"Then Peter goes on to mention the “plaiting of hair.” By using this phrase, he is referring to a practice that was very common among Greek and Roman women of the first century. These women didn’t just pull out the blow dryer and spend twenty minutes preparing their hair for the day. Rather, they literally spent multiplied hours toiling with their hair! I say women “toiled” with their hair because it took a great deal of time to produce the fashionable hairstyles of that day. In fact, the word “plaiting” used by Peter is the Greek word emploke which describes the intricate, complex, and outrageously elaborate braiding of a woman’s hair.
Greek and Roman women were obsessed with turning their hair into intricate towers of curls and braids. If you visit a museum of antiquities and look at the statues of first- century women, it will amaze you to see the thousands of curls that were woven into women’s hair.
This hairstyle was considered beautiful, elegant, and fashionable in the first century. This fashion trend was imitated all over the
Peter was not against women making their hair more beautiful. He simply didn’t want believing women to focus all their attention on their hair and forget about the condition of their hearts. (Continued)
I've been looking for a really good excuse to have bad hair days more often. Thanks for providing me just that!
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, though, there is much to be gleaned here with how we spend our time (and resources). While looking nice is certainly a worthy effort, it's the proportion of time and thoughts spent on it in exchange for something of greater worth that determines whether it is "good" or "better" to be doing.
It brought to mind this quote by Pres. Woodruff:
“If the veil were lifted off the face of the Latter-day Saints, and they could see and know the things of God as they do who are laboring for the salvation of the human family in the spirit world…this whole people, with very few, if any exceptions, would lose all interest in the riches of the world and instead thereof their whole desires and labors would be directed to redeem their dead.”