A short preview….

 

Shepherd of Hermas (85-90 AD):

A virgin meets me, adorned as if she were proceeding from the bridal chamber, clothed entirely in white, and with white sandals, and veiled up to her forehead, and her head was covered by a hood. – Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 4, chapter 1

 

Irenaeus (130 – 202 AD):

… In the same Epistle, when he says, A woman ought to have a veil upon her head, because of the angels…. Moses rendered manifest when he put a veil upon his face. – Against Heresies, Book I, Chapter 8

 

Clement of Alexandria (150 – 215 AD):

Let the woman observe this, further. Let her be entirely covered, unless she happen to be at home…. nor will she invite another to fall into sin by uncovering her face. – Instructor of Children, book 3, chapter 11

It has also been enjoined that the head should be veiled and the face covered; for it is a wicked thing for beauty to be a snare to men. – Instructor of Children, book 2, chapter 11:

 

Tertullian (155 – 220 AD):

God bids you “be veiled.” I believe (He does so) for fear the heads of some should be seen! – On the Apparel of Women, chapter 7

So perilous a face, then, ought to be hidden. – On the Apparel of Women, chapter 7

For who will have the audacity to intrude with his eyes upon a shrouded face? – On the Apparel of Women, chapter 15

 

Origen of Alexandria (185 – 253 AD):

She walks thus veiled and covered, however, because she ought to have a power over her head, because of the angels. – Song of Songs, Book 3, chapter 15

“I show not my naked face to any save Thee only.” – Song of Songs, Homily 1, chapter 8

 

Hippolytus (170 – 235 AD):

And let all the women have their heads covered with an opaque cloth, not with a veil of thin linen, for this is not a true covering. – Apostolic Tradition, chapter 18

 

Apostolic Constitutions:

And when you are in the streets, cover your head; for by such a covering you will avoid being viewed of idle persons…. Look downward when you walk abroad, veiling yourself as becomes women. – Book 1, section 3

She is to veil her face, and conceal it with modesty from strange men. – Book 1, section 3

 

Athanasius (296 – 373 AD):

If you should by chance meet someone, let your face be veiled, covered up, bent down, and do not lift your face toward a person, but only toward your God. – Pseudo-Athanasius, Discourse on Salvation to a Virgin, chapter 11

Mary was, therefore, a pure virgin…. She did not desire to be seen by men…. Instead, she remained diligently at home, living a life of seclusion, like a honeybee…. She left no part of her body uncovered. – Athanasius, Letter to Virgins

 

John Chrysostom (347 – 407 AD):

Paul however requires something more of women, that they adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness. … But what is this modest apparel? Such attire as covers them completely.” – Commentary on 1 Timothy, Homily 8

He signifies that not at the time of prayer only but also continually, she ought to be covered. – Commentary on First Corinthians, Homily 26

For he said not merely covered, but covered over, meaning that she be carefully wrapped up on every side. – Commentary on First Corinthians, Homily 26

 

Ambrose of Milan (339 – 397 AD):

Was it a small sign of modesty that when Rebecca came to wed Isaac, and saw her bridegroom, she took a veil, that she might not be seen before they were united? – Concerning Virginity, chapter 3

Let custom itself teach us. A woman covers her face with a veil for this reason, that in public her modesty may be safe…. But if she cover her head with a veil that she may not accidentally see or be seen (for when the head is veiled the face is hidden), how much more ought she to cover herself with the veil of modesty, so as even in public to have her own secret place. – Two Books Concerning Repentance, Chapter 14

 

Gregory of Nazianzus (329 – 390 AD):

Adorn your head by covering it, your brow by keeping it restrained, your eyes by bowing them down and glancing about with decency… and your whole face with the hue of shame. – Letter 244

Who was more deserving of renown, and yet who avoided it so much and made herself inaccessible to the eyes of man? … Listen, ye women addicted to ease and display, who despise the veil of shamefastness. – Oration 8, Funeral Oration on His Sister Gorgonia, chapter 9

 

Cyril of Jerusalem (313 – 386 AD):

The veiling of your face is to foster recollection, lest a roving eye make your heart also stray. But the veiling of the eyes does not hinder the ears from receiving salvation. – Cyril of Jerusalem, Prologue to the Catechetical Lectures, chapter 9

 

Basil of Caesarea (330 – 379 AD):

