On Clothing and Modesty

Introduction

The reasoning appears to be if it is a good thing to give clothes to those who are naked, then being naked is bad. I am not certain how non-nudity became equivalent to modesty, but in this essay, we are going to look at clothing and modesty from YHVH’s point of view and let Him speak for Himself.

The Need for Clothing

The basic foundation establishing the need for clothing should be laid. First, we see YHVH clothing Adam and Eve in animal skins (Genesis 3:21). Second, after the vision of the Ladder of Heaven, Jacob vowed that YHVH would be his Elohim if He would be with Jacob, keep him safe, give him food to eat and garments to wear and Jacob returned to his father’s house in safety (Genesis 28:20-22). Third, during the Sermon on the Mount, Yeshua acknowledged that clothing was a legitimate need (Matthew 7:25-32). According to the Torah that in the mouths of two or three witnesses, every word should be established, so, therefore, these three references establish the fact that clothing is certainly a need for every human.

Purposes of Clothing

Clothing has the following purposes:

• warmth (Exodus 22:26; Deuteronomy 24:12-13; Job 24:7,10; 1 Kings 1:1, Proverbs 31:21, James 2:15-16)
• beauty and glory of the Levitical priesthood (Exodus 28:2,40)
• political rank/importance (Genesis 37:3, 41:42, 45:22; Daniel 5:16; Esther 8:15)
• indicate maturity (Ezekiel 16:7-14)
• indicate widowed status (Genesis 38:14,19)
• indicate status as prostitute (Proverbs 7:10)
• use veil to indicate status as prostitute (Genesis 38:14-15)

A search of the NASB, ASV and NIV in biblegateway.com using the key words “modest” and “modesty” did not result in any hits for the first two versions and two hits for the NIV. Searching for “immodest” did not result in any hits for all three versions so it must be acknowledged that the version of the Bible utilized will impact the development of any understanding regarding clothes and modesty. Based on the NASB, at least, modesty is not directly given as a reason for clothing.

Kinds and Construction of Clothing/Garments

• Priestly garments
  • Turban (made of linen): Exodus 28:4, 39:28
  • Decorated caps (made of linen): Exodus 28:4, 39:28
  • Breeches/loincloths (made of linen): Exodus 28:42, 39:28; Leviticus 6:10, 16:4, Ezekiel 44:18
  • Ephod: Exodus 28:15, 1 Samuel 2:18, 2 Samuel 6:14
  • Tunic: Genesis 37:3; Exodus 28:40, John 19:23
  • Sashes: Exodus 28:40
  • Coat: II Samuel 15:32; Matthew 5:40; Mark 13:16; Luke 6:29, 22:36
  • Shirt: Matthew 5:40, Luke 6:29

• Colors
  • Blue: Exodus 25:4, 28:31, 39:1, Numbers 15:38
  • Purple: Exodus 25:4, 39:1
  • Scarlet: Exodus 25:4; 39:1; Proverbs 31:21
  • White: Esther 8:15, Revelations 19:14
  • Gold: Exodus 28:6,8
  • Multi-hued: Genesis 37:3

• Materials
  • Linen: Genesis 41:42, Exodus 39:27-28; Leviticus 13:47; Esther 8:15
  • Wool: Leviticus 13:47
  • Flax: Hosea 2:5
  • Leather: II Kings 1:8; Matthew 3:4
  • Cannot mix linen and wool within the same garment: Deuteronomy 22:11

• Male/Female Garments
  • Must be unique to each gender: Deuteronomy 22:5

The Torah makes some things clear about the types of clothing and how they are to be constructed. The Levitical priesthood have specific requirements for the clothing they wear in the performance of their duties. For the general populace, there appear to be only two requirements for their clothing that (a) they be clearly distinguished between male and female styles (Deuteronomy 22:5) and (b) linen (plant-sourced) and wool (animal-sourced) be not woven together in the same garment (Deuteronomy 22:11). It appears that wearing leather accessories with linen is permitted. Nothing was found specifying shapes, sizes, and design through keyword searches. There appears to be no restriction in color choices. In addition, there are numerous instructions requiring the washing of clothing (cf. bodily discharges, leprosy, niddah, ashes of red heifer, cleansing from war).

