“1 Timothy 2”
Hair and Apparel
1 Timothy 2:9-10
9 Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves
with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and
gold or pearls or expensive apparel, 10 but rather by means of good works, as is proper for
women making a claim to godliness.
First Timothy is a letter that is
addressed to Timothy, who has been left in Ephesus and charged with teaching
the Ephesians. Paul has penned this
letter to address issues within the church of Ephesus. There were cultural practices and teachings
that the Ephesians had brought into the church that were foreign to Church
culture and needed to be uprooted and eliminated.
In this section of Scripture, Paul begins
by addressing the apparel that the women were wearing as well as the hairstyle
that they are displaying. Ephesus, as a
city, was known for its devotion to the goddess Artemis. Artemis was the goddess of childbirth and her worshipers were extremely loyal to her.
It was believed that she would visit good health and illnesses on women
and children as punishment for a lack of loyalty. She was seen as the
protector and defender of Ephesus as long as she was present.
Acts 19 reveals that many of the Ephesians
were being turned away from the worship of Artemis and accepting Christ because
of the gospel that Paul was preaching.
As a result of many of the citizens turning to Christ, businesses that
made money from creating silver shrines of Artemis could see the threat of
their prosperity diminishing. When the
realization that Artemis could become irrelevant within their culture, some of the
people became enraged and began to yell, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” This caused a lot of confusion and many of the citizens did not know what was going on, but joined into the chaos. As one of their primary deity, Artemis was
considered to have a significant role in the success of the city of Ephesus and
the identity of many was tied into her.
Ephesus contained female-led cults
that were dedicated to this goddess and two of the things that were used to display
their veneration to her were their apparel and their hairstyles. Worshipers of Artemis dressed in expensive
dresses and were adorned with gold and pearls when they came to worship
her. They would also braid their hair so
that it would resemble the hair of the goddess.
It was important for Paul to make the women aware that, while their
worship to Artemis was expressed by their extravagant appearance, their worship
to God would be demonstrated by their good works. Paul informed them that their actions would
be the evidence of their declaration that they were now godly women.
In conclusion, the women of Ephesus
were still displaying certain attributes from their days of worshiping Artemis. There were certain practices
that were acceptable in their former lifestyle that were either not acceptable
in their new life with Christ, or no longer necessary to practice. As in our society, there are practices or
beliefs that are acceptable or promoted within the culture, but goes against
the standard that we have as believers in Christ. Our way of living is dictated by the word of
God and will, in many cases, clash with societal norms.
