On Prayer 22

Those who grant this ought to reflect on the status of the word itself. What is “woman” from the very first letters of the holy records? They will find that it is the name of the sex, not of a class of the sex; since God called Eve, when she had not yet known a man, both “woman” and “female”: “female” as the sex in general, “woman” as a class of the sex in particular. So, since Eve, still unmarried then, was called by the word “woman,” that word became common to the virgin too. Nor is it any wonder if the apostle, moved of course by the same Spirit by whom all divine Scripture, and that Genesis in particular, was composed, used the same word in writing “woman,” which, after the example of the unmarried Eve, applies to the virgin too. Everything else agrees. For by the very fact that he did not name virgins, as he does in another place where he teaches about marrying, he declares clearly enough that it is said of every woman and of the whole sex, and that no distinction is made between woman and virgin, whom he does not name at all. For he who remembers to distinguish elsewhere, namely where the difference requires it (and he distinguishes by designating each class with its own word), where he does not distinguish, not naming either, wishes no difference to be understood. What of the fact that in the Greek language, in which the apostle wrote his letters, it is usual to say “women” rather than “females,” that is, gynaikas rather than theleias? So if this word, which in translation corresponds to “female,” is commonly used as the name of the sex, he named the sex in saying gynaika; and in the sex the virgin too is included. But the pronouncement is also plain: “Every woman,” he says, “praying and prophesying with head uncovered dishonors her head.” What is “every woman” except of every age, every rank, every condition? In saying “every” he excepts nothing of womankind, as he excepts nothing of mankind from not being veiled; for he says likewise “every man.” As, then, in the male sex, under the name “man,” even the beardless youth is forbidden to be veiled, so in the female sex, under the name “woman,” even the virgin is commanded to be veiled. Let the younger age in both sexes equally follow the discipline of the older; or else let male virgins be veiled too, if female virgins are not veiled, since they too are not bound by name; let “man” and “youth” be different, if “woman” and “virgin” are different. Indeed, he says they must be veiled “because of the angels,” because angels fell away from God on account of the daughters of men. Who, then, would contend that only women, that is, those already married and past virginity, are objects of desire, unless virgins may not excel in beauty and find lovers? Rather, let us consider whether they did not desire virgins only, since Scripture says “daughters of men,” for it could have said “wives of men” or “females” indifferently. Also, when it says, “And they took them for themselves as wives,” it implies that those taken as wives are unattached; about those not unattached it would have spoken otherwise. And they are unattached as much by widowhood as by virginity. So, by naming the sex generally as “daughters,” it mixed the classes in the genus. Again, when he says that nature itself teaches that females must be veiled, since it has assigned hair to women as covering and adornment, has not the same covering and the same honor of the head been ascribed to virgins too? If it is shameful for a woman to be shaved, so it is for a virgin. To those, then, to whom one condition of the head is assigned, one discipline of the head is required, even of those virgins whom childhood protects; for from the first she was named “female.” So, in fact, Israel observes it too. But even if it did not, our law, enlarged and supplemented, would vindicate the addition for itself. Let our law be excused for putting the veil on virgins too. For now, let the age that is unaware of its sex keep the privilege of simplicity. For Eve and Adam too, when they came to understanding, at once covered what they had come to know. Certainly in those in whom childhood has already changed, their age ought to be as generous to discipline as to nature. For by their members and their functions they are handed over to the women. No one is a virgin from the time she can marry, since her age has already married her to its own husband, that is, to time. “But someone has vowed herself to God.” Yet from then on she changes her hair and turns her whole dress to that of a woman. Let her, then, maintain the whole and present the whole of a virgin: what she hides for God's sake, let her shade fully. It concerns us to commend what is done by God's grace to the knowledge of God alone, lest we take our recompense from man for what we hope for from God. Why do you bare before God what you cover before men? Will you be more modest in public than in church? If it is God's grace and you have received it, “why do you boast,” he says, “as if you had not received it?” Why do you judge others by displaying yourself? Or do you invite others to good by your boasting? Yet you yourself run the risk of losing it if you boast, and you drive others into the same dangers. What is taken up out of love of glory is easily destroyed. Be veiled, virgin, if you are a virgin; for you ought to blush. If you are a virgin, do not endure many eyes. Let no one marvel at your face; let no one perceive your pretense. You do well to feign being married, if you veil your head. Indeed, you do not seem to feign; for you have married Christ. To him you have handed over your flesh; act according to your husband's rule. If he commands the wives of others to be veiled, certainly much more his own. But do not think that the arrangement of each predecessor should be disturbed. Many assign their prudence, and its constancy, to another's custom. Let them not be compelled to be veiled; certainly those who are willing ought not to be forbidden. As for those who cannot deny that they are virgins, I grant that they may presume, at the risk of their reputation, on the security of their conscience before God. But of those who are betrothed I can declare and testify firmly, beyond my usual measure, that they must be veiled from the day on which they have trembled at a man's body with the first kiss and the joining of right hands. For in them everything has married beforehand: their age by maturity, their flesh by age, their spirit by consciousness, their modesty by the experience of the kiss, their hope by expectation, their mind by will. And Rebecca is example enough for us, who, when her betrothed was pointed out to her, was veiled merely at the recognition of him, as one marrying.