Brown, Raymond
"…there are two likely reasons for the uncompromising prohibition. First,
there was probably a serious moral issue at stake here. Sexual promiscuity was
rife in Canaan, and transvestite practices were part of the corrupt and immoral
context of the land... This prohibition is a warning to the Hebrew people not to
identify with the degrading sexual...practices of the Canaanites. Secondly, it
is also likely that there were religious reasons for this regulation. Some pagan
religions ...demanded that men and women exchange their clothing as part of
their fertility rites."
Gray, James M.
Doesn't mention the verse, but he does caution against concentrating on
small portions of the Bible to draw conclusions. He encourages serious students
to study multiple chapters in order to obtain a comprehensive knowledge, and to
place individual verses in their proper perspective.
McGee, J. Vernon
"Someone will say this does not apply to us today because we are not under
the Law. That is true. However, all these laws which we are studying do lay down
certain principles which we do well to notice. I may be out of step with the
times, but I believe it is still true today that a woman looks better dressed as
a woman, and a man looks better dressed as a man."
Plaut
"The Torah forbids the wearing of apparel customary for the opposite sex.
From this rule, tradition concluded that men's apparel included implements of
war, and...A woman was not supposed to wield a man's weapon... This also meant
that women were precluded from joining the army...the rule further implied that
women were forbidden the wearing of talit and tefillin (prayer shawl and
phylacteries).... priests of Hercules dressed as women; while, in Rome, men who
participated in the vernal mysteries of that god did likewise. So too in the
cult of Dionysus, males often adopted feminine costume, just as at the annual
festival of Oschophoris... The same practice is attested also in connection with
the cult of Leukipposin Crete... According to some scholars, it is a method of
assimilating the worshiper to the person of the deity...to others, it is a form
of disguise, designed to foil demons and other noxious spirits. Probably...there
was no single origin for all the examples of this practice... It has also been
suggested that, in cases where men wear women's clothes in the performance of
magical rites, this reflects the widespread belief that magic (especially when
it aims at promoting fertility) is primarily the province of the female."
Wesley, John
"This is forbidden, both for decency sake, that men might not confound those
sexes which God has distinguished; that all appearances of evil might be
avoided, such change of garments carrying or manifest sign of effeminence in the
man, of arrogance in the woman, of lightness and petulance in both; and to cut
off all suspicions and occasions of evil, which this practice opens a wide door
to."
Barnes' Notes
"The distinction between the sexes is natural and divinely established, and
cannot be neglected without indecorum and consequent danger to purity."
Bruce, F.F.
"…this verse has been cited against the wearing of trousers by women; yet
there has been no corresponding refusal to wear rayon/cotton or terylene/worsted
mixtures. The practice referred to may have been thought to have magical
effects. There is certainly evidence of transvestism and simulated sexual
inversion being associated in the ancient world with sexual license -- and in a
religious context."
Clarke, Adam
"It certainly cannot mean a simple change in dress, whereby men might pass
for women, and vice versa. This would have been impossible in those countries
where the dress of the sexes had but little to distinguish it, and where every
man wore a long beard."
Daily Bible Commentary
"Verse 5 arises out of the scriptural concern to guard the built-in
distinctions of God's creation. It does not specify particular forms of dress
for the two sexes; these will legitimately vary with time and place. What is
condemned is the perverted misuse of current custom; and since this is 'an
abomination to the Lord' we are to regard this law as permanent, and respect its
wisdom."
Elwell
"Transvestism is prohibited because of its association with homosexual
practices or the cults of certain deities, or in other cases possibly because of
its use in magical practices to cure infertility."
Expositor's Bible
Commentary
"The prohibition against a woman wearing the habiliments of a man and of a
man wearing the clothing of a woman can scarcely refer to transvestism. Though
evidence for religious transvestism in ancient Canaanite religion is not
conclusive, the inclusion of this rule under the proscription of the things the
Lord detests suggests a serious problem, one that involves alienation from the
Lord because of the adoption of the proscribed religious practices. Most
probably illicit sexual practices...are included in this prohibition."
Freeman, James M.
Explains that pagan religions frequently worshipped idols depicting the
features of one sex and the clothing of the opposite sex. Worshippers often
cross-dressed to participate in religious rituals. So, one interpretation is to
avoid cross-dressing because it was part of idol worship....
Hamilton, Victor P.
"There are three possibilities here. One possibility is to view verses 1-12
as a collection of heterogeneous laws. A second approach is to attempt to relate
some of the laws at least to each other by a common word or theme... A
third...is that [it] deals with procedures of wartime."
