What does 1 Timothy require us to wear in church? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
Many people in thinking about nudity and Scripture will likely point to 1 Timothy 2:9. I would agree ith them. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians also get this passage wrong thinking it is talking about something that it really isn’t. It could apply to what they think it talks about, but there’s no real reason that it would.
Many of us today think that what Paul has in mind is not to wear something that would drive a man to lust. A woman shouldn’t wear a really short skirt or a top that will show a noticeable amount of cleavage for instance. I am not saying that that idea is wrong, but I am saying that this is not what Paul is addressing in 1 Tim. 2:9.
In that context, modest dress would refer to that which would be fitting to one’s social setting. If you are not rich, you do not try to dress to look as if you are rich. In this chapter, Frost will say that clothing isn’t really addressed.
The problem is that the word for clothing is extremely hard to find. I went looking at web sites I used in doing research on Greek words and didn’t come up with much. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament says:
In the NT the verb occurs only in Acts 19:35–36, where the clerk calms the excited mob at Ephesus. The authority expressed by katastéllō differs from that expressed by the use of katéseisen when Paul as a witness to Christ brings the crowd to order at Jerusalem in Acts 21:27ff. The noun occurs in the advice to women believers in 1 Tim. 2:9, where Timothy is told to exhort them to adopt either a seemly demeanor or seemly apparel. The context of worship perhaps supports the former rendering, but the use of stolē for “garment” in the Apologists favors the latter.
Gerhard Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich, and Geoffrey William Bromiley, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1985), 1075.
Meanwhile, another website says that:
repress, restrain, οἶκτον IA934; τὸν ὄχλον Act.Ap.19.35, cf. Chr.10 (ii B.C., prob.); κ. τὰς ἐπιθυμίας Rh.2.284 S., cf. Epict.3.19.5; τοὺς νέους 2.207e, cf. 547b, etc.:—Pass., ἅπαντα λήξει καὶ κατασταλήσεται 18; of persons, to be placed under restraint, reduced to order, PTeb.41.21 (ii B.C.), BGU1192.5 (i B.C.); also κατεσταλμένοι τοῖς ἤθεσι of calm, sedate character, opp. τολμηρός, 1.76, cf. Epict.4.4.10; κατεσταλμένον ἦθος 10.3; κατέσταλται πρὸς τὸ κόσμιον Comp.Lyc.Num.3, cf. NA4.29, Epict.3.23.16.
If the reading is ambiguous then, the next place to go is as TDNT said, the apologists, these are the fathers of the first centuries of the church who knew the language and their use of it favors garment.
What does this mean? It would mean we would largely have to depend on context to understand. The main point is Paul is wanting people to not draw attention to themselves by going fancy but go modestly. The problem is if this is somewhere where Frost thinks he has a strong point, then it’s weak since we have so little usage of the word to compare and the understanding of the early church implies a garment.
Now one point that Frost does get right here is when he says:
Wherever we go we should seek to dress in a way that would downplay any facade of status, elitism, or wealth that would draw attention to self-superiority. How we obey this passage depends entirely on those around us.
Frost, Aaron. Christian Body: Modesty and the Bible (p. 74). UNKNOWN. Kindle Edition.
This is certainly accurate. We should not dress in church to draw attention to ourselves. We should dress in a way that will honor God.
I still hope to do more study on the term under question in the future, but for now, I’m not convinced by Frost.
Next time, we’ll start looking at how nudity was understood in the ancient culture.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)