What Does 1 Corinthians 11:6 Mean?

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—Paul uses reductio ad absurdum argumentation. If a Corinthian woman insists on praying unveiled, she should go all the way and shave her head—fully embrace the shame her action already implies. The Greek conditional structure (εἰ γάρ + imperative) presses the logic: uncovered = shaven in symbolic meaning.

The second clause assumes universal agreement: if it be a shame (εἰ δὲ αἰσχρὸν)—and it obviously was in that culture. Since no respectable woman would willingly shave her head, why symbolically do the equivalent by removing the covering? Paul argues from shame to propriety: the cultural revulsion against shaved heads should extend to uncovered heads in worship. The covering preserves a woman's honor and signifies her embrace of created order while exercising spiritual gifts.