Scripture:
Judith 10:4 – “and she made herself up provocatively for the charming of
the eyes of men, all who would cast eyes upon her”
Judith 16:5–9 – The omnipotent Lord set them aside with the hand of a female. For their mighty one did not capitulate to young men, nor did sons of the Titans strike him, nor did towering Giants set upon him; but Judith the daughter of Merari undid him with the beauty of her face. For she stripped off the dress of her widowhood for the eminence of those who are weary in Israel. She daubed her face with an anointing, and she put up her hair in a turban, and she took a linen stole for the seduction of him. Her sandal caught his eye, and her beauty captivated his soul; the scimitar passed through his throat.
Do not let your beauty be that outward adorning of arranging the hair, of wearing gold, or of putting on fine apparel. 1 Pet. 3:3
Church Fathers:
If, then, He takes away anxious care for clothes and food, and superfluities in general, as unnecessary; what are we to imagine ought to be said of love of ornament, and dyeing of wool, and variety of colors, and fastidiousness about gems, and exquisite working of gold, and still more, of artificial hair and wreathed curls; and furthermore, of staining the eyes, and plucking out hairs, and painting with rouge and white lead, and dyeing of the hair, and the wicked arts that are employed in such deceptions? Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 195) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.2 pg.264
So those women who wear gold, occupying themselves in curling at their locks, and engaged in anointing their cheeks, painting their eyes, and dyeing their hair, and practicing the other pernicious arts of luxury, decking the covering of flesh, in truth, imitate the Egyptians, in order to attract their infatuated lovers. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 195) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.2 pg.272
Unawares the poor wretches destroy their own beauty, by the introduction of what is spurious. At the dawn of day, mangling, racking, and plastering themselves over with certain compositions, they chill the skin, furrow the flesh with poisons, and with curiously prepared washes, thus blighting their own beauty. Wherefore they are seen to be yellow from the use of cosmetics, and susceptible to disease, their flesh, which has been shaded with poisons, being now in a melting state. So they dishonor the Creator of men, as if the beauty given by Him were nothing worth. As you might expect, they become lazy in housekeeping, sitting like painted things to be looked at, not as if made for domestic economy. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 195) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.2 pg.272
But there are circumstances in which this strictness may relaxed. For allowance must sometimes be made in favor of those women who have not been fortunate in falling in with believing husbands, and adorn themselves in order to please their husbands. But let desire for the admiration of their husbands alone be proposed as their aim. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 195) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.2 pg.285
If anyone were to refer to these women as prostitutes, he would make no mistake. For they turn their faces into masks. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.274
What does God think of spurious beauty, rejecting utterly as He does all falsehood? Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.274
Nor are the women to smear their faces with the ensnaring devices of wily cunning. But let us show to them the decoration of sobriety. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 195) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.2 pg.286
If anyone were to refer to these women as prostitutes, he would make no mistake. For they turn their faces into masks. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.274
What does God think of spurious beauty, rejecting utterly as He does all falsehood? Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.274
But why are we a (source of) danger to our neighbor? Why do we import concupiscence into our neighbor? …Are we to paint ourselves out that our neighbors may perish? Where, then, is (the command), “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”? Tertullian (A.D. 198) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.4 pg.19
No wife is ugly to her own husband. She pleased him enough when she was selected [to be his wife]. Let none of you think that, if she abstains from beautifying herself, she will incur the hatred and aversion of her husband. Every husband is the exacter of chastity. But a believing husband does not require beauty. For we are not captivated by the same graces that the Gentiles think are graces. Tertullian (c. 198, W), 4.20
These suggestions [against cosmetics] are not made to you, of course, to be developed into an entire crudity and wildness of appearance. Nor am I seeking to persuade you that squalor and slovenliness are good. Rather, I am seeking to persuade you of the limit, norm, and just measure of cultivation of the person. Tertullian (c. 198, W), 4.20
For they who rub their skin with medicaments, stain their cheeks with rouge, make their eyes prominent with antimony, sin against HIM. To them, I suppose, the plastic skill of God is displeasing! In their own persons, I suppose, they convict, they censure, the Artificer of all things! For censure they do when they amend, when they add to, (His work;) taking these their additions, of course, from the adversary artificer. That adversary artificer is the devil. For who would show the way to change the body, but he who by wickedness transfigured man’s spirit? He it is, undoubtedly, who adapted ingenious devices of this kind; that in your persons it may be apparent that you, in a certain sense, do violence to God. Whatever is born is the work of God. Whatever, then, is plastered on (that), is the devil’s work. Tertullian (A.D. 198) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.4 pg.20-21