Dissolute women, having forgotten the fear of God and scorned the eternal fire… have cast off the yoke of Christ’s bondage. They have thrown off the veils of modesty from their heads, despised God, and disregarded His angels. They have shamelessly exposed themselves to the eyes of men. – Basil of Caesarea, Homily 14, On The Drunkards, Patrologia Graeca 31, 447-448

 

Rufinus of Aquileia (340 – 410 AD):

Are these limbs, then, which the common air itself has hardly known, to be prostituted in the common brothels? – Rufinus, Church History, book 8, chapter 12, paragraph 3

At the same time he saw some common woman come bursting out of her house with such haste and speed that she paused neither to close the door nor to cover herself properly as women should…. – Rufinus, Church History, book 11, chapter 5

 

Jerome (342 – 420 AD):

You should choose for your companions staid and serious women, particularly widows and virgins, persons of approved conversation, of few words, and of a holy modesty…. who veils all of her face except her eyes, and only uses these to find her way. – Letter 130, chapter 18

Go not from home nor visit the daughters of a strange land…. Jesus is jealous. He does not choose that your face should be seen of others. – Letter 22, to Eustochium

They go about with heads uncovered in defiance of the apostle’s command.– Jerome, Letter 147, chapter 5

 

Scriptures:

1 Corinthians 11:23 – For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you.

1 Corinthians 11:2-16 – Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.

Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered down dishonors his head, but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered (ἀκατακαλύπτῳ) dishonors her head—it is the same as if her head were shaven. For if a woman will not cover (κατακαλύπτεται) herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her cover (κατακαλυπτέσθω) herself.

For a man ought not to cover (κατακαλύπτεσθαι) his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. For this reason, a woman ought to have authority on her head, because of the angels.

Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God. Judge for yourselves; is it proper for a woman to pray to God uncovered (ἀκατακάλυπτον)? Does not nature itself teach you that for a man to have long hair is a shame to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her for a covering (περιβολαίου).

But if anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have not such a practice, nor do the churches of God.

2 Corinthians 3:12-18 – Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech,  and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 4:2-4 – But we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel….

 

WOMEN VEILING IN THE OLD TESTAMENT:

Genesis 24:65 – She said to the servant, “Who is the man who is walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil (θεριστρον), and covered herself.

Genesis 38:14-15 – She took off of her the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil (θεριστρον), and painted her face, and sat in the gate of Enaim, which is by the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she wasn’t given to him as a wife. And when Judas saw her, he thought her to be a harlot; for she covered (κατεκαλύψατο) her face, and he knew her not.

Numbers 5:18: And the priest shall cause the woman to stand before the Lord, and shall uncover (ἀποκαλύψει) the head of the woman, and shall put into her hands the sacrifice of memorial, the sacrifice of jealousy; and in the hand of the priest shall be the water of this conviction that brings the curse.

Song of Songs 4:1: Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves behind your veil (σιωπήσεώς). Your hair is as a flock of goats that descend from Mount Gilead.

Song of Songs 5:7 – The watchmen that go their rounds in the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil (θεριστρον) from me.

Isaiah 47:1-3 – Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called tender and delicate. Take the millstones and grind meal; remove (ἀποκάλυψαι) your veil (κατακάλυμμά), uncover your white hairs, make bare the leg, pass through the rivers. Your nakedness shall be uncovered, and your shame shall be seen.

Suzanna 1:31 – Now Susanna was a woman of great refinement and beautiful in appearance. As she was veiled (κατακεκαλυμμένη), the lawless men ordered her to be unveiled (ἀποκαλυφθῆναι), so that they might feast their eyes on her beauty. Those who were with her and all who saw her were weeping.

3 Maccabees 4: 5-7: For a multitude of gray-headed old men, sluggish and bent with age, was being led away, forced to march at a swift pace by the violence with which they were driven in such a shameful manner. And young women who had just entered the bridal chamber to share married life exchanged joy for wailing, their myrrh-perfumed hair sprinkled with ashes, and were carried away unveiled (ακαλυπτως), all together raising a lament instead of a wedding song, as they were torn by the harsh treatment of the heathen.

 

 

SAME WORD, DIFFERENT CONTEXTS:

Exodus 26:34 – And you shall screen (κατακαλυψεις) with the veil the ark of the testimony in the holy of holies.

