Five Fun Facts About Biblical Modesty

It doesn't take much to get people worked up these days, and everyone is ready to get offended at the drop of a hat. Often, they will drop the hat themselves if no opportunity presents itself. Occasionally, people are actually offended for good reason as with someone saying abortion is a good thing. That's a great thing to get worked up about because the murder of innocent babies is an abomination in God's eyes.

Things that are an abomination in God's eyes are good to get worked up about and to have some righteous indignation over, as we see with David and many of the prophets. A while back I wrote an article about modesty entitled “Warning! Nudity Ahead!” and as you might imagine, it ruffled a few feathers and offended a few people who didn't like the idea that God would limit us on what we can do with our own bodies. The topic of modesty is quite controversial and nowhere more so than among Christians, surprisingly. 

You may not be surprised at all, especially if you have a local congregation with women under fifty. For some unknown reason, it generally stops being an issue after the age of fifty and women cover up with no complaints. For guys, on the other hand, it gets worse. Step into a men's locker room and see what I mean, or take a walk around your neighborhood on a Saturday morning and shield your eyes from the glare of the sun off bright white tummies as old men wander around topless mowing or doing yard work. *Shudder* 

The problem of modesty remains in the world fueled by ignorance, so, since the discussion seems to have died down a bit and the Feast is coming up, I thought I'd share five fun facts about Biblical modesty with you; some food for thought as you prepare to go back to school or the Feast.   

1. God is the one who invented modesty.

This first fun fact is so important to remember that you should probably stamp it on your forehead with a branding iron. Contrary to what many think, mankind did not invent modesty, God did. Right at the beginning when they realized they were naked after eating off the Tree of Knowledge, they tried to clothe themselves. The knowledge of their nakedness came from the fruit of the tree God created or the partial knowledge. They made belts of leaves to cover their lower genitals, and then they hid from God.

Genesis 3:7 NKJV — Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

2. God is the one who defines what modesty is.

Naturally, as the inventor of modesty, God is the one who defines what the terms of modesty are. One of the most ignorant arguments I have ever heard has been dubbed the “African Tribe Argument” and it is the basis of the idea that your culture determines what modesty is or is not. This argument is a favorite of secular scientists, and they may be forgiven for coming to this conclusion. They conclude that since remote African tribes allow their women to run around topless with no seeming sexualization of the breasts, modesty and sexualization of the breasts is a social construct that was created by the more advanced Western civilizations. See point number one: God invented modesty, not Western civilization. 

Since the scientists disregard God and His word, it is understandable that they have arrived at this conclusion. Our sexualization of the breasts seems to be going backward in Western society, however, not forward toward more covering. This would seem to say that we are getting more primitive, and we are, but not in the way the scientists think. Godless society may be forgiven for coming to this conclusion, but this ignorant argument also happens to be the favorite of Christians! Paganism is the example they look to for how things should be! That they even resort to this argument is a demonstration of ignorance regarding the Bible, wilful or unwitting, but ignorance just the same.

Let's take another look at Genesis.

Genesis 3:7 NKJV — Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

Earlier, I said they made themselves leaf belts to cover their lower genitals, and that might seem oddly specific, but it's for a reason. The word for coverings is ḥăḡôr and it means a girdle or a belt. Kind of like a loin cloth or something similar. When we look at primitive tribes, we see that they also make themselves something similar. The main point is that it is very minimal, and it was their idea of the concept of modesty. Now, let's skip ahead to chapter three real quick and see what happens there. 

Genesis 3:21 NKJV — Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

Now God is going to clothe them, and He is going to do it a little differently than they did. They used their partial knowledge from the tree, knowledge without God, and tried to be modest. We see this same thing in Godless primitive tribes as well, an important fact to keep in mind. What God does here is He corrects their idea of the concept He invented, and shows them how to do it properly. The word is kutōneṯ and it means: shirt, robe, or coat, and its root word is cover. Historians say that in the times of the Bible, it was a long linen garment that fell to the knees but rarely the ankles. God defines modesty for mankind and at the same time corrects their mistaken idea of what modesty is. 

3. Modesty is the same for men and women.

Stamp that one on your forehead as well. Burn it into your memory and never forget it, because a lot of people do. From that same verse in Genesis, we find that God made no distinction in the amount of covering He put on the men as opposed to the women. Men and women are supposed to cover up the same amount; if it is wrong for one, it is wrong for the other. As we continue on through the Bible we find that God doesn't have a ton more to say about modesty beyond the base standard He set at the beginning. However, one place we do find a statement about modesty is in Exodus. 

