The gospel accounts of Jesus giving thanks over the loaves of bread NEVER record that He “covered His head.” I would encourage you to read all the passages where Jesus prayed before distributing the bread and fish to the multitudes. The account of Him praying before feeding 5,000 men is in Matthew 14:19; Mark 6:41; Luke 9:16 and John 6:11. The account of Him praying before feeding 4,000 men is in Matthew 15:36 and Mark 8:6. Let’s read Matthew 14:19 as an example: “And He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and two fish, and LOOKING UP to heaven, He BLESSED AND BROKE and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes.” So, He looked up, gave thanks, and broke the loaves but He never covered His head beforehand.

I did a Google Search on the video “The Gospel of John” (a 2003 film) which “used word-for-word dialogue from the Good News Bible.” The “dialogue” may have been true to this Bible, but I have checked EVERY translation ever made and there is not one that records Jesus “covering His head before He prayed.” Sadly, the producers of this film (and later the film titled “The Gospel According to John”) took the liberty of showing Jesus “pulling His outer cloak over His head” before praying. I read that they “wanted to portray Jesus as following JEWISH CUSTOMS OF THE ERA” and they say it was “a common practice of the time where men covered their heads to show respect to God during prayer.” They go on to say, “this action…aimed for HISTORICAL ACCURACY in its depiction of Jewish customs, which included these practices.” This is very sad, for one who truly wants to “show respect to God” would desire to aim for SCRIPTURAL ACCURACY; in other words, they would portray what Jesus did “according to the scriptures” and not “according to Jewish customs.”

You were right in assuming that “head coverings aren’t good” when it comes to “men praying.” We read of this in 1 Corinthians 11:4 “Every MAN PRAYING or prophesying, HAVING HIS HEAD COVERED, DISHONORS HIS HEAD.” Verse 3 reads, “But I want you to know that the HEAD OF EVERY MAN IS CHRIST,” which teaches us that Christ is the Lord and the man should be in subjection to Him. If he “covers his head” while praying, he is NOT acknowledging Christ as His head/Lord. It goes on to say in verse 3, “and the head of Christ is God.” Again, the “head” in these verses speak of one who is to be submitted to and when Christ was here, as an obedient Man and Servant, He would never have “covered His head” while praying, for in doing so He would been guilty of NOT acknowledging God the Father as His head. God forbid the thought that we (believers) would ever entertain the thought that Jesus could have been guilty of this.

In closing, many movies, films, documentaries, and books have been made on the life of Christ as He walked this earth and in most every case (if not all), men have taken the liberty to add details to make something more appealing to the world. We call this act “embellishing.” We should take this lesson to heart and be ever-so-careful when we are telling others about Christ. We should strive to be SCRIPTURALLY ACCURATE by never ADDING TO or SUBTRACTING FROM the Holy Scriptures.  (DO)  (725.3)