Required reading
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Vol 4) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read 'On the veiling of virgins'.
My summary
Today Tertullian continues to give women fashion advice, this time the focus is on virgins.
Tertullians calls for virgins to be veiled from the time that they have passed the turning-point of their age. He supports his view by citing:
(i) the custom of the churches;
(ii) 1 Corinthians 11:5-16 and defending 'women' as a term inclusive of 'virgins';
(iii) the dangers of not veiling.
At the end of the work, Tertullian makes a personal appeal to the virgins to follow his advice.
What grabbed me
Yet another work from Tertullian that is difficult to digest.
Therefore I did appreciate one of the editor's comments in the elucidations: 'As to the argument of our author, it is quite enough to say, that, whatever we may think of his refinements upon St. Paul, he sticks to the inspired text, and enforces God’s Law in the Gospel. Let us reflect, moreover, upon the awful immodesty of heathen manners (see Martial, passim), and the necessity of enforcing a radical reform. All that adorns the sex among Christians has sprung out of these severe and caustic criticisms of the Gentile world and its customs. And let us reflect that there is a growing licence in our age, which makes it important to revert to first principles, and to renew the apostolic injunctions, if not as Tertullian did, still as best we may, in our own times and ways.'
Whenever we read anything, we must remember to pay attention to historical context.
Next week's reading
Read 'To his wife'.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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