For those women sin against God when they rub their skin with ointments, stain their cheeks with rouge, and make their eyes prominent with antimony. To them, I suppose, the artistic skill of God is displeasing! Tertullian (c. 198, W), 4.20
Whatever is born is the work of God. So whatever is plastered on, is the devil’s work. . . . How unworthy of the Christian name it is to wear a fictitious face—you on whom simplicity in every form is enjoined! You, to whom lying with the tongue is not lawful, are lying in appearance. Tertullian (c. 198, W), 4.21
What purpose, again, does all the labor spent in arranging the hair render to salvation? Why is no rest allowed to your hair? First, it must be bound, then loosed, then cultivated, then thinned out? Some are anxious to force their hair into curls. Tertullian (c. 198, W), 4.21
I will then see whether you will rise [at the resurrection] with your ceruse and rouge and saffron—and in all that parade of headgear. I will then see whether it will be women thus decked out whom the angels carry up to meet Christ in the air! If these things are now good, and of God, they will then also present themselves to the rising bodies. Tertullian (c. 198, W), 4.22
It was the fact that Tamar had painted out and adorned herself that led Judah to regard her as a harlot. Tertullian (c. 198, W), 4.24
Draw your whiteness from simplicity, your ruddy hue from modesty. Paint your eyes with bashfulness, and your mouth with silence. Implant in your ears the words of God and place around your necks the yoke of Christ. Tertullian (c. 198, W), 4.25
What will I say of the fact that these [young women] of ours confess their change of age even by their garb! As soon as they have understood themselves to be women, . . . they lay aside their former selves. They change their hair and fasten their hair with more wanton pins, professing obvious womanhood with their hair parted from the front. The next thing, they consult the mirror to aid their beauty. They thin down their over-exacting face with washing. Perhaps they even dress it up with cosmetics. They toss their mantle about them with an air, fit tightly into the multiform shoe, and carry down more ample appliances to the baths. Tertullian (c. 207, W), 4.35
“Now Susannah was a very delicate woman.” This does not mean that she had flashy adornments on herself or eyes painted with various colors—as Jezebel had. Rather, it means she had the adornment of faith, chastity, and sanctity. Hippolytus (c. 205, W), 5.193
She is not a modest woman who strives to stir up the fancy of another—even though her physical chastity is preserved. Away with those who do not really adorn their beauty, but prostitute it instead. For anxiety about beauty is not only the wisdom of an evil mind, but belongs to deformity. . . . Why is the color of hair changed? Why are the edges of the eyes darkened? Why is the face molded by art into a different form? Novatian (c. 235, W), 5.591, formerly attributed to Cyprian
You wish, O Christian woman, that the matrons should be as the ladies of the world. You surround yourself with gold, or with the modest silken garment. . . . You affect vanity with all the pomp of the devil. You are adorned at the mirror, with your curled hair turned back from your brow. Moreover, with evil purpose, you put on false cosmetics. You put antimony on your pure eyes, with painted beauty. Or you dye your hair, so that it will always be black. . . . But these things are not necessary for modest women. Commodianus (c. 240, W), 4.214
To a wife approved by her husband, let it suffice that she is so, not by her dress, but by her good disposition. . . . O good matrons, flee from the adornment of vanity. Such attire is fitting for women who haunt the brothels. Overcome the evil one, O modest women of Christ! Commodianus (c. 240, W), 4.214
It is not right before God that a faithful Christian woman should be adorned. . . . God’s heralds . . . condemn as being unrighteous those women who adorn themselves in such a manner. You stain your hair. You paint the opening of your eyes with black. You lift up your hair, one by one, on your painted brow. You anoint your cheeks with some sort of reddish color laid on. . . . You are rejecting the law when you wish to please the world. Commodianus (c. 240, W), 4.215
All of these things [i.e., the making of jewelry] the sinning and apostate angels put forth by their arts, when, lowered to the contagions of earth, they forsook their heavenly vigor. They also taught women to paint the eyes with blackness drawn around them in a circle and to stain the cheeks with a deceitful red. Cyprian (c. 250)
Both sexes alike should be admonished that the work of God and His fashioning and formation should in no manner be adulterated—either with the application of yellow color, black dust, rouge, or with any kind of cosmetic. . . . God says, “Let us make man in our image and likeness.” Does anyone dare to alter and change what God has made? Cyprian (c. 250, W), 5.434
In their manners, there was no discipline. . . . In women, their complexion was dyed. Their eyes were falsified from what God’s hand had made them. Their hair was stained with a falsehood. Cyprian (c. 250, W), 5.438
But are sincerity and truth preserved, when what is sincere is polluted by adulterous colors, and what is true is changed into a lie by the deceitful dyes of medicaments? Your Lord says, “You canst not make one hair white or black;” and you, in order to overcome the word of your Lord, will be more mighty than He, and stain your hair with a daring endeavor and with profane contempt. With evil presage of the future, you make a beginning to yourself already of flame-colored hair; and sin (oh, wickedness!) with your head – that is, with the nobler part of your body! And although it is written of the Lord, “His head and His hair were white like wool or snow,” you curse that whiteness and hate that hoariness which is like to the Lord’s head. Cyprian (A.D. 250) Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.5 pg.434
