Head Covering History

Scripture

• Moses
• Isaiah
• The Apostle Paul

Early Church

• Irenaeus (c. 130 – c. 202)
• The Shepherd of Hermas (c. 150)
• Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215)
• Tertullian (c. 155 AD – c. 220)
• Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170 – c. 235)
• Origen of Alexandria (c. 184 – c. 253)
• Cyprian of Carthage (c. 200 – 258)
• Apostolic Constitutions
• Christian Didascalia Apostolorum
• Macarius (c. 300 – 391)
• John Chrysostom (347 – 407)
• Jerome (347–420)
• Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430)
• Theodoret of Cyrus (c. 393 – 458/466)
• Ambrosiaster (4th century)
• Dialog of a Montantist with an Orthodox Christian

Early Middle Ages

• Primasius (d. c. 560)
• John of Damascus (c. 675 or 676 – 749)
• Rabanus Maurus Magnentius (c. 780 – 856)
• Walafrid (i.e. Walafridus) Strabo (c. 808 – 849)
• Sedulius Scotus (fl. 840–860)
• Haymo of Halberstadt (d. 853)
• Oecumenius (writing c. 990)

Late Middle Ages

• Lanfranc (1005 to 1010 – 1089)
• Bruno of Cologne (c. 1030–1101)
• Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033 – 1109)
• Theophylact of Ohrid (1055-1107)
• Hugo of St. Victor (c. 1096 – 1141)
• Alulfus of Tournai (d. 1140’s)
• Peter Lombard (1096 – 1160)
• Hugo of Saint Caro (d. 1263)
• Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274)
• De Lyra, Nicholas (d. 1349)
• Denis the Carthusian (1402 – 1471)
• Laurentius Vallo (c. 1407 – 1457)

Early Modern Period

• Sebastian Meyer (1465 – 1545)
• François Vatable (late 15th century – 1547)
• Desiderius Erasmus (1466 – 1536)
• John Colet (1467 – 1519)
• Richard Sampson (d. 1554)
• Conrad Pellicanus (i.e. Konrad Pellikan) (1478 – 1556)
• Martin Luther (1483 – 1546)
• Huldrych Zwingli (1484 – 1531)
• William Tyndale (1494 – 1536)
• Philipp Melanchthon (1497 – 1560)
• Wolfgang Musculus (1497 – 1563)
• Johannes Gagnaeus (1500 – 1549)
• Peter Martyr Vermigli (1500 – 1562)
• Heinrich Bullinger (1504 – 1575)
• Benedict Aretius (1505 – 1574)
• John Calvin (1509 – 1565)
• John Knox (c. 1514 – 1572)
• Sebastian Castellio (1515 – 1563)
• Rudolph Gwalther (1519 – 1586)
• Victor Strigel (1524 – 1569)
• Tilemann Heshusius (1527 – 1588)
• The Augsburg Confession (1530)
• Robert Rollock (c. 1555 – 1599)
• Gulielmus Bucanus (d. 1603)
• Geneva Bible Notes (1560), written by Theodore Beza (1519–1605)
• Tudor Homilies (1563)
• Thomas Morton (1564 – 1659)
• Lewis Bayly (1575 – 1631)
• William Gouge (1575 – 1653)
• Giovanni Diodati (1576 – 1649)
• The Reformed Churches Of France (1579)
• David Dickson (1583 – 1663)
• John Mayer (1583 – 1664)
• John Cotton (1584 – 1652)
• William Greenhill (1591 – 1671)
• Samuel Rutherford (c. 1600 – 1661)
• John Trapp (1601 – 1669)
• Edward Leigh (1602 – 1671)
• John Lightfoot (1602 – 1675)
• Church of England (1604)
• George Gillespie (1613 – 1648)
• Richard Baxter (1615 – 1691)
• Christopher Love (1618 – 1651)
• Thomas Manton (1620 – 1677)
• James Durham (1622 – 1658)
• Francis Turretin (1623 – 1687)
• John Collinges (1623 – 1690)
• John Bunyan (1628 – 1688)
• Ezekiel Hopkins (1634 – 1690)
• John Edwards (1637 – 1716)
• Synod of the Reformed Church of the Netherlands (1637)
• Benjamin Keach (1640 – 1704)
• Westminster Confession of Faith (1647)
• Matthew Henry (1662 – 1714)
• John Gill (1697 – 1771)
• Thomas Wall (17th century)