New Testament Writers on Female Dress Choices

Paul wrote to Timothy in I Timothy and in this letter, he made some comments about the choices that female believers should make regarding clothing.

“Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly¹ and discreetly², not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, but rather by means of good words, as befits women making a claim to godliness” (1 Timothy 2:9-10).

1 Modestly is the translation of “aidos” (Greek #127) which has the sense of “a sense of shame or honour, modesty, bashfulness, reverence, regard for others, respect”

2 Discreetly is the translation of “sophrosune” (Greek #4997) which has the sense of “1. soundness of mind 2. self- control, sobriety”

Peter wrote in his first letter to his female readers

“… let not your adornment be merely external – braiding the hair and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in the sight of God”.

1 Peter 3:4

I believe both apostles may have had in mind not only the prevailing customs of the day, but also this passage from Isaiah:

“Moreover, the Lord said, ‘Because the daughters of Zion are proud, and walk with heads held high and seductive eyes and go along with mincing steps and tinkle the bangles on their feet, therefore, the Lord will afflict the scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs, and the Lord will make their foreheads bare’. In that day, the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, headbands, crescent ornaments, dangling earrings, bracelets, veils, headdresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, amulets, finger rings, nose rings, festal robes, outer tunics, cloaks, money purses, hand mirrors, undergarments, turbans, and veils. Now it will come about that instead of sweet perfume, there will be putrefaction; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of well-set hair, a plucked-out scalp, and branding instead of beauty”.

Isaiah 3:16-24

It is also possible that Solomon’s advice to avoid harlots influenced the two apostles’ advice:

“Say to wisdom, ‘You are my sister’ and call understanding your intimate friend, that they may keep you from an adulteress, from the foreigner who flatters with her words. For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice, and I saw among the naïve, I discerned among the youths, a young man lacking sense, Passing through the street near her corner, and he takes the way to her house, In the twilight, in the evening, In the middle of the night and in the darkness. And behold, a woman comes to meet him, Dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart. She is boisterous and rebellious; her feet do not remain at home. She is now in the streets, now in the squares, and lurks by every corner. So she seizes him and kisses him, And with a brazen face she says to him…”.

Proverbs 7:4-13; cf Jeremiah 3:3

Ostentatious pride, wealth, and perhaps rebelliousness seem to be what Paul and Peter are thinking of as they advise their female audience. One wonders what these men would think of the tradition of dressing up in their best clothing for Sunday worship? Neither man specifically advised dressing to avoid tempting men into lust, but perhaps we should consider how women might be dressing like prostitutes. Throughout the Bible, YHVH repeatedly says he does not want the sons and daughters of Israel to be harlots (Exodus 34:16, Leviticus 19:29; Deuteronomy 22:21; Hosea 4:13-14). Therefore, it may be well-advised that parents advise their sons and daughters not to imitate prostitutes in any way, not only in manner of dress, but also in manner of grooming (shaving) and makeup.

The Armor of God

Paul wrote a well-known passage in which he advised believers to put on the armor of God in the sixth chapter of his letter to the Ephesians.

“Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shot your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God”.

Ephesians 6:10-17

Clothed With …

Doing a search in the NASB for the phrase “clothed with” resulted in the following:

• “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness” (Psalm 132:9a).
• “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul will exult in my God, For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).
• “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).
• “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:27).
• “He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments” (Revelations 3:5).

Doesn’t the above hits look like it’s far better to be clothed from on high than to worry about earthly clothing, and helps put Yeshua’s comments about preferring the Kingdom first and food and clothing second into more clearer focus?

Biblical View of Nudity

Many people define modesty in terms of how nude someone is, or rather, how much of his or her skin is visible, and whether or not the male and female reproductive organs and breasts are exposed. In addition to this, the cut and styling of clothing is also a factor in the judgment of how modestly someone is dressed. Therefore, we now consider some case studies of nudity as recorded in the Bible.

