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Parity & God's handiwork
As I could have argued ten years ago, the apostles and prophets come down hard on using appearance to feed pride and seek status at others' expense. Isaiah condemned rich, proud women who flaunted their high-status appearance:

The Lord says,
"The women of Zion are haughty,
walking along with outstretched necks,
flirting with their eyes,
tripping along with mincing steps,
with ornaments jingling on their ankles.
Therefore the Lord will bring sores on
the heads of the women of Zion;
the Lord will make their scalps
bald." (Isa. 3:16-17, NIV)

Here we see beauty abused by proud women, ornamentation collected by rich women who care more for exalting themselves than for helping their poorer neighbors. The prideful lust for one's own power and glory takes on social and political dimensions. Eventually, though, God promises that the proud will be shamed and the power-hungry enslaved.

Clothes and jewelry were means by which wealthy women flaunted their superiority over the poor in Isaiah's day. Not much has changed in 26 centuries. Today, one can often tell a woman's income by how much she is able to spend on clothes, hair, nails, facials, jewelry, and exercise. Cosmetics magnate Helena Rubinsteinsaid, "There are no ugly women, only lazy ones." It might be more accurate to say there are no ugly women, only women with limited budgets.

Pride and money lie behind Peter's admonition about women's dress: "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight" (1 Peter 3:3-4, NIV).

The vast majority of first-century women were servants, slaves, or manual workers, along with being mothers and wives. They could afford very little by way of clothing or decoration. They might own two or three plain outfits and a few pieces of cheap jewelry. Their standard of living was roughly equivalent to that of most people in preindustrial societies today. Outward adornment was definitely not one of their temptations.

Two percent of the population was far wealthier than the average woman ever dreamed of being. In the church, which was not yet fashionable, there were probably just a few well-to-do women. These wives and daughters of aristocrats and rich businessmen would have covered themselves in public (so as not tobe judged as prostitutes by society), but they were expected to be walking advertisements of their men's wealth and status. Carefully coifed hair peeked from under demure veils, fabrics were the very best, and jewelry glittered everywhere.

The purpose of all this finery was less to allure men than to compete withthe other rich women in flaunting one's wealth. The radiant ones' appearance could only intimidate the low-class women. Silks and pearls set the standard for who was important and who was not.

But in the church, these distinctions undermined the goal of bonding women as sisters in Christ. Peter had no patience with rich men who wanted to use their wives as status emblems, nor with rich women who wanted to lord itover the poor. He urged women to lay aside their trappings of wealth as a spiritual discipline to train themselves in humility. Their appearance would be an outward sign that they considered the other women their full equals. Such a radical rejection of their society's expectations about appearance would be a potent witness if their husbands were unbelievers.

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July 14 1997, Vol. 41, No. 8