Did he send souls . . . to seek after cosmetics with which to cover their bodies and to darken their eyes with henna? Arnobius (c. 305, E), 6.450
Do not paint your face, which is God’s workmanship. For there is no part of you that lacks beauty. For God has made all things very good. But the wanton extra adorning of what is already good is an affront to the Creator’s work. Apostolic Constitutions (compiled c. 390, E), 7.395
11. Again, in another part of his [Apollonius of Ephesus’] work he speaks as follows of the prophets of whom they boast: “If they deny that their prophets have received gifts, let them acknowledge this: that if they are convicted of receiving them, they are not prophets. And we will bring a multitude of proofs of this. But it is necessary that all the fruits of a prophet should be examined. Tell me, does a prophet dye his hair? Does a prophet stain his eyelids? Does a prophet delight in adornment? Does a prophet play with tables and dice? Does a prophet lend on usury? Let them confess whether these things are lawful or not; but I will show that they have been done by them.” 12. This same Apollonius states in the same work that, at the time of his writing, it was the fortieth year since Montanus had begun his pretended prophecy. – Apollonius, bishop of Ephesus, cited by Eusebius, Church History, book 5, chapter XVIII
Meanwhile, it adorns itself with extraordinary skill, striving to present an appearance that is not its own. It applies colors to itself and, with various artificial cosmetics from the hands of beautifiers, masks its true face under foreign features—not to be what nature made it, but what a fleeting whim suggests when it gazes into the mirror. One moment, it enhances certain features; the next, it destroys what it once found pleasing; then, it alters them again, or even creates entirely new ones. Thus, through its own handiwork, it becomes a multi-headed Hydra of appearances, striding about with shameless boldness—because under its painted layers, it can no longer blush. It is a stranger to the love of its household, a stranger to the love of a husband, a stranger even to itself—for whatever constantly changes can neither be known nor be true. Furthermore, it never loves God, for it knows that He is an enemy of its deeds. Instead, it is a slave of the devil, for it has claimed his kingdom as its own. Indeed, it has even created gods, bringing forth those through whom or in whose names the devil is worshiped—gods whose very acts reveal their origin. Zeno of Verona (A.D. 362-371), Book 1, Treatise 4: Chastity, Chapter 3
And you, widow, why do you desire a second marriage, when you see that the Apostle already imposes a restriction on the first? For it is he who says: “The time is short; from now on those who have wives should live as if they had none… for the form of this world is passing away.” (1 Corinthians 7:29, 31) At the time when this command of the Apostle was given—four hundred or more years ago—people were still stronger in body, and Christians were still very few. Why, now that nearly the entire world is Christian and human vitality has diminished in this aging world, should I soften the harshness of truth with flattering words and not rather fully explain how perfectly the worship of God must be observed? All the more so, since it is written in Solomon’s wisdom: “If your children increase, do not rejoice over them unless they have the fear of God; and do not take joy in their lives! Better is one child who fears God than a thousand godless children.” (Sirach 16:1-3) Under such circumstances, I ask you, widow—you who are often as eager for marriage as an inexperienced young girl—did you lose a good husband or a bad one? Come now, answer! If you lost a bad husband, yet still wish to marry again, then you deserve to be beaten by an even worse one. If you lost a good one, then preserve the seal of faithfulness to him! The one to whom you yourself bear witness as good does not deserve the dishonor you bring upon him by seeking another. Where is that first day of marriage, which, in your longing for each other, seemed to both of you to pass more slowly than other days? Where is the solemn sacrifice of your precious virginity, which was so sweet to you both? Where is the love that, in a marriage of mutual respect and unity, does not die even when one partner outlives the other? Are you not the woman who washed the lifeless body of your husband with your tears, dried it with your kisses, and covered it with the hair you cut off? Did you not bear the marks of grief on your cheeks, the bruises on your chest from striking yourself in sorrow, covered more in filthy ashes than in mourning garments? Yes, I say, were you not the one who shook heaven itself with your cries, declaring that you could not live a single moment longer after losing such a husband? Were you not the one whose sighs, stifled by sorrow, whose breath, failing in agony, and whose body, collapsing to the ground, caused the mourners to wonder whether they should weep more for the dead man or for you, the dying widow? If you now have thoughts of remarriage, then all of that was mere pretense! And what is this now? Look—you return to your beauty treatments, you once again borrow the color from the cosmetic jar that you had so recently condemned! Look—you carefully groom your hair once more, you exchange the ashes of mourning for the powder of vanity! You conceal your tears beneath the black paint of antimony; you place golden chains around the neck you once wished to hang in despair. You consult the mirror like an oracle, wondering how best to ensnare a new suitor! But no matter what you do—you will never be a virgin again. And this I know: for one who changes their appearance and behavior for the sake of another, there is little left before they become a monstrosity. Zeno of Verona (A.D. 362-371), Book 1, Treatise 5: Chastity, Chapter 4
