“Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;”
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes — the warning against elaborate external adornment (kosmos exōthen, outward adornment) redirects attention from superficial beauty to inner character. The specific items mentioned—plaits of hair, gold ornaments, fine clothing—represented status markers in the Roman world.
Church Fathers on 1 Peter 3:3
You call yourself wealthy and rich; but Paul meets your riches, and with his own voice prescribes for the moderating of your dress and ornament within a just limit. Let women, said he, adorn themselves with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair, nor gold, nor pearls, nor costly array, but as becomes women professing chastity, with a good conversation. 1 Timothy 2:9-10 Also Peter consents to these same precepts, and says, Let there be in the woman not the…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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