Henry, Matthew
"The distinction of sexes by the apparel is to be maintained, for the
preservation of our own and our neighbor's chastity. Some think it refers to the
idolatrous custom of the Gentiles: in the worship of Venus, women appeared in
armor, and men in women's clothes. It forbids the confusing of the dispositions
and affairs of the sexes. Probably this exchange of garments had been used to
gain opportunity of committing uncleanness, and is therefore forbidden."
Interpreter's Bible
"A law appearing only here and usually interpreted as directed against the
simulated changes of sex in Canaanite religion... It may be that the motivation
comes from the Israelite abhorrence of all that is unnatural, though in point of
fact we have no certainty as to what lay behind it."
Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
"Though disguises were assumed at certain times in heathen temples, it is
probable that a reference was made to unbecoming levities practiced in common
life. They were properly forbidden; for the adoption of the habiliments of the
one sex by the other is an outrage on decency, obliterates the distinctions of
nature by fostering softness and effeminacy in the man, impudence and boldness
in the woman as well as levity and hypocrisy in both; and, in short, it opens
the door to an influx of so many evils that all who wear the dress of another
sex are pronounced, 'an abomination unto the Lord.'"
Lamsa, George M.
Points out that in the Eastern culture, women were generally respected, and not
searched or molested. They were allowed to travel relatively freely. Men dressed
as women might be able to smuggle contraband or spy on their enemies.
MacArthur Study Bible
"Found only here in the Pentateuch, this statute prohibited a man from
wearing any item of feminine clothing or ornamentation, or a woman from wearing
any item of masculine clothing or ornamentation.... This instance specifically
outlawed transvestism. The creation ordered distinctions between male and female
were to be maintained without exception."
Maxwell
"One explanation is that this practice was associated with the religion of
Canaan... Apparently women appeared in male garments and men in women's clothes
when they worshipped pagan deities. Yahweh wanted His people to be unique and do
nothing that was in any way connected with foreign religions. Another theory is
that this verse could refer to war. A woman was not to put on the trappings of a
soldier or dress like a man in order to gain admission into the army..." Another
explanation...is that it obscured the distinction between the sexes and
therefore violated an essential part of the created order of life... During the
days of Moses, garments worn by men and women were very similar so this command
was designed to keep a woman from appearing as a man for purposes of
licentiousness... This passage teaches against the wearing of any item
specifically intended for the opposite sex... Still another...refers to the
practice of transvestism, a deviant form of sexual behavior which is often
characterized by cross-dressing...and in the ancient world its practice was
associated with the cults of certain deities."
Merrill
"a regulation that seems most intrusive in the overall passage. Kaufman
offers the suggestion that the theme of separation...finds parallel in the
separation between a mother bird and its young in the next law. Inasmuch as the
latter at least indirectly touches on the subject of death...the law of
transvestism may also do so by association."
Payne
"There is good reason to suppose that the law of verse 5 is not concerned
with the mild sexual aberration known as transvestism, but is a repudiation of
certain pagan religious practices of that era; so this law is no more a fashion
guide for today than is the law about tassels in verse 12."
Peake
"5 is one of a series continuing in 9-11 whereby mixture of garments, seed,
animals and materials are prohibited. They are obviously ancient laws, the
neglect of which brought religious risk of some kind, for a mixed crop became
holy or forfeited to the sanctuary."
Richards, Lawrence O.
Doesn't mention the verse.
Schocken Bible
"This prohibition touches on a frequent theme in Leviticus: the improper
mixing of categories."
Schultz
Doesn't mention the verse.
Thompson (J.A.)
"this law in its original setting has no direct implication for modern
life."
Tilsen, Rabbi
"The Torah's concern in this verse, then, is not with creating or
reinforcing gender differences per se, but in preventing gender associations of
clothing or possibly body hair from being used to deceive others for purposes
leading to sexual immorality. The key here seems to be deception for illicit
purposes. Indeed this law appears in Deuteronomy in the context of laws against
deceit...While the legal interpretations of this verse from Deuteronomy have
been diverse, most of Jewish legal discussion has not taken the verse to suggest
a blanket ban or condemnation of what today we call cross-dressing."
Walvoord, Zuck
"The adoption of clothing of the opposite sex was forbidden because it
obscured the distinction of the sexes and thus violated an essential part of the
created order of life. It was also perhaps associated with or promoted
homosexuality... Also some evidence exists that transvestism may have been
connected with the worship of pagan deities."
Wenham, Motyer, Carson,
France
"The point here is not simply about fashion, but about certain deviant
sexual practices, signified by the wearing of the clothes of the opposite sex...
It is possible too that some rituals of non-Israelite religions involved
transvestism, and that practice is condemned for this reason."
Zondervan
"The prohibition against a woman wearing men's clothing and vice versa can
scarcely refer to transvestism. Most probably illicit sexual practices..."