28. And in this position spring up those incentives to vice, in that they paint their faces with various colours, fearing not to please their husbands; and from staining their faces, come to think of staining their chastity. What madness is here, to change the fashion of nature and seek a painting, and while fearing a husband’s judgment to give up their own. For she is the first to speak against herself who wishes to change that which is natural to her. So, while studying to please others, she displeases herself. What truer witness to thy unsightliness do we require, O woman, than thyself who art afraid to be seen? If thou art beautiful, why hidest thou thyself? If unsightly, why dost thou falsely pretend to beauty, so as to have neither the satisfaction of thy own conscience, nor of the error of another? For he loves another, thou desirest to please another. And art thou angry if he love another, who is taught to do so in thy own person? Thou art an evil teacher of thy own injury. 29. And next, what expense is necessary that even a beautiful wife may not fail to please? Costly necklaces on the one hand hang on her neck, on the other a robe woven with gold is dragged along the ground. Is this display purchased, or is it a real possession? And what varied enticements of perfumes are made use of! The ears are weighed down with gems, a different colour from nature is dropped into the eyes. What is there left which is her own, when so much is changed? The married woman loves her own perceptions, and does she think that this is to live? – Ambrose of Milan, Concerning Virgins, book 1, chapter 6
Tell me, O crafty beast, you who have the clothing of a sheep, and have taken to heart the mind of an asp: why do you anoint yourself, why do you paint yourself? Why with foreign, lifeless colors do you take on an idolatrous form? Why do you torture your hair? Why do you raise up added braids, and high headdresses on your head of foreign additions and of dead and irrational animals, through your head, and face, and through the variety of foreign garments, deceiving and softening and maddening the souls of men? For the unfaithful woman, gathering manifold lifeless materials, and a variety of colors through all kinds of dyes and soot and lime and herbs, which are external to her own body, having attached them, has made herself a multiform beast, as it were. But the faithful woman ought to be a stranger to these things, and especially she who professes to be a Christian. Or do you condemn God, O woman, that He formed you thus? Let be as you were formed; add nothing to yourself through cleverness; for are you more experienced than the one who created you? And wishing to please whom do you do these things? A man? you do not have a man, as you have said, O virgin; and if you do have one, he knows your crafty composition. Why, having prepared your body with manifold baits, do you hunt the souls of men to destruction? And how do you dare to call upon Christ, or to tread the threshold of the church, bearing the lifeless forms of idols on your whole body through perishable gold, or rather being paraded by them, and drawing a great crowd of licentious men to the lawless sight of yourself? But to whom do we speak these things? To a rational creature having the disposition of crawling serpents. Do neither the Scriptures persuade you, nor Gehenna frighten you, nor the admonition of men convict you? At least respect your own nature, change your appearance, do not make it an idolatrous character, do not imitate those who undergo the shame of the courtesan and the adulteress. For they, being daughters of lawlessness, have a custom of doing such a thing. But to you, who enjoined such a command? What prophetic Scriptures, or what Gospels, what apostolic commands? I know that the divine Scriptures restrain even those who have a custom of doing this from any longer performing the idol-shaped assimilations. – Basil of Caesarea, Sermon on Fellow Servants
Do not tower your heads with false tresses, women, Mincing your soft necks from the heights, nor smear God’s forms with shameful colors, so that you wear a mask, and not a face. For it is not lawful for a woman to show an uncovered head to a man, or with tresses bound in gold, or with unbound hair tossing this way and that down from the shoulders, like a maenad in the soft winds. Nor to wear a crest on top like a helmet, a far-seen watchtower gleaming for men, 885 or a coiffure of soft linen shining through, this frontlet both hidden and revealed, flashing golden, as much as has escaped the veil, so as to seem the work of a toiling hand; when you, setting up a blind teacher, a breathless image of a form, paint your beauty from there. But if nature has given beauty, do not hide it with ointment, but keep it pure for your husbands alone, and do not bear wanton eyes for another; for the heart follows unholy eyes. But if it did not accompany you at birth, flee a second shame, drawing beauty from your hands; a beauty which the earth bears, and is for sale to women 886 of the street, sold for a few obols, a beauty that, when smudged, flows to the ground; nor does it stand up to a laugh, when joy spreads over the whole cheek, and it is exposed by streams of tears, and by moist fear, and is dissolved by a light drizzle. And she who before was gleaming, and the charming cheek, a great delight, suddenly appeared two-toned, dusky and marble-white. Dark-skinned, red-cheeked one, how can you maintain a beauty that is being exposed? These things are not for moving statues; but for you, the form is unbearable, and is dissolved by many passions. This is God’s body, this is of the hand; this is old, this is new. A meadow bearing two kinds of flowers, 887 pleasant and hateful in turn, or some two-colored garment pulled by many belts. For this reason either flee a painted body, or guard it, and not have a defense for your appearance that is open to reproach. – Gregory of Nazianzus, Moral Songs, Song 29, Against women who adorn themselves.
