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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
10. ἐξουσίαν. That is, as in the margin of our version, ‘a covering in sign that she is under the power (or rather authority, see below) of her husband.’ Fourth argument, drawn from the presence of the angels at Christian worship. The word translated power here is rather, the right to exercise power, authority, as in Mat 10:1; Luk 4:36, &c. Hence it has been suggested in the notes on ch. 1Co 8:9, 1Co 9:4, that it has sometimes, though not here, the signification of right. In this place the abstract is put for the concrete, the authority itself for the token of being under authority. For an instance of the use of the veil in this way we may refer to Gen 24:65, where Rebekah veils herself in token of submission, as soon as she comes into the presence of her husband. We are not to exclude the idea of feminine modesty, but to regard it as included in the idea of being under authority, of which modesty is a kind of natural acknowledgment. Neither are we to confine the idea to married persons, as the margin of our Version does, but to regard it as applying to the mutual relations of the sexes generally. The passage has sorely perplexed the commentators. The various explanations of it may be found in Stanley and Alford in loc.
διὰ τοὺς ἀγγέλους. This passage has also been explained in various ways (see the commentators just mentioned). It is best on the whole to regard it as an intimation that the angels, though invisible, were fellow-worshippers with men in the Christian assemblies, and were therefore ‘spectators of the indecency,’ and liable to be offended thereat. ‘When therefore the women usurp the symbol of dominion, against what is right and lawful, they make their shameful conduct conspicuous’ in the eyes of the messengers of God. Thus Calvin. Erasmus paraphrases it well: ‘If a woman has arrived at that pitch of shamelessness that she does not fear the eyes of men, let her at least cover her head on account of the angels, who are present at your assemblies.’ For some remarkable Oriental illustrations of the interpretation that evil angels are here meant, see Dean Stanley on this verse. Meyer gives a list of authorities to shew that the belief in the presence of angels at Divine worship was common among the Jews.