In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; In like manner also - That is, he wills or commands what follows, as he had commanded what went before.
That women adorn themselves - Και τας γυναικας ες καταστολῃ κοσμιῳ. The apostle seems to refer here to different parts of the Grecian and Roman dress. The στολη, stola, seems to have been originally very simple. It was a long piece of cloth, doubled in the middle, and sewed up on both sides, leaving room only for the arms; at the top, a piece was cut out, or a slit made, through which the head passed. It hung down to the feet, both before and behind, and was girded with the zona round the body, just under the breasts. It was sometimes made with, sometimes without, sleeves; and, that it might sit the better, it was gathered on each shoulder with a band or buckle. Some of the Greek women wore them open on each side, from the bottom up above the knee, so as to discover a part of the thigh. These were termed φαινομηριδες, showers (discoverers) of the thigh; but it was, in general, only young girls or immodest women who wore them thus.
The καταστολη seems to have been the same as the pallium or mantle, which, being made nearly in the form of the stola, hung down to the waist, both in back and front, was gathered on the shoulder with a band or buckle, had a hole or slit at top for the head to pass through, and hung loosely over the stola, without being confined by the zona or girdle. Representations of these dresses may be seen in Lens' Costume des Peuples de l'Antiquit, fig. 11, 12, 13, and 16. A more modest and becoming dress than the Grecian was never invented; it was, in a great measure, revived in England about the year 1805, and in it, simplicity, decency, and elegance were united; but it soon gave place to another mode, in which frippery and nonsense once more prevailed. It was too rational to last long; and too much like religious simplicity to be suffered in a land of shadows, and a world of painted outsides.
With shamefacedness and sobriety - The stola, catastola, girdle, etc., though simple in themselves, were often highly ornamented both with gold and precious stones; and, both among the Grecian and Roman women, the hair was often crisped and curled in the most variegated and complex manner. To this the apostle alludes when he says: Μη εν πλεγμασιν, η χρυσῳ, η μαργαριταις, η ἱματισμῳ πολυτελει· Not with plaited hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly raiment. The costly raiment might refer to the materials out of which the raiment was made, and to the workmanship; the gold and pearls, to the ornaments on the raiment.
With shame-facedness or modesty, μετα αιδους. This would lead them to avoid every thing unbecoming or meretricious in the mode or fashion of their dress.
With sobriety, μετα σωφροσυνης. Moderation would lead them to avoid all unnecessary expense. They might follow the custom or costume of the country as to the dress itself, for nothing was ever more becoming than the Grecian stola, catastola, and zona; but they must not imitate the extravagance of those who, through impurity or littleness of mind, decked themselves merely to attract the eye of admiration, or set in lying action the tongue of flattery. Woman has been invidiously defined: An animal fond of dress. How long will they permit themselves to be thus degraded?
Those beautiful lines of Homer, in which he speaks of the death of Euphorbus, who was slain by Menelaus, show how anciently the Grecians plaited and adorned their hair: -
Αντικρυ δ' απαλοιο δι' αυχενος ηλυθ' ακωκη·
Δουπησεν δε πεσων, αραβησε δε τευχε' επ' αυτῳ.
Αἱματι οἱ δευοντο κομαι, Χαριτεσσιν ὁμοιαι,
Πλοχμοι θ' οἱ χρυσῳ τε και αργυρῳ εσφηκωντο.
Il. xvii., ver. 49.
Wide through the neck appears the ghastly wound;
Prone sinks the warrior, and his arms rebound.
The shining circlets of his golden hair,
Which e'en the Graces might be proud to wear,
Instarr'd with gems and gold bestrew the shore,
With dust dishonor'd, and deform'd with gore.
Pope.
Or thus, more literally: -
Sounding he fell; loud rang his batter'd arms.
His locks, which e'en the Graces might have own'd,
Blood sullied, and his ringlets wound about
With twine of gold and silver, swept the dust.
Cowper.
The extravagance to which the Grecian and Asiatic women went in their ornaments might well be a reason for the apostle's command.
Kypke, however, denies that any particular article of dress is intended here, and says that καταστολη is to be understood as coming from καταστελλω, to restrain, repress; and he refers it to that government of the mind, or moderation which women should exercise over their dress and demeanour in general, and every thing that may fall under the observation of the senses. All this, undoubtedly, the apostle had in view.
When either women or men spend much time, cost, and attention on decorating their persons, it affords a painful proof that within there is little excellence, and that they are endeavoring to supply the want of mind and moral good by the feeble and silly aids of dress and ornament. Were religion out of the question, common sense would say in all these things: Be decent; but be moderate and modest.