Adam and Eve

“The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

Genesis 2:20-25

The Hebrew word for naked in Genesis 2:25 is `arowm (#6174)<sup>1</sup> which signifies unashamed nakedness. Sometime after this, the serpent began its assault against the peace and happiness of the Garden of Eden. The tactic it employed was to get Eve to lust with her eyes after the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After she and Adam had eaten of the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened and they were ashamed in their nakedness (`eyrom, #5903)² where before they had not been ashamed. Adam and Eve attempted to cover their nakedness with fig leaves. YHVH then interrogated all three, Adam, Eve, and the serpent, to get the facts of the case. He then meted out justice. Adam was condemned to lose his cushy job caring for the Garden of Eden and would have to work among thorns to eke out his living. Eve’s fate was to experience pain in childbearing and her desire would be to her husband. The serpent was doomed to go on his belly and to experience defeat ultimately from the seed of the woman. In none of these sentences of justice was there any pronouncements regarding clothing. Then after justice was handed out, YHVH made clothing of animal skins for Adam and Eve. No explanation for why He did this was given, nor was there given a commandment from Him to Adam and Eve to always be clothed henceforth. Looking ahead in the Torah, the simplest explanation for His action is their need for covering at night (cf. Exodus 22:26; Deuteronomy 24:11-13).

1 Used in the following references: Genesis 2:25; 1 Samuel 19:24; Job 1:21, 22:6, 24:7, 10, 26:6; Ecclesiastes 5:15; Isaiah 20:2-4, 58:7; Hosea 2:3; Amos 2:16; Micah 1:8

2 Used in Genesis 3:7,10,11

Noah

After the Flood, Noah and his family needed to start all over again. They started by rebuilding the agricultural economy, as Genesis 9:20 states that Noah was a husbandman and planted a vineyard. He got drunk and was sleeping it off in his tent.

The word translated as “uncovered” (v. 21) is galah (#1540) which means “uncover, reveal, open”. It is also the same word used in Leviticus chapter 18 and 20 in the context of sexual misconduct. Nakedness here is the Hebrew word `ervah (#6172) which Strong defines as:

1. nakedness, nudity, shame, pudenda
   1. pudenda (implying shameful exposure)
   2. nakedness of a thing, indecency, improper behaviour c. exposed, undefended (fig.)

When Noah awoke from his drunken stupor, “he knew what his youngest son had done to him”. Combining the words galah and `ervah, we can safely assume that Noah was not naked in his tent by choice, and that Ham (or Canaan) did something shameful to his grandfather, and given the usage of the word galah in Leviticus 18 and 20, it’s likely Canaan did something of a sexual nature with his grandfather, Noah, which would certainly be shaming.¹ Canaan’s punishment was slavery to Shem and Japheth – nothing was said about clothing.

1Note should be taken here of a possible alternative to the homosexual rape (or castration) of Noah. If “nakedness of their father” is correctly construed to be Noah’s wife (see Leviticus 20:11), then she was defiled, not Noah.

Job

In the book of Job, several observations are made about social ills of his time. With respect to clothing, Job recorded the following statements.

• “For you have taken pledges of your brothers without cause, And stripped men naked” (Job 22:6).
• “They spend the night naked, without clothing, And have no covering against the cold” (Job 24:7).
• “They cause the poor to go about naked without clothing, And they take away the sheaves from the hungry” (Job 24:10).
• “If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, Or that the needy had no covering” (Job 31:19).

As a reminder, `arowm (#6174) is the same word used in Genesis 2:25. Here the problem is that clothing is stripped away from the naked that they are cold and have nothing with which to keep themselves warm. Nothing is said here of modesty, nor is the shame to those who are naked, but to those who make them go naked.

Job also stated that he had “…made a covenant with my eyes; How then could I gaze at a virgin? … Or my heart followed my eyes … If my heart has been enticed by a woman, Or I have lurked at my neighbor’s doorway … “ (Job 31:1, 7, 9). This corresponds well with David’s sin with Bath-Sheba and provides the source for Yeshua’s comments about the unguarded eye (Matthew 5:27-28).

