The Symbolic meaning of veiling in the Old Testament

           Veiling may be considered a sign of oppression in modern times; however, the veil in the Old Testament in the Bible is more concerned with a separation of space between man and God. In fact, Moses and Elijah both veiled their faces. So, what exactly is a veil defined as? The word veil can be a piece of cloth that covers a face or head or an object of significance. This object of significance can be symbolic in nature, like the veil on the hearts of men. It is easier for the Western world to associate the veil with one or two meanings; a piece of clothing bent on oppressing women or a silly piece of old fashion clothing. It is an ancient piece of clothing that not only was subjected to women but also on various holy objects. Veiling also can be used to symbolizes one’s own spiritual or mental being,  a person can be physically veiled but mentally unveiled. The Quran often talks of the hijab as a metaphorical veil between “us” and God. The idea of a veil is more complex than what this short blog post can accomplish, especially in theological and historical works, but what does the Old Testament reference when it comes to the veil and what does it mean, exactly?

            Rebecca takes her veil and covered herself in Genesis 24:65 “She took her veil and covered herself”. There is no given explanation on why Rebecca decided to cover herself, for her future husband but no other woman has been recounted in doing the same in the Bible. Rebecca perhaps was trying to represent a form of shy modesty for Isaac, as she had not known him before. The verse says, “she took her veil”, implying that Rebecca had a veil and it was custom for her to wear a veil. The tradition of the bridal face veil stems from Rebecca’s choice to use her veil to cover herself. If Rebecca wore a face veil and wasn’t called a whore, then why was Tamar a whore for wearing a face veil? Genesis 38:15, “When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.” There is no way of knowing, perhaps during the time and place of Tamar the face veil symbolized prostitution. It is more likely that a scribe from the ancient Hebrew times tried creating an explanation for why Judah thought she was prostitute, it is more likely the place she waited for Judah symbolized prostitution, not the face veil. As there are no historical accounts of face veiling symbolizing prostitution anywhere in the ancient world and the wording “for she had covered her face” seems like a rushed and unnecessary detail. Such an unnecessary detail it appears as if someone places it there, later on, to explain why Judah had sex with Tamar.

          In Genesis 38:15 Judah encounters his daughter-in-law, Tamar, at the crossroads, he mistakes her for a prostitute because she had covered her face. In one Talmudic passage, Rabbi Elazar believes that Tamar covered her face in the house of her father-in-law, Judah. So, Judah never saw her without a face veil, and he thought her a proustite with her face uncovered because he never saw her before. This view would mean that Elazar believed that Judah just did not recognize her because since he never saw her face or maybe never heard her speak (as it maybe awrah for her to do so), this might be why Judah didn’t recognize her. The Tamar verse is often debated among various scholars especially those who support the face veil. The verse is, “When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, for she had covered her face.” (Genesis 38:15)

              It was common in some minority societies for prostitutes to cover their faces. The face veil may have protected a woman’s honor and kept her from being shamed by greater society. Of course, this is according to scholars like John Calvin. The covering of the face signifies their availability for sex and a way to protect their identity from society. Rabbi Elazar tried to conclude that she wasn’t covered when Yehudah saw her. Victor Hamilton notes that Tamar tries to seduce Judah during sheepshearing time. Hos. 4:13-14 discuss the practice of sacred prostitution at feast times in Israel. Tamar removed her widows garbed and positioned herself seductively by the cross roads next to a wall. So, it isn’t her face veil that symbolizes her a prostitute but the time and place. Since Judah’s time roughly took place around the Babylonian period or near Assyrian period, we know face veils were for noble women and did not resemble prostitution.

              Tamar kept having husbands die right after each other and she sleeps with Judah by covering her face, receives gifts with his royal seals upon them, these gifts save her from being burnt at the stake. Judah and his sons are often criticized for their acts, with the son spilling his own seed rather than producing a kid for his brother and Judah doesn’t keep any promises. A tradition says Tamar covered and was the daughter of Salem. Judah judged her to the laws that pertain to a daughter of a priest (Lev.21:9) and ordered that she be burnt when he thought she became pregnant. Tamar first marries Er the son of Judah, but he dies and then she is given to his second son Onan, but Onan dies because he didn’t want to do his duty. Err also refused to get Tamar pregnant because it might make her ugly. Onan knew that if he had a child with Tamar the child would not be his, so Tamar remained a widowed virgin. Then Judah told her to remain a widow in her father’s home.

