covering? It is the flagrant mistranslation of this passage which has obscured the truth and confused millions of students of it.

1 Corinthians 11:13 Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? 14 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? 15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.

Verse 15

But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.

It is a glory to her ...

This would have been the ideal place for Paul to have said that a mantle thrown over a woman's head and shoulders is a glory to her, if he ever had such a thing in mind. On the contrary, it comes out here, as it does in every verse in the whole passage, his subject was "hair"!

Her hair is given her for a covering ...

Here again is an enormous mistranslation; and one may only wonder at the efforts of commentators to make this conform to the misinterpretations they have foisted upon this innocent passage. For example, Johnson declared that "This does not mean that her hair is her covering"; F30 but a glance at any interlinear Greek New Testament will reveal the meaning instantly. Nestle gives it, "instead of a veil." F31 The Emphatic Diaglott has "Her hair is given her instead of a veil." F32 Echols emphatically stressed this expression "instead of" as follows:

The idea conveyed by "instead of" is that if the noun preceding this preposition is available, the noun following the preposition is not required. Therefore, the conclusion is quite inescapable that, if a woman's hair conforms to apostolic standards of propriety, she requires no artificial covering. F33

But of paramount importance in this verse is the noun [Greek: peribolaion], here rendered "veil." This is the one noun in the whole passage that unmistakably refers to a head covering. Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament translates it, "a covering thrown around, a wrapper." This is the "veil" which has already been imported into the passage five times; but this is Paul's first reference to anything of the kind; and, significantly, it is mentioned in the same breath with woman's hair which is given to her "instead of" any such covering.

The only conceivable situation in which it may be inferred that Paul expected women to wear the kind of mantle, or veil, spoken of here, would be one in which a woman's hair had been lost, from disease, accident, or something of that kind. Echols thought that "instead of" in this verse "forces us to accept the alternative that, if a woman's hair does not fulfill its proper function, then she should wear a mantle or hood." F34 However, this seems to be an unnecessary conclusion, since the natural modesty of almost any person would lead to the wearing of a head covering in such a circumstance.

1 Corinthians 11

1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. 2 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you. 3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. 5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. 6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. 7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. 8 For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man. 9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. 10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. 12 For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God. 13 Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? 14 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? 15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering. 16 But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. 17 Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. 18 For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. 19 For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. 20 When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. 21 For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. 22 What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? what shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. 23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: 24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. 27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. 33 Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. 34 And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.