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It is argued that exousia might have been used for "veil" or "covering," as a local and Tarsian expression. But this is not very probable. Many commentators, therefore, prefer to regard the word as one which, though originally metaphorical, would have been widely understood to mean "a veil," just as imperium is used for a female ornament, regnum for an imperial crown, and triregno for the triple tiara of the popes. Thus Diodorus Siculus uses the Greek word basileia, "kingdom," to mean the crown, or token of a kingdom, describing the statue of a queen as "having three kingdoms upon its head." It is a curious fact that in Hebrew the word radid, which sometimes means "a veil," is derived from a verb of which one of the meanings is "he subdued"; and it is not impossible that the knowledge of this may have smoothed the way for the apostle's unusual phrase. One more explanation is, that exousian, etymologically, may also mean "existence," and that St. Paul selected it because it might serve to indicate that woman's dignity consists in her being created from or out of the man (οὖσα ἐξ ἀνδρός). But modern criticism seems to be settling down into the simple familiar meaning of the word "power," in the obvious sense of "a sign of power." But the question then naturally arises, "A sign of whose power?"

I. Some say, "HER OWN POWER," and refer this not to the veil which the woman is directed to wear upon her head, but to the glory of her natural covering, her own long hair. They argue that this is one of the chief elements of female beauty — "Love in her rosy cheeks did basking lie, love walked in the sunny masses of her hair." They quote such instances as that of Swift, in whose desk was found a folded paper containing one faded tress, and on it written, "Only a woman's hair."

II. The context, however, does not at all favour this view; and we see from 1 Corinthians 12:22, 23, that St. Paul considered a covering as a proof of inferiority in honour. Our translators seem to have hit on the only true meaning of the expression, in the margin of our Bibles, "A covering, in sign that she is under THE POWER OF HER HUSBAND." Any apparent harshness in this meaning is at once dispelled —

1. By the analogies ( imperium, triregno, etc.), which we have already adduced. These show how easily the word "power" could come to be "a sign of power" by the common figure of speech which is called "metonymy"; and if so, it is much more likely to mean a sign of her husband's power over her than a sign of her own power, because the whole context is enforcing the superiority of the man, and bears on the "He shall rule over thee" of Genesis 3:16.

2. Because to this day the veil is regarded in the unchanging East as a sign of subordination, and the traveller Chardin says that in Persia "only married women wear it, and it is the mark by which it is known that they are under subjection." And in the Roman customs the putting on of a veil in marriage was a sign that a woman lost all independent rights of citizenship.

3. Because there is a close analogy between this passage and Genesis 20:16, where "covering of the eyes" is generally understood to mean "a veil," and is by the LXX. rendered τιμή, which properly means "honour." Lastly, it is to me no small confirmation of this plain and simple sense that we find it in the noble verse of Milton, who seems to combine the notions of a woman's hair being at once a covering and a glory to herself, and a sign of subjection to her husband: —

"His fair large front and eye sublime declared

Absolute rule, and hyacinthine locks

Round from his parted forelock manly hung

Clustering, but not beneath his shoulder broad:

She, as a veil, down to the slender waist

Her unadorned golden tresses wore

Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved

As the vine waves her tendrils; which implied

Subjection, but required with gentle sway,

And by her yielded, by him best received."

(Archdeacon Farrar.)

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KJV: For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.

WEB: For this cause the woman ought to have authority on her head, because of the angels.