              Judah married the daughter of a Canaanite and this was thought to be an act of betrayal. Tamar realized that she wouldn’t be given to Shelah and planned to get pregnant by Judah. She then sat at the crossroads and cried to God for her not to leave empty-handed. Judah thought her to be a harlot because she covered her face. According to Kadari, this was inconceivable because prostitutes show their face and Tamar covered her face out of modesty. Tamar always acted in a modest way, perhaps the face veil was meant to trick Judah or disguise her. The sexual act between Judah and Tamar was preformed uncovered, some scholars stated that she broke her own hymen with her fingers, so she could get pregnant. While we know from modern day science it is possible for a woman to get pregnant the first time having sex and the hymen doesn’t prevent semen that is discharged in the uterus.  When Judah found out she was pregnant he tried to have Tamar burned at the stake. She managed to get his seal and staff after their sexual encounter. To prove that she did no wrong she presented these items to the Rabbis and the Rabbis stated that perhaps the man better cast himself in the fire, not her. Judah admits his acts and the Rabbis are happy he told the truth instead of hiding his honor.

              In Christian commentaries, neither Luther nor Calvin saw the veil as a telltale sign of her being a prostitute. Luther explains that in Genesis 38:14 there is a separate dress associated with virgins, widows, and married women. The scarf that Tamar wore was a large cloth in which a woman should bind her hair and cover her head down to the shoulders the same as Rebecca to signify not only modesty but reverence to God. Luther explains that in parts of Germany “today” head coverings such as veiling of the neck and mouth are in use. In Genesis 38 Tamar exchanges her widow garb for more festive clothing, according to Luther, but adorned the robe of a matron she was decked out to excite Judah. Even Luther was confused about why Judah didn’t recognize her by her eyes or voice. ⁽⁷⁾ Calvin says unlike the whores of his time, the whores of Judah’s time were aware they were committing sins, so they covered their faces in shame. So, for Calvin, he symbolized the niqab not so much as evil but a modest act of covering one’s shame which is somehow better than women who are harlots that don’t. He also says that Judah didn’t know Tamar because God made sure he couldn’t recognize her. 

            Song of Solomon 4:1 says, “Your eyes behind your veil are doves.” Again, this indicates that it was commonplace for women to wear some kind of hair and/or face veil, it was not prostitution. There is no clear way of knowing if the Hebrew women wore hair veils or face veils continuously throughout the ages or if face veiling was associated with non-Jews and thus may equal to being a prostitute. So, what is the symbolic meaning of the veil on women then? Looking at Rebecca the veil for women could symbolize her modesty and/or shyness, it is obvious that the women’s veil in the Old Testament does not hold a strong meaning as its dos in the New Testament. There is just not enough literary evidence in the Old Testament to support what the veil meant on women, men are often the ones who write these stories and typically left out important female topics that most women would be interested in.

            Tamar is a prostitute for wearing a face veil, Rebecca is shy and modest, and Moses covered his face because the Israelites couldn’t handle the radiation of God’s glory.  The radiant face of Moses is described in Exodus 34:29-35, “When Moses finished speaking to them, he put on a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out.” Moses didn’t see God at its glory either, he only spoke to the Lord with its glory at a cleft in a rock.  God’s glory was so powerful that it basically caused radiation to the Israelites. It can be assumed that the Israelites were not ready for God’s true glory, even partially, and had it covered from them. An even more human reaction, would assume that it was weird to talk to a man that had a face glowing like one of those star stickers that glow in the dark or like a lightbulb, perhaps it was disturbing? It is recognized here that God’s glory can only be, partially, shown to whom God has willed it.

            There is a saying for most spiritual seekers, whether they be Sufi or Kabbalist or whatever, that it isn’t the fact God choose an individual to see him, it’s the fact that Moses was spirituality ready to fathom part of God. The Israelites were not spiritual enough, they haven’t reached whatever point they needed to, to get to see God. Since Moses failed God, and never got to see the promised land, it can be assumed that a prophet can still backtrack on one’s own spiritual quest. This would be like a monk, who gives all his time to meditation and one day decides to take a bite of meat, dies the next day and the monk never reaches nirvana and must be tortured by demons who eat the monk's flesh because of his lapse in spirituality (Zen Buddhism). The veil is only on Moses’s face because the Israelites were not spiritual ready to take on the glory of God, so here the veil symbolizes the Israelites ignorance or the separation of man and God.