Numbers 4:5 – And when the camp sets forward, Aaron shall come, and his sons, and they shall take down the covering veil (κατακαλυπτω), and cover the ark of testimony with it:

Exodus 34:30-33 – And when Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. And afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil (κάλυμμα) on his face; but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil (κάλυμμα) off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone; and Moses would put the veil (κάλυμμα) upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

Genesis 7:19: The waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered (ἐπεκάλυψεν).

Genesis 7:20: The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered (επεκαλυψεν).

Exodus 14:26: The Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, and let the water restore and cover (ἐπικαλυψάτω) the Egyptians, on their chariots, and the horse riders.

Exodus 14:28: The waters returned, and covered (ἐκάλυψεν) the chariots and the horsemen, even all Pharaoh’s army that went in after them into the sea. There remained not so much as one of them.

Proverbs 28:13: He who conceals (ἐπικαλύπτων) his sins doesn’t prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

Genesis 9:23: Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it on both their shoulders, went in backwards, and covered (συνεκάλυψαν) the nakedness of their father. Their faces were backwards, and they didn’t see their father’s nakedness.

Exodus 10:4-5: I will bring forth many locusts over all your borders, and they shall cover (καλύψει) the surface of the earth, so that one won’t be able to see the earth. They shall eat the residue of that which has escaped, which remains to you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which grows for you out of the field.

Numbers 16:33: So they, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into hades: and the earth closed (καλυπτω) on them, and they perished from among the assembly.

Numbers 22:11: Behold this people has come out of Egypt and behold, it covers (κεκάλυφεν) the whole view of the land and has encamped right in front of me, and now come and curse it for me in order that I might be able to smite it and cast it out of this land.'”

1 Kings 21:4: Ahab came into his house sullen and angry because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” He laid himself down on his bed, and covered (συνεκάλυψεν) his face, and would eat no bread.

Sirach 26:8: A drunken woman causes great wrath. She will not cover (συγκαλύψει) her own shame.

Psalm 32:0-1: Blessed are those whose infringements are forgiven, and whose sins are covered over (ἐπεκαλύφθησαν).

Psalm 44:19: Though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered (ἐπεκάλυψεν) us with the shadow of death…

Sirach 39:22: His blessing covered (ἐπεκάλυψεν) the dry land as a river and saturated it as a flood.

Sirach 47:15: Your influence covered (ἐπεκάλυψεν) the earth, and you filled it with parables and riddles.

Jeremiah 3:25: Let us lie down in our shame, and let our disgrace cover (ἐπεκάλυψεν) us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God.”

Exodus 21:33: “If a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and doesn’t cover (καλύψῃ) it, and a bull or a donkey falls into it….”

Ezekiel 32:7: When I shall extinguish you, I will cover (κατακαλύψω) the heavens, and make its stars dark; I will cover (καλύψω) the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light.

1 Samuel 19:13: Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair at its head, and covered (ἐκάλυψεν) it with the clothes.

1 Kings 19:13: It was so, when Elijah heard it, that he hid (ἐπεκάλυψεν) his face in his sheepskin, and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. Behold, a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

1 Samuel 28:8: Saul disguised (συνεκάλυψεν) himself, and put on other clothing, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, “Please divine to me by the familiar spirit, and bring me up whoever I shall name to you.”

1 Kings 22:30: The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise (συγκαλύψομαι) myself, and go into the battle; but you put on your robes.” The king of Israel disguised (συνεκαλύψατο) himself, and went into the battle.

Sirach 23:18: A man who goes astray from his own marriage bed says in his heart, “Who sees me? Darkness is around me, and the walls hide (καλύπτουσιν) me. No one sees me. Of whom am I afraid? The Most High will not remember my sins.”

 

NEW TESTAMENT:

COVERED / HIDDEN:

Matthew 8:26 – Suddenly a violent storm arose on the sea, so that the boat was being covered (καλύπτεσθαι) by the waves; but He was asleep.

Matthew 10:26 – “Therefore do not be afraid of them; for there is nothing covered (κεκαλυμμένον) that will not be uncovered (ἀποκαλυφθήσεται), and hidden that will not be made known.

Luke 8:16 – “No one after lighting a lamp covers (καλύπτει) it with a container or puts it under a bed, but places it on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see the light.

Luke 23:30 – Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover (καλύψατε) us!’

Elsewhere in Revelation, it references the same event in different words.

“Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the generals and the rich and the strong, and every one, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;” – Revelation 6:15-16

Mk 14:65, Matthew 26:68: And some began to spit on him, and to cover (περικαλύπτειν) his face, and to strike him, saying to him, “Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who hit you?” And the guards received him with blows.

2 Corinthians 4:3 – But even if our gospel is veiled (κεκαλυμμένον), it is veiled (κεκαλυμμένον) only to those who are perishing,

James 5:20 –  … he should know that the one who brings a sinner back from the error of his way will save that person’s soul from death and cover (καλύψει) a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:8 – Above all, maintain a fervent love among yourselves, for love covers (καλύπτει) a multitude of sins.

UNCOVERED / REVEALED:

Matthew 11:25: At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed (ἀπεκάλυψας) them to infants.”

Matthew 16:17: Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed (ἀπεκάλυψέν) this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

Luke 17:30: It will be the same way in the day that the Son of Man is revealed (ἀποκαλύπτεται).

1 Corinthians 3:13: The work of each will become visible. For the day will make it plain, because it is revealed (ἀποκαλύπτεται) in fire; and the fire itself will assay what sort the work of each is.

Matthew 11:27: All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son desires to reveal (ἀποκαλύψαι) him.

 

OLD TESTAMENT:

UNCOVERED / REVEALED:

2 Samuel 6:20: Then David returned to bless his household. Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, “How glorious the king of Israel was today, who uncovered (ἀπεκαλύφθη) himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers (ἀποκαλυφθεὶς) himself!”

2 Samuel 22:16: Then the channels of the sea appeared (ἀπεκαλύφθη). The foundations of the world were laid bare by the rebuke of Yahweh, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils….

1 Maccabees 7:31: Nicanor found out that his plan was discovered (ἀπεκαλύφθη); and he went out to meet Judas in battle beside Capharsalama.

Ezekiel 22:10: In you have they uncovered (ἀπεκάλυψαν) their fathers’ nakedness; in you have they humbled her who was unclean in her impurity.

Ezekiel 23:10: These uncovered (ἀπεκάλυψαν) her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters; and her they killed with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they executed judgments on her.

Genesis 8:13: It happened in the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering (ἀπεκάλυψεν) of the ship, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dried.

Numbers 22:31: Then God uncovered (ἀπεκάλυψεν) the eyes of Balaam and he saw the angel of The Lord opposing in the way and the sword drawn in his hand and upon stooping down he bowed down his face.

Daniel 2:22: He reveals (ἀποκαλύπτει) the deep and secret things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.

Sirach 42:19: He declares the things that are past and the things that shall be, and reveals (ἀποκαλύπτων) the traces of hidden things.

Isaiah 20:4: … So the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered (ἀνακεκαλυμμένους), to the shame of Egypt.

Isaiah 24:1: Behold the Lord is destroying the inhabited world and will make it desolate and will expose (ἀνακαλύψει) its face and scatter the ones dwelling in it.

Isaiah 47:3: Your shamefacedness will be discovered (ἀνακαλυφθήσεται), your reproaches will be made manifest; the just will I take from you and I will no longer hand you over to men.

Jeremiah 13:22: If you say in your heart, “Why are these things come on me?” for the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts uncovered (ἀνεκαλύφθη), and your heels suffer violence.

Jeremiah 49:10: But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered (ἀνεκάλυψα) his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is destroyed, and his brothers, and his neighbors; and he is no more.

 

COVERING THE FACE BECAUSE OF SHAME:

In the Old Testament, men would also cover their heads (not with a yamaka, but an entire head-covering, such as women used), whenever they were feeling deeply ashamed over something. And why should shame make a person want to hide their face, you ask? For the same reason Adam and Eve hid from God after they had sinned, every person who is ashamed wishes to conceal themselves from the sight of others. You see this whenever a person gets arrested and has cameras pointed at them: they cover their face, because it’s natural to flee the sight of the public when you’re feeling low and humiliated.

2 Samuel 15:30: David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered (ἐπικεκαλυμμένος), and went barefoot: and all the people who were with him covered (ἐπεκάλυψεν) every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.

Jeremiah 14:3–4: [Judah mourns,] and their nobles send their lads for water: they come to the pits, and find no water; their vessels return empty; they are ashamed and disgraced, and cover their heads. Because of the ground which is cracked, for there has been no rain in the land, the plowmen are ashamed, they cover (επικαλυπτω) their heads.

