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Works Tertullian (160-220) De virginibus velandis Elucidations - On the Veiling of Virgins

II.

(She shall be called woman, p. 31.)

The Vulgate reads, preserving something of the original epigrammatic force, "Vocabitur Vir-ago, quoniam de Vir-o sumpta est." The late revised English gives us, in the margin, Isshah and Ish, which marks the play upon words in the Hebrew,--"She shall be called Isshah because she was taken out of Ish." This Epithalamium is the earliest poem, and Adam was the first poet.

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.

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De Virginibus Velandis
Translations of this Work
Du voile des vierges
On the Veiling of Virgins
Über die Verschleierung der Jungfrauen. (BKV)
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Elucidations - On the Veiling of Virgins

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Faculty of Theology, Patristics and History of the Early Church
Miséricorde, Av. Europe 20, CH 1700 Fribourg

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