Did Peter prohibit women from braiding their hair?
1 Peter 3:3
NKJV - 3 Do not let your adornment be merely outward - arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel -
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Asked August 15 2014
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Takawira Mupoperi
Supporter
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Larry Truelove
Supporter
I do not believe braiding a woman's hair is forbidden in the Bible. If that is what Peter meant, then it would seem logical to conclude that he also forbade the "wearing of apparel," since that is also in the immediate context. The instruction is that a woman's adornment or appeal should not be "merely" or "just only" from outward beauty but also from the inside. I have known women whose internal composure or attitude was so striking that it could not be ignored. These were not always physically attractive women.
Doreen Lovell
Supporter
1 Peter 3:3 Vvs 1-6 Peter's teaching is on a wife's submission to her husband similar to Paul's teaching in Ephesians 5 :22-24---disobedient or unsaved husbands are to be won over by the conversation of the wives.The woman is to emphasize her inner qualities, not just her outer appearance. The reference to adorning are not prohibitions against jewelry, hair braiding and dress but they are a caution against merely beautifying the external while neglecting the soul.
Jack Gutknecht
Supporter
Tremendous question, Takawira! No, I don't think Peter was forbidding the braiding of the hair of women. Peter was just saying that women should not focus on the culture of the time but on the cultivation of the inner woman. It was not a blanket ban on braided hair but an emphasis on modesty and godliness. Inner beauty or skin-deep beauty is not as important as the heart. It's the heart, not the hair that is important to God. "Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). "Inner Beauty–1 Peter 3:3-4 'Let your beauty come from within—the kind that never fades— shown in a gentle and quiet spirit, which God values greatly.' (Paraphrased from 1 Peter 3:3-4) Companion Verse – Proverbs 31:30 'Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.' Hymn: 'Take My Life and Let It Be' 'Take my will and make it Thine, it shall be no longer mine.'" chatgpt
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