            When Elijah heard the whisper of the Lord from the fire, he covered his face with a cloak. As stated in 1 Kings 19:13, “When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.” During the entire conversation with God, Elijah does not take his cloak off. So, Moses can be uncovered to see the Lord and Elijah, can’t? Yes and no, Moses asked to see the glory of the Lord and Elijah did not. Elijah was special in his own way, as he was taken by God. Elijah just could not handle the full glory of the Lord, it would have possibly shed him to pieces or popped him like a pimple. We certainly know Elijah’s veil was not a symbolic separation of God and Man and nor was it a symbolic meaning of one’s own spirituality like that of Moses. This veil was most likely out of respect and fear of the Lord, Moses was put into a cleft of a rock when God’s glory past, but Elijah was asked to walk into it. Elijah’s veil was not just out of respect and fear, but Elijah felt the entire embrace of the glory. The veil is perhaps protection for Elijah, from being obliterated.

            The last veil to be discussed here is the veil of the temple that hung between the holy of holies and the rest of the temple. The holy place was the place for average worship to God, where the normal person could go. While the holy of holies was only for the priest and only with a blood sacrifice. The veil separated the people from God, from those worthy and not worthy.  The veil was of one piece of cloth and maybe symbolic of the One God or stating how man and God is only separated by a single curtain. What is this single thing separating man and God? Our un-circumcised hearts, a “sinful” heart, or not reaching a certain spiritual plain. So why doesn’t God show himself or itself, to all? After all he created them, but that is not the point. God shows numerous signs to the Israelites through victories and punishments. The veil hides something holy, that needs a sacrifice to even access God. An average person needs to reach a spiritual plain, to sacrifice to God to go beyond the veil. In Isaiah 1:11, God states that animal sacrifices do not matter to the Lord, they are meaningless. It isn’t that animal being killed in the name of the Lord that matters, it is the soul reaching a higher purpose that matters to the Lord. This is the veil that all humans need to pass.

            The veil in the holy of holies is made of blue, purple, and crimson yarn and of fine linen, with pictures of cherubim on it. The blue most likely represents Heaven, as the sky is blue, or it could mean water. Water is a common theme in the Bible, with the parting of the Red Sea and the Jordan river (multiple times). Purple most likely represents God’s status as being the highest, purple was considered in the ancient world the color of royalty. The dye to obtain purple comes from a sea slug, which was hard to obtain and often smelled bad so God’s veil would not have smelled too pretty.

Crimson represents the blood, blood of the sacrifice to God or blood from the many other signs in the Bible. Cherubim symbology is everywhere in the Old Testament, it could have been woven on the veil because they are thought of as a force that separates man from Eden (the garden of Eden). The Cherubim is like the veil itself, the Jews could have woven it on the veil as the very symbol itself the separation of Man from God. Man was kicked out of the Garden of Eden and no longer could Man walk with God, as Adam and Eve went astray.  So, the veil symbolizes blue God’s judgment, salvation, cleansing, purple symbolizing royal status which might refer to the King of Israel or God, and Crimson which symbolizes life itself; Cherubim are a reminder of the spiritual barrier. So, the veil of the holy of holies or the veil for Moses and Elijah, as well, is a barrier from God’s salvation and life itself that only some can obtain.

            The veil has numerous meanings in the Bible as we can see from the above passages and it is clear that the reference of veiling for women in the Bible has a whole different meaning than the references to the holy of holies and to the prophets. For the main veil symbology in the Bible, it can be concluded that the veil is a separation between man and God. This veil can be removed upon reaching a certain level of spirituality, call it purity if you will but it is beyond just purity. A man “sins” and must “sacrifice” to reach God, this “sacrifice” is obeying God even when we feel uncomfortable. The Israelites who wandered the desert never reached the promised land because they themselves could not pierce the veil, it wasn’t because they couldn’t pierce the veil, but they refused to follow Gods words and plans to reach a higher plain. The veil could also protect man from God’s glory but obtaining God’s glory is simple enough. Humans have to pierce the veil of ignorance and sacrifice (Isaiah 1:11) not animals but one’s self. The veil has more than one meaning in the Old Testament, it is an ambiguous meaning but perhaps that’s the point. Obtaining spirituality is in itself obscure and trying to figure out what an ancient mixed culture thought can prove to be difficult. 




resources: Bronner, Leila Leah. “To Cover or Not to Cover: That Is the Question Jewish Hair Laws Through the Ages.” Hannah's Prayer: Rabbinic Ambivalence, www.bibleandjewishstudies.net/articles/haircovering.htm
Huddlestun, John. “Unveiling the Versions: The Tactics of Tamar in Genesis 38:15.” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, vol. 3, 2001, doi:10.5508/jhs.2001.v3.a7

Kadari, Tamar. “Tamar: Midrash and Aggadah.” Jewish Women's Archive, jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/tamar-midrash-and-aggadah.
Shimon. “Biblical Significance of Face Veil.” Mi Yodeya, StackExchange, 6 Mar. 2013, 11:36, judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/26864/biblical-significance-of-face-veil.
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