“Be gone from me, alien woman. I did not paint you, bitch, but I fashioned an image of myself; How do I have a phantom instead of a beloved form?” But still we will grant something to sickness. But if, it is very clear That the tablet of painters has form upon form, Know that you are raising a conspicuous pillar of shame for mortals, The form which you paint, breathing with the strength of your mind. This grace of yours is a garden of Adonis, bearing fruit that perishes, The color of an octopus, letters upon the sand. How then you, having the form of a jackdaw (if indeed the myth has it that the jackdaw, well-feathered with alien splendors, Was made naked again, a laughing-stock), do not care About the final shame, when beauty is destroyed? Do you hope to have an unshakable radiance? Not long after You will see how great a pain comes from alien beauty. 889 I hear that artifice has something excellent, if ever old age Should wrinkle the form, which before was blooming; Then when the artifice of the limbs is unpainted, so that a fire-scorched Remnant of flesh is left from the dust; To weep too late for the trickery of the limbs, when what is left Has pushed out a monkey in thick wrinkles. Such is the grace of deceptive limbs. But, best of women, Now set up an image of your form, as it was before. Truly I do not think so; but long before You will pray that none of the men even has eyes, Who before acclaimed you, and kept their eyes ready For you as you moved here and there with haughty steps. And this, a laugh, while eager to escape the notice of the race of men, 890 You have drawn to you men as initiates of your form. For men have compounded the drugs in which you delight, Plunderers of households, architects of your madness. These are not the contrivances of modesty, but of lewdness. For everything that you contrive for men is lewdness. They say the boastful peacock, when it raises its circular Golden, starry neck, curving it, Cries out amorously to the females. But if you paint your form Not for lustful eyes, wonder possesses me. For if you have desire for your husband, as he for you, From the time when, in love, he led you to the marriage chamber A blooming bride, you have grace; but if you Please the eyes of other men, this your husband detests. It is better to hide the grace of arrows within one’s own house, Than to display it deceitfully, unholily. For to the one, her husband is sufficient; but the other presents herself to many, Like a net for a flock of flying things. – Gregory of Nazianzus, Moral Songs, Song 29, Against women who adorn themselves.
The honorable way for women is to remain at home for the most part, and to speak to the divine oracles, And to the loom and distaff; for it is the privilege of women to assign tasks to the handmaids, to avoid the male servants, To wear fetters on their lips, and on their eyes and cheeks, And not often to have a foot outside the doorway; To rejoice with modest women, and with her husband alone, for whom, from God, you loosed your virgin girdle. And to him bear measures of your confidence, so that you may grant him faith that you remain far from the eyes of strangers. Who first colored God’s creation? May he perish who first mixed shamelessness with colors. And as when shameless tumblers, unmanly men, an image of the form hidden within have set up outwardly, and there follow all the appropriate leaps, and the shameful loosening of shrill limbs, pleasing to foolish men, so then these women, Having clothed themselves in an outward foreign form, a comical, not a holy, covering of modesty, from which then they are moved to things worthy of their artful form. For this they labor at doors, keys, mirrors, paints, paint-pots, not even a roof unshaken. These things are of vainglorious image-painting; but of unadornment nothing is more effortless than modest splendor. But if you exult so much in artificial beauty, you could never have a modest mind in an unfeigned one. Esther fashioned a lovely form; but what was the work of her great comeliness? A whole nation remained. Fierce-minded Jezebel once painted her harlot’s eyes, for harlots But indeed she washed the harlots with her harlot’s blood. – Gregory of Nazianzus, Moral Songs, Song 29, Against women who adorn themselves.
