SHOULD WOMEN WEAR LONG
DRESSES?
While in much of past history this question was not so much in question or so controversial, in our own day it surely is. There used to be a consensus among conservative Protestants, Roman Catholics, Muslims, and Jews that long dresses were the appropriate garb of women, but that is certainly not the case today. However much societal views may change though, God’s word is eternal, and it is where we must look to answer this question.
Some of the most relevant Biblical texts are these:
I Timothy 2:9 – “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”
Jer
Isa 47:2-3 – “Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet [thee as] a man.”
Deuteronomy 22:5 – “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so [are] abomination unto the LORD thy God.”
According to Thayer’s Lexicon, the Greek word translated “apparel” in I Timothy 2:9 (katastolē) means “a garment let down, dress, attire”. And I Timothy 2:9 teaches that this dress is to be characterized by “shamefacedness” and “sobriety”.
According to Gesenius’s Lexicon,
the Hebrew word translated “skirts” in Jeremiah
Jeremiah 13:22 and Isaiah 47:2-3 imply that for someone, especially a woman, to bare her leg in public is regarded in scripture as exposing one’s nakedness.
Deuteronomy 22:5 implies that the attire of women should be distinct from that of men. When pants are worn, if they are worn, they are associated with males and not females.
Considered together, we may rightly conclude that as a general rule women should wear long dresses.
(Note: Related articles at this website can be found at http://www.puritans.net/news/naked070104.htm
and http://www.puritans.net/news/attire040604.htm
.)