Exodus 28:42 NKJV — “And you shall make for them linen trousers to cover their nakedness; they shall reach from the waist to the thighs.

These are modesty standards for men. From their knees to their waists are supposed to be covered. No short shorts for the guys, and definitely no speedos. However, since the standards are the same for men and women, this applies to women as well. 

4. God created the breasts as sexual organs.

This is a huge one, and it takes us back to the African tribe argument I mentioned earlier. Many hold that breasts are only sexualized by Western society because we sexualize them, and if we can just get back to viewing breasts like the Africans, they won't be sexualized anymore. An important thing to note is that generally, it is the Abrahamic religions that hold tightly to modesty and covering the breasts, and the further a culture gets from God, the more it gets uncovered and the less sexualized the breasts are. We get used to seeing them, in other words, desensitized. Another way of saying it is, that the more godless we become, the more pagan and primitive we get; hardly the direction we want to be going as Christians.

We can easily see this throughout history and in our American and European culture today. The further we get from God and His Way, the more people start uncovering themselves. Now, since pagan cultures uncover and view the breasts as nothing special, we can assume that in God's culture, we would find the opposite, and indeed we do. I'll share just a few verses demonstrating that God created the breasts as part of the woman's sexual function. 

Proverbs 5:19 NKJV — As a loving deer and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; And always be enraptured with her love.

Song of Songs 4:5 NKJV — Your two breasts are like two fawns, Twins of a gazelle, Which feed among the lilies.

Ezekiel 16:7 NKJV — “I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.

Hosea 2:2 NKJV — “Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! Let her put away her harlotries from her sight, And her adulteries from between her breasts;

There are quite a few more verses like this, but that should suffice. God specially created the human breasts to be sexual, in fact, they are the only primate mammary glands that retain their roundness when they are no longer nursing a child. All other primate's breasts go flat after they are done nursing. The fact that God created them to be this way is underscored by the fact that He covered them up in Genesis as part of giving Adam and Eve proper modest clothing. As with Adam and Eve's first attempt, everyone else stops far too short in their efforts to define modesty, and they too return to the loincloth of old.

5. Modesty is actually indeed about sex.

By now, this should be obvious, but perhaps it is not. Modesty is about sex and not attracting sexual attention. In the New Testament, it is called chastity, and it is very much about sex! If we take those words and look at the opposite definitions of them we easily find this fact all the more abundantly clear. Immodesty and unchastity are about sex, and so are modesty and chastity.

Oxford Learners: Modesty - the action of behaving or dressing so that you do not show your body or attract sexual attention

In other words, reservedness. 

Cambridge: Modest - not large in size or amount, or not expensive; 

not usually talking about or making obvious your own abilities and achievements; 

Finally, in regards to clothing and behavior, used to describe something, such as someone's clothes or behaviour, that is intended to avoid attracting sexual interest

Again, reservedness.

Wikipedia (I know, not exactly a stellar dictionary, but it is accurate in this case): Modesty - sometimes known as demureness, is a mode of dress and deportment which intends to avoid the encouraging of sexual attraction in others. 

The word modesty comes from the Latin word modestus which means 'keeping within measure'. This is quoted from the Oxford Companion to the Body. 

Now, perhaps that is not clear enough, but a word that can be interchanged with modesty, and in fact some Biblical translations have done just that, not to mention the Aramaic text of the New Testament, is Chastity. 

Meriam Webster: Chastity - the quality or state of being chaste: such as a

: abstention from unlawful sexual intercourse

b

: abstention from all sexual intercourse

The priest took a vow of chastity.

c

: purity in conduct and intention

sought to protect her threatened chastity

d

: restraint and simplicity in design or expression

 

Cambridge: Chaste - without having any sexual activity or involvement outside of marriage;

Not having had sex, or only having a sexual relationship with the person you are married to.

Meriam Webster: Chaste - innocent of unlawful sexual intercourse;

Celibate;

Pure in thought and action;

Severely simple in design and action;

Spotless and clean. 

These definitions are the icing on top of the cake, so to speak, since it should be abundantly obvious already that modesty is about sex and covering up to avoid it. God gave mankind a pretty good idea of what He expects back in Genesis, and it hasn't changed in all the years since. A knee-length garment that covers down from the shoulders is the standard that God, not man, set.

Whether we adhere to it or not is between us and God, but our actions and our choice in obedience have a far-reaching impact on our brothers and sisters around us. So, as we head back to school and prepare for the Feast, let's keep this in mind and adhere to the standard God has set for us, realizing that is for our own good.

© Kyle Bacher 2024