I wish to make certain other recommendations to them. I wish you women to abstain not only from other hurtful practices, but also from the habit of painting your faces and adding to them, as if the workmanship were defective. By doing so you insult the Workman. For what are you trying to do, woman? By using rouge and eye shadow you cannot add to your natural beauty nor change your natural ugliness, can you? These add nothing to your beauty of face, but they will destroy the beauty of your soul. For this meddling with nature testifies to your interior weakness. Especially are you heaping up abundant fire for yourself by exciting the looks of young men, and attracting to yourself the eyes of the undisciplined; by making complete adulterers of them, you are bringing their downfall onto your own head. – John Chrysostom, BAPTISMAL INSTRUCTIONS, INSTRUCTION 1, SECTION 38
Remember Paul in prison, and under- stand that to be alone is not to be forsaken. Do you delight in expensive clothes, or golden jewelry? Remember Paul’s bonds, and these things will seem to you as more worthless than a prostitute’s filthy rags, or a handful of withered grass. Do you spend long hours adorning your hair, and painting your face with cosmetics, hoping to make yourself beautiful? Think of Paul’s squalor in prison, and you will burn with desire for his beauty. You will then consider worldly beauty to be ugly, and will bitterly long to share Paul’s chains. Think of his face streaming with tears. Day and night for three years he never ceased his weeping.2 Imitate his weeping. Make your face bright with tears. Weep for your sins: your anger, your loss of self-control, your love of revelry. Imitate Paul’s tears, and you will laugh to scorn the vanities of this passing life. – John Chrysostom, Homily 12 On Colossians 4:18
Even if you have a wife who is a lover of adornment, gaping after and excited by cosmetics, and dissolute in much luxury, and talkative, and foolish; although indeed it is not possible for all these things to befall one woman; but nevertheless let us fashion such a woman in our discourse. Why then, you say, do you fashion a woman, and not a man? There are also men worse than this woman. But since the supervision is entrusted to men, for this reason we fashion a woman for the time being, not as if wickedness abounds there. For many things can be found among men, which are not among women, such as murder, tomb-robbing, fighting with beasts, and many such things. Do not then think that we do these things to disparage the sex; this is not so, it is not; but it is useful for the time being to sketch the image in this way. Let such a woman then be supposed by us, and let her husband be zealous to correct her in every way. How then will he correct her? By not commanding everything at once, but the lighter things first, and those by which she is not strongly possessed. For if you press her to set everything right from the beginning, you have lost everything. Do not then take away her gold ornaments immediately, but let her have them and wear them for the time being; for this seems to be a lesser evil than cosmetics and eye-paint. First then let those things be removed; and not even those things with fear and threat, but with persuasion and gentleness, and by condemning it in others, and by your own vote and opinion. And say to her continually, that “To me, your appearance thus adorned is not lovely, but exceedingly disagreeable;” and persuade her especially that this displeases you. And after your own judgment, introduce also the opinion of others, and say, that this is accustomed to mar even the beautiful, so that you may remove 57.369 the passion. And say nothing yet about hell, nor about the kingdom; for you will say these things in vain; but persuade her that she pleases you more when she shows the work of God unadorned; but she who tortures her appearance, and strains it, and powders it, does not seem beautiful and comely even to the many. But first, with common reasoning and the votes of all, the disease cast out. And when you have softened her with these words, add those things also. Even if you speak once, and do not persuade her, and a second and a third and many times repeating the same words, do not grow weary; not, however, with any offensiveness, but with pleasantry; and now turn away, and now flatter and attend to her. Do you not see painters how many things they erase, how many they paint in beside, when they are making a beautiful face? Do not, then, become worse than they are. For if they, painting an image of the body, have used so much diligence; how much more would it be right for us, fashioning a soul, to set every device in motion. For if you fashion well the countenance of this soul, you will not see the uncomely face of the body, nor blood-stained lips, nor a mouth resembling a bear’s reddened with blood, nor eyebrows sooted as from some pot, nor cheeks plastered like the walls of tombs. For all these things are soot and ash and dust, and marks of the utmost ugliness. 2. But I do not know how I was unconsciously carried away into these words, and while exhorting another to teach with gentleness, I myself have tumbled into anger. Therefore let us return again to our gentler exhortation, and let us bear all the failings of women, so that we may achieve what we desire. Do you not see how we bear with crying children, when we wish to wean them from the nipple, and we endure everything for that reason alone, that we may persuade them to despise their former table? So let us also do in this case; let us put up with all other things, so that we may achieve this. For when this is corrected, you will see the other thing also progressing in due course, and you will come again to the matter of gold ornaments, and in the same manner you will discuss these things also, and thus little by little regulate your wife. You will be a most excellent painter, a faithful servant, a best husbandman. With these things; remind her also of the women of old, of Sarah, of Rebecca, both of the beautiful and of those not so, and show that all were similarly modest. For Leah, the wife of the patriarch, not being beautiful, was not compelled to contrive any such thing, but although being ugly, and not very much loved by her husband, she neither contrived any such thing, nor corrupted her appearance, 57.370 but she remained preserving her features intact, and this though she was brought up by Greeks. But you who are faithful, who have Christ for your head, do you introduce a satanic device to us? And do you not remember the water that washed your face, the sacrifice that adorns your lips, the blood that has reddened your tongue? For if you consider all these things, even if you are a lover of adornment ten thousand times over, you will not dare, nor will you endure to put on that dust and ash. Learn that you have been joined to Christ, and stand aloof from this unseemliness. For he does not delight in these colors, but seeks another beauty, of which he is an ardent lover, that in the soul, I mean. This the prophet also commanded you to practice, and said, ‘And the king shall desire your beauty.’ Let us not then be unseemly in superfluous things. For none of the works of God is incomplete, nor does it need correction from you. For not even if someone should attempt to add his own touches to a royal image after it is set up, would the attempt be safe, but he will undergo the utmost danger. Then, a man works, and you do not add to it; but God works, and you correct it? And do you not consider the fire of Gehenna? do you not consider the desolation of the soul? For on this account it is neglected, because all zeal is lavished on the flesh. And why do I say the soul? For even to the flesh itself all the contrary things happen, which you have been zealous for. But consider. Do you wish to appear beautiful? This shows you to be misshapen. Do you wish to please your husband? This rather grieves him; and not him only, but it also prepares outsiders to become accusers. Do you wish to appear young? This will quickly bring you to old age. Do you wish to be beautified? For such a woman is ashamed not only of her peers, but also of the maids who are in on the secret and of the servants who know; and This makes you ashamed. before all things, herself. But why must I say these things? For I have now omitted the most difficult thing of all, that you offend God, that you undermine modesty, that you kindle the flame of jealousy, that you envy the women who commit fornication on the rooftops. Therefore, considering all these things, laugh at the satanic procession and the diabolical art, and having cast off this adornment, or rather this disorderliness, create in your own souls that beauty which is lovely to angels, and desirable to God, and pleasant to those who live with you, so that you may attain both the present and the future glory; which may we all be counted worthy to attain, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. – John Chrysostom, Commentary on Matthew, homily 30
“Tell me, if someone gave you a royal garment, and you, on top of that, took the garment of a slave and put it on, would you not, besides making yourself disgraceful, also be punished? You have put on the Lord of heaven and of the angels, and are you still turning about the earth? I have said these things because love of adornment is in itself a great evil, even if nothing else were born from it and it could be indulged without danger—for it anoints the soul for vainglory and pride. But now many other things too are born from ornament: Now many other things too are produced by adornment: manifest suspicions, ill-timed expenses, blasphemies, and occasions for rapacity. For why do you adorn yourself, tell me? So that you may please your husband? Then do this at home. But here the opposite happens. For if you want to please your own husband, do not please the others; but if you please the others, you will not be able to please your own husband. So then, when going out into the marketplace or coming forward into the church, she ought to lay aside all adornment. And besides, do not please your husband by the same things by which prostitutes also please men, but rather by that by which free women do. For tell me, in what does a wife differ from a prostitute? Is it not that the prostitute looks to one thing only—how by the beauty of her body she may attract the lover—whereas the wife also manages a household, shares in children, and in all the other duties besides? Do you have a little daughter? Take care that she does not inherit the harm, for character is commonly shaped by upbringing, and children imitate the conduct of their mothers. Be a model of chastity to your daughter; adorn that beauty, and see how you will come to despise this one. For truly that is adornment, whereas these things are disorder and disgrace.” – John Chrysostom, Homily 10 on Colossians, Migne PG 62.373
Let us then “glorify God,” and bear God both “in our body and in our spirit.” 1 Corinthians 6:20 And how is one to glorify Him in the body? Says one, and how in the spirit? The soul is here called the spirit to distinguish it from the body. But how may we glorify Him in the body and in the spirit? He glorifies Him in the body, who does not commit adultery or fornication, who avoids gluttony and drunkenness, who does not affect a showy exterior, who makes such provision for himself as is sufficient for health only: and so the woman, who does not perfume nor paint her person, but is satisfied to be such as God made her, and adds no device of her own. For why do you add your own embellishments to the work which God made? Is not His workmanship sufficient for you? Or do you endeavor to add grace to it, as if forsooth you were the better artist? It is not for yourself, but to attract crowds of lovers, that you thus adornest your person, and insultest your Creator. And do not say, “What can I do? It is no wish of my own, but I must do it for my husband. I cannot win his love except I consent to this.” God made you beautiful, that He might be admired even in your beauty, and not that He might be insulted. Do not therefore make Him so ill a return, but requite Him with modesty and chastity. God made you beautiful, that He might increase the trials of your modesty. For it is much harder for one that is lovely to be modest, than for one who has no such attractions, for which to be courted. Why does the Scripture tell us, that “Joseph was a goodly person, and well favored” Genesis 39:6, but that we might the more admire his modesty coupled with beauty? Has God made you beautiful? Why do you make yourself otherwise? For as though one should overlay a golden statue with a daubing of mire, so it is with those women that use paints. Thou besmearest yourself with red and white earth! But the homely, you say, may fairly have recourse to this. And why? To hide their ugliness? It