King Saul

Saul is known as the first King of Israel, and the great enemy of David, who was to be King after him. Saul experienced an episode of religious ecstasy and this is what is recorded.

Then Saul sent messengers to take David, but when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing and presiding over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul; and they also prophesied. When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. So Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied. Then he himself went to Ramah and came as far as the large well that is in Secu; and he asked and said, “Where are Samuel and David?” And someone said, “Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah.” He proceeded there to Naioth in Ramah; and the Spirit of God came upon him also, so that he went along prophesying continually until he came to Naioth in Ramah. He also stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

I Samuel 19:20-24

When Saul stripped off his clothes and became naked (`arowm, #6174), he was responding to the influence of the Spirit of God. It appears from this passage that the prophets of that time were known for prophesying nude.

King David

“And David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod…Then it happened as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart…But when David returned to bless his household, Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, ‘How the king of Israel distinguished himself today! He uncovered himself today in the eyes of his servants’ maids as one of the foolish ones shamelessly uncovers himself!’ So David said to Michal, ‘It was before the Lord, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel; therefore I will celebrate before the Lord. And I will be more lightly esteemed than this and will be humble in my own eyes, but with the maids of whom you have spoken, with them I will be distinguished. And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death”.

2 Samuel 6:14, 16, 20-23

Micah

“Because of this I must lament and wail, I must go barefoot and naked”

Micah 1:8a

Isaiah

“[A]t that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loosen the sackcloth from your hips and take your shoes off your feet.” And he did so, going naked and barefoot. And the Lord said, “Even as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three years as a sign and token against Egypt and Cush, so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.”

Isaiah 20:2-4

Yeshua haMashiach (Jesus Christ)

“And if anyone wants to sue you, and take your shirt, let him have your coat also”.

Matthew 5:40

“For this reason, I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing? … And why are you anxious about clothing? … Do not be anxious then saying ‘What shall we eat? Or with what shall we clothe ourselves? For all these things, the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.”

Matthew 6: 25, 28a, 31-33

James

“My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you who pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say ‘You sit here in a good place’, and you say to the poor man, ‘you stand over there, or sit down by my footstool.”, have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?”

James 2:1-4

“If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled’, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?”

James 2:15-16

Others

Bath-Sheba bathed nude on her rooftop and was not condemned for this, but for her adultery with King David (2 Samuel 11, 12). Habakkuk pronounced a woe upon those who get their neighbors drunk to view their nakedness (Habakkuk 2:15). Peter was stripped naked for fishing (John 21:7). Paul reported to the Corinthians that he was hungry and naked (1 Corinthians 4:11).

Conclusion

Clothing is a necessity as Yeshua Himself recognized and acknowledged, but He refused to allow His people to put undue importance on clothes, rather putting his Kingdom first. In the Torah, we see the importance that YHVH attached to making sure that the poor had something with which to keep themselves warm. Nudity appears to be a fact of life for the extreme poor in ancient Israel and to take advantage of them by withholding their covering is something that was condemned. Being partially or fully nude in public by choice, or others’ sin or by YHVH’s command does not appear to be a sin. We also see from Noah’s experience, Leviticus 18, briefly touched upon, and Habakkuk’s woe that stripping people of their clothes against their will is a sin. In addition, Isaiah’s prophecy of walking naked for three years shows that being stripped naked against one’s will was a source of shame.

Female modesty appears to be defined as walking with humility and not wearing expensive, flashy clothing. Modesty is not defined in terms of nudity and I don’t think believers want to imitate the sneering, arrogant spirit of Michal, daughter of Saul, because her attitude towards uncovering oneself as foolishness is nowhere else found in Scripture. James the Righteous also rebuked those who gave fellow believers preferential treatment based on the wealth they displayed by their dress. David’s sin with Bath-Sheba, Job’s comments about guarding his eyes and heart, and Yeshua’s instruction about lust apply to the man, as the flip side of the coin to female dressing modestly (in terms of flashiness).

Therefore, I encourage believers to consider dropping judging others by man-made standards such as how much of the body is visible and use the standards given in the Tanakh and Brit Chadassah outlined earlier in this essay for judging fellow believers by their choice of dress.