braiding the hair, which was a regular feature of the coiffure of fashionable women, Jewish and pagan, in the first-century Graeco-Roman world. The Apostle wants the feminine section of the congregation to make themselves attractive, but, as befits women who claim to be religious, with good deeds. The alternative rendering ‘as befits women who give proof of their religious profession by good works’ is syntactically possible, but the contrast between adorning oneself with fine trappings and with a