is a vain attempt. For when was the natural appearance improved upon by that which is studied and artificial? And why should you be troubled at your want of beauty, since it is no reproach? For hear the saying of the Wise Man, “Commend not a man for his beauty, neither abhor a man for his outward appearance.” Sirach 11:2 Let God be rather admired, the best Artificer, and not man, who has no merit in being made such as he is. What are the advantages, tell me, of beauty? None. It exposes its possessor to greater trials, mishaps, perils, and suspicions. She that wants it escapes suspicion; she that possesses it, except she practice a great and extraordinary reserve, incurs an evil report, and what is worse than all, the suspicion of her husband, who takes less pleasure in beholding her beauty, than he suffers pain from jealousy. And her beauty fades in his sight from familiarity, while she suffers in her character from the imputation of weakness, dissipation, and wantonness, and her very soul becomes degraded and full of haughtiness. To these evils personal beauty is exposed. But she who has not this attraction, escapes unmolested. The dogs do not assail her; she is like a lamb, reposing in a secure pasture, where no wolf intrudes to harass her, because the shepherd is at hand to protect her. The real superiority is, not that one is fair, and the other homely, but it is a superiority that one, even if she is not fair, is unchaste, and the other is not wicked. Tell me wherein is the perfection of eyes? Is it in their being soft, and rolling, and round, and dark, or in their clearness and quicksightedness. Is it the perfection of a lamp to be elegantly formed, and finely turned, or to shine brightly, and to enlighten the whole house? We cannot say it is not this, for the other is indifferent, and this the real object. Accordingly we often say to the maid whose charge it is, “You have made a bad lamp of it.” So entirely is it the use of a lamp to give light. So it matters not what is the appearance of the eye, while it performs its office with full efficiency. We call the eye bad, which is dim or disordered, and which, when open, does not see. For that is bad, which does not perform its proper office — and this is the fault of eyes. And for a nose, tell me, when is it a good one? When it is straight, and polished on either side, and finely proportioned? Or when it is quick to receive odors, and transmit them to the brain? Any one can answer this. Come now, let us illustrate this by an example — as of gripers, I mean the instruments so called; we say those are well-made, which are able to take up and hold things, not those which are only handsomely and elegantly shaped. So those are good teeth which are fit for the service of dividing and chewing our food, not those which are beautifully set. And applying the same reasoning to other parts of the body, we shall call those members beautiful, which are sound, and perform their proper functions aright. So we think any instrument, or plant, or animal good, not because of its form or color, but because it answers its purpose. And he is thought a good servant, who is useful and ready for our service, not one who is comely but dissolute. I trust you now understand how it is in your power to be beautiful. And since the greatest and most important benefits are equally enjoyed by all, we are under no disadvantage. Whether we are beautiful or not, we alike behold this universe, the sun, the moon, and the stars; we breathe the same air, we partake alike of water, and the fruits of the earth. And if we may say what will sound strange, the homely are more healthy than the beautiful. For these, to preserve their beauty, engage in no labor, but give themselves up to indolence and delicate living, by which their bodily energies are impaired; while the others, having no such care, spend all their attention simply and entirely on active pursuits. Let us then “glorify God, and take and bear Him in our body.” 1 Corinthians 6:20 Let us not affect a beautiful appearance; that care is vain and unprofitable. Let us not teach our husbands to admire the mere outward form; for if such be your adornment, his very habit of viewing your face will make him easy to be captivated by a harlot. But if you teach him to love good manners, and modesty, he will not be ready to wander, for he will see no attractions in a harlot, in whom those qualities are not found, but the reverse. Neither teach him to be captivated by laughter, nor by a loose dress, lest you prepare a poison against yourself. Accustom him to delight in modesty, and this you will do, if your attire be modest. But if you have a flaunting air, an unsteady manner, how can you address him in a serious strain? And who will not hold you in contempt and derision? But how is it possible to glorify God in our spirit? By practicing virtue, by adorning the soul. For such embellishment is not forbidden. Thus we glorify God, when we are good in every respect, and we shall be glorified by Him in a much higher degree in that great day. – John Chrysostom, Homily 4 on 1 Timothy
For already I consider the fire of Gehenna, already remorse takes hold of my soul, because for the ruin of the young, forcing myself to appear beautiful, I ran in the streets of the city, in the markets, in the crossways, having my feet as a net and my tongue as a dragnet. Oh how many youths I charmed, carrying about a gaze full of shamelessness! For to the harm of the onlookers, adorning myself, here I would build up my head with many-plaited braids, there I would let wandering tresses stray from the crown of my head down over my forehead; at other times I would rouge my cheeks and paint my eyes, and at other times I would let fall streams of tears, by flattery subduing the soul. What then shall I become because of these things? What physician shall I find for these infinite passions? If I tell my story to men, the manner of confession becomes useless to me. But shall I cover my evils? But I cannot hide; for from whom can I hide, being unable to hide from God? Where then shall I flee, finding the judge everywhere, the one not seen, but everywhere refuting my evils? One hope of salvation is left for me, one provision for life is set before me, to recognize Jesus and to run to him. For he who accepts tax collectors does not refuse a prostitute, he who eats with Pharisees does not reject the tears of the sinner. – Amphilochius of Iconium, On the Sinful Woman