DAILY LIFE
Human beings have, throughout history, used jewelry and other types of adornment either to conceal or to emphasize some reality. Ancient Israel, for example, employed certain aspects of dress to represent its status as a divinely called people who must avoid cultural assimilation. Egyptian and Mesopotamian art suggests that in Old Testament times, each nation had a distinctive costume or hairstyle. Yet, notwithstanding some distinctive traits, Israel’s clothing was not unique. The customs of other cultures, such as those of Egypt, Babylon, Greece, and Rome, influenced Hebrew/Jewish dress and adornment. Nowhere in ancient literature or art do we find evidence that Jews dressed differently than those around them. The overwhelming indication is that they shared many practices and styles.
While the kind of fashion industry that we know today did not yet exist, many—even in Israel—were interested in the dress, jewelry, and beauty products in vogue at the time. For example, archaeologists have found cosmetic equipment at Masada that included palettes for mixing eyeshadow, bronze eyeshadow sticks, clay perfume vials, a bronze mirror case, a wooden comb, fibula, and ring keys. Similar cosmetic remains come from other sites in both Cisjordan as well as Transjordan. The Bible nowhere addresses fashion directly, yet it shows concern with inappropriate clothing and adornment, especially that of the first century AD.
In his Satires (VI), the Roman poet Juvenal vividly described the style of what the classicists today call “the new Roman woman:” with her neck encircled with “green emeralds,” “huge pearls” in her “elongated ears,” “tiers and stories [of hair] piled one on another on her head.” It was a style characterized by extravagance and personal exhibition. Ultimately, affluent women employed fashion to call attention to themselves.
Likewise, the Jewish philosopher Philo portrayed a prostitute in his work The Sacrifices of Cain and Abel (1.5.21) as having “the hair of her head dressed with most superfluous elaborateness, having her eyes penciled, her eyebrows covered over.” She was “exquisitely dressed with costly garments, richly embroidered, adorned with armlets, and bracelets, and necklaces, and all other ornaments which can be made of gold, and precious stones, and all kinds of female decorations.” Again, the portrayal is that of a woman overpainted and over-adorned, attempting to project a superficial elegance. Roman statues and wall carvings repeatedly depict women with elaborate hairstyles that would have taken much time and care to arrange and would have indicated that they were rich enough to have slaves to plait, curl, and braid the hair. Wealthy women used hairpins, ribbons, hairnets to hold their hair in place as well as combs made of ivory, tortoiseshell, and boxwood. Some complex hairstyles required needles and thread to keep their hair fixed. Other women enhanced their hair with garlands of flowers or jeweled crown-like ornaments. Such extravagance seems to correlate with the allegorical intended depiction of the Harlot in the book of Revelation to point out its richness as well as its corruption.
Thus, it is no surprise that the New Testament advises women to dress with modesty, discretion, and decorum. Two apostles especially discuss the problem. For Paul, women should “adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works” (1 Tim. 2:9, 10). And Peter instructed his female audience: “Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God” (1 Pet. 3:3, 4). They did not want Christian women to flaunt themselves like the wealthy Roman matrons and create class distinctions within the Christian community, most of whose members would be poor and thus feel uncomfortable in the small house churches.
Paul’s and Peter’s advice sought to avoid scandalous and divisive behavior. Their focus was on decency, which had to do with attitude, and not just dress. Christians should not imitate the pompous or immodest style of pagan women. Above all, they should avoid a look resembling that of harlots.
That is why Paul legislates in 1 Corinthians 11:4, 5, that apart from having long hair, a woman should cover her head with a veil. The Roman women who were in public wore a palla—a large rectangular shawl over their heads. Today, in the non-Islamic Western world, due to cultural changes, only a few groups advocate such custom. After all, different times and circumstances call for different clothes. Dress and ornaments are not static, although some groups (such as the American Amish) adopt what sociologists call “fossilized fashion,” a “frozen” style deliberately out of tune with the rest of the surrounding population.
In summary, contrary to pagan/secular people who dressed indecently, Christians should dress with sobriety, good taste, decency, follow the principles of distinction between genders, and employ economy and sustainability. They also must avoid the display of wealth and vanity.
LongmanIII, “Clothing,”The Baker Illustrated Bible Dictionary.
Edwards,“Dress and Ornamentation,” Anchor Bible Dictionary, 232-238.
Fine,“How Do You Know a Jew When You See One? Reflections on Jewish Costume in the Roman World,” 19-27.
Harrisonand Yamauchi, “Clothing,” Dictionary of Daily Life in Biblical and Post-biblical Antiquity, 328-331.
Wilson and Rodriguez, “Hair,”Dictionary of Dily Life in Biblical and Post-biblical Antiquity, 389-390.