Late Modern Period

• Philip Doddridge (1702–1751)
• Jonathan Edwards (1703 – 1758)
• John Wesley (1703 – 1791)
• John Brown (1722–1787)
• William Gilpin (1724 – 1804)
• Richard Gough (1735-1809)
• Adam Clarke (1762 – 1832)
• John Angell James (1785 – 1859)
• Charles Hodge (1797 – 1878)
• Henry Alford (1810 – 1871)
• James Madison Pendleton (1811 – 1891)
• Frédéric Louis Godet (1812 – 1900)
• Robert L. Dabney (1820 – 1898)
• Andrew Robert Fausset (1821 – 1910)
• Charles Spurgeon (1834 – 1892)
• Marcus Dods (1834 – 1909)
• James M. Gray (1851 – 1935)
• Herman Bavinck (1854–1921)
• Arno C. Gaebelein (1861 – 1945)
• Harvey Boyce Taylor (1870 – 1932)
• H. A. Ironside (1876 – 1951)
• A. W. Pink (1886 – 1952)
• John Murray (1898 – 1975)
• The Woman’s Journal 30, 32 (August 12, 1899)
• Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899 – 1981)
• Homiletic Review (1910)

Recent

• National Organization for Women (1968)
• Charles Ryrie (1925 – 2016)
• Bruce Waltke (1930 – )
• Bruce W. Winter (1939 – )
• Greg L. Bahnsen (1948 – 1995)
• Daniel B. Wallace (1959 – )
• Alexander Strauch
• R. C. Sproul (1939 – 2017)
• Tim Bayly
• Douglas Wilson
• Joel Beeke
• Gordon Fee
• Robert H. Gundry
• Wayne Grudem (1948 – )
• Sam Waldron
• Craig Keener
• Thomas R. Schreiner
• Andy Naselli
• Benjamin Merkle
• Steven Wedgeworth

Sources

• Philip Schaff. History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A.D. 100-325. See notes on catacombs.
• David Phillips, Headcovering Throughout Christian History: The Church’s Response to 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. 2014.
• Scott M. Manetsch (Editor). 1 Corinthians (NT Volume 9A) (Reformation Commentary on Scripture Series, NT Volume 9A). 2017.
• Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament 7, 1-2 Corinthians (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, NT Volume 7). 2006.
• Judith L. Kovacs (editor). 1 Corinthians: Interpreted by Early Christian Medieval Commentators. Eerdmans, 2005.
• Is Headcovering Biblical?, by David Silversides.
• Historic Survey of the Baptist Worship Headcovering, by T. Matthew Stepp
• Headcoverings in Scripture, by Greg Price
• Headcovering Customs of the Ancient World: An Illustrated Survey, by Michael Marlowe
• The Woman’s Headcovering, by Michael Marlowe
• Reformed Books Online
  • On Natural Gestures, Signs & Customs about Worship, & of Reverence & Veneration as Distinguished from the Worship of Adoration
  • On Head Coverings in Public Worship
  • Gillespie & Rutherford on Headcoverings in Public Worship
  • The History of Head Coverings
• The Post-Reformation Digital Library (PRDL)

Notes on Interpretation

• “Some of the commentators who appeal to ‘custom’ also find something fitting in the custom, and some of them go further so as to state the obligatory nature of the custom because of the reference to the angels. We see both of these points, for example, in the comments of Diodati. On verse 5, ‘it is fitting that custom should second nature now nature hath given a woman the natural vail of the hair wherefore she is obliged to make use of the other artificial vail to cover her head, which a woman ought to hold to be as proper for her as her natural vail of hair.’ And on verse 10, supposing men gave permission for women to cast off their covering, Diodati comments, ‘The Apostle answereth; though men would give consent to this disorder, yet the Angels who are continual guardians of the Church, and assistants in their assembles, they would be offended at it.’ The fact Diodati maintained the covering of the head was a ‘custom,’ and yet gave further reasons for the fitness of the ‘custom,’ indicates to us that the subject is not as simple as finding the term ‘custom’ in the text of a commentator.” (Matthew Winzer)