Esther 6:12: And Mordecai returned to the palace, but Hamaan went home mourning, and having his head covered (κατακεκαλυμμένος).

Psalm 69:7: Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered (ἐκάλυψεν) my face.

Job 9:24: The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers (συγκαλύπτει) the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?

Ezekiel 12:6: In their sight you shall bear it on your shoulder, and carry it forth in the dark; you shall cover (συγκαλύψεις) your face, so that you don’t see the land: for I have set you for a sign to the house of Israel.

Isaiah 29:22: Because of this, thus says The Lord upon the house of Jacob which He set apart out of Abraham “Jacob will no longer be ashamed and neither will the face of Israel be turned away any longer.”

Jeremiah 51:51: We are ashamed, because we have heard reproach; disgrace has covered (κατεκάλυψεν) our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Yahweh’s house.

Ezra 9:6: And I said, “My God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God; for our iniquities have increased over our head, and our guiltiness has grown up to the heavens.

Isaiah 50:6-7: I gave my back to scourges, and my cheeks to blows; and I turned not away my face from the shame of spitting. The Lord God became my helper; therefore I was not ashamed, but I set my face as a solid rock; and I know that I shall never be ashamed.

Jeremiah 2:26: Like the shamefacedness of the thief when caught, thus will the sons of Israel be put to shame, they and their kings and their rulers and their priests and their prophets.

1 Timothy 2:9 – In like manner, women should adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly raiment.

3 Maccabees 1:18-19 – The virgins who had been enclosed in their chambers rushed out with their mothers, sprinkled their hair with dust, and filled the streets with groans and lamentations. Those women who had recently been arrayed for marriage abandoned the bridal chambers prepared for wedded union, and, neglecting proper shamefacedness, in a disorderly rush flocked together in the city.

1 Peter 3:1-6: Your adornment must not be external—braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on beautiful clothes; but the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands.

 

CHURCH FATHERS:

Shepherd of Hermas (85-90 AD):

Now after I had passed by the wild beast, and had moved forward about thirty feet, lo! A virgin meets me, adorned as if she were proceeding from the bridal chamber, clothed entirely in white, and with white sandals, and veiled up to her forehead, and her head was covered by a hood. And she had white hair. I knew from my former visions that this was the Church, and I became more joyful. – Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 4, chapter 1

 

Irenaeus (130 – 202 AD):

[Refuting a Gnostic heresy]: Again, the coming of the Saviour with His attendants to Achamoth is declared in like manner by him in the same Epistle, when he says, A woman ought to have a veil upon her head, because of the angels. Now, that Achamoth, when the Saviour came to her, drew a veil over herself through modesty, Moses rendered manifest when he put a veil upon his face. – Against Heresies (Book I, Chapter 8)

 

Clement of Alexandria (150 – 215 AD):

Woman and man are to go to church decently attired, with natural step, embracing silence, possessing unfeigned love, pure in body, pure in heart, fit to pray to God. Let the woman observe this, further. Let her be entirely covered, unless she happen to be at home. For that style of dress is grave, and protects from being gazed at. And she will never fall, who puts before her eyes modesty, and her shawl; nor will she invite another to fall into sin by uncovering her face. For this is the wish of the Word, since it is becoming for her to pray veiled. – Instructor of Children, book 3, chapter 11

They say that the wife of Æneas, through excess of propriety, did not, even in her terror at the capture of Troy, uncover herself; but, though fleeing from the conflagration, remained veiled. – Instructor of Children, book 3, chapter 11

But by no manner of means are women to be allotted to uncover and exhibit any part of their person, lest both fall, — the men by being excited to look, they by drawing on themselves the eyes of the men. – Instructor of Children, book 2, chapter 2:

Such a covering ought to be assumed as is requisite for covering the eyes of women…. And if some accommodation is to be made, they may be permitted to use softer clothes, provided they put out of the way fabrics foolishly thin, and of curious texture in weaving; bidding farewell to embroidery of gold and Indian silks and elaborate Bombyces (silks)…. For these superfluous and diaphanous materials are the proof of a weak mind, covering as they do the shame of the body with a slender veil. For luxurious clothing, which cannot conceal the shape of the body, is no more a covering. For such clothing, falling close to the body, takes its form more easily, and adhering as it were to the flesh, receives its shape, and marks out the woman’s figure, so that the whole make of the body is visible to spectators, though not seeing the body itself. – Instructor of Children, book 2, chapter 11:

As, then, in the fashioning of our clothes, we must keep clear of all strangeness, so in the use of them we must beware of extravagance. For neither is it seemly for the clothes to be above the knee, as they say was the case with the Lacedæmonian virgins; nor is it becoming for any part of a woman to be exposed. Though you may with great propriety use the language addressed to him who said, Your arm is beautiful; yes, but it is not for the public gaze. Your thighs are beautiful; but, was the reply, for my husband alone. And your face is comely. Yes; but only for him who has married me. But I do not wish chaste women to afford cause for such praises to those who, by praises, hunt after grounds of censure; and not only because it is prohibited to expose the ankle, but because it has also been enjoined that the head should be veiled and the face covered; for it is a wicked thing for beauty to be a snare to men. Nor is it seemly for a woman to wish to make herself conspicuous by using a purple veil. – Instructor of Children, book 2, chapter 11:

Women fond of display act in the same manner with regard to shoes, showing also in this matter great luxuriousness. Base, in truth, are those sandals on which golden ornaments are fastened…. Farewell, therefore, must be bidden to gold-plated and jewelled mischievous devices of sandals, and Attic and Sicyonian half-boots, and Persian and Tyrrhenian buskins…. For the use of shoes is partly for covering, partly for defense in case of stumbling against objects, and for saving the sole of the foot from the roughness of hilly paths…. Further, they ought for the most part to wear shoes; for it is not suitable for the foot to be shown naked: besides, woman is a tender thing, easily hurt. – Instructor of Children, book 2, chapter 12

Not to deck and adorn herself beyond what is becoming, renders a wife free of calumnious suspicion, while she devotes herself assiduously to prayers and supplications; avoiding frequent departures from the house, and shutting herself up as far as possible from the view of all not related to her, and deeming housekeeping of more consequence than impertinent trifling. – Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, Book 2

“Because of the angels.” By the angels he means righteous and virtuous men. Let her be veiled then, that she may not lead them to stumble into fornication. For the real angels in heaven see her though veiled. – Fragments of Clement of Alexandria IV.— From the Books of the Hypotyposes, Œcumenius from Book III. On 1 Cor. xi. 10)

 

Tertullian (155 – 220 AD):

Demanding then a law of God, you have that common one prevailing all over the world, engraved on the natural tables to which the apostle too is wont to appeal, as when in respect of the woman’s veil he says, “Does not even Nature teach you?” – as when to the Romans, affirming that the heathen do by nature those things which the law requires, he suggests both natural law and a law-revealing nature. – De Corona, The Chaplet, chapter 6

Christ is the Head of the Christian man – (for his head) is as free as even Christ is, under no obligation to wear a covering, not to say a crown. But even the head which is bound to have the veil, I mean woman’s, as already taken possession of by this very thing, is not open also to a crown. She has the burden of her own humility to bear. – De Corona, The Chaplet, chapter 14

But that point which is promiscuously observed throughout the churches, whether virgins ought to be veiled or no, must be treated of. For they who allow to virgins immunity from head-covering, appear to rest on this; that the apostle has not defined “virgins” by name, but “women,” as “to be veiled;” – On Prayer, chapter 21

“Every woman,” said he, “praying and prophesying with head uncovered, dishonors her own head.” What is “every woman”, but woman of every age, of every rank, of every condition? As, then, in the masculine sex, under the name of “man” even the “youth” is forbidden to be veiled; so, too, in the feminine, under the name of “woman,” even the “virgin” is bidden to be veiled… For indeed it is “on account of the angels” that he said women must be veiled, because on account of “the daughters of men” angels revolted from God. Who then, would contend that “women” alone – that is, such as were already wedded and had lost their virginity – were the objects of angelic concupiscence, unless “virgins” are incapable of excelling in beauty and finding lovers? – On Prayer, chapter 22

Let her, then, maintain the character wholly, and perform the whole function of a “virgin:” what she conceals for the sake of God, let her cover quite over…. Why do you denude before God what you cover before men? Will you be more modest in public than in the church? Be veiled, virgin, if virgin you are; for you ought to blush. If you are a virgin, shrink from (the gaze of) many eyes. Let no one wonder at your face; let no one perceive your falsehood. – On Prayer, chapter 22

Nay, but true and absolute and pure virginity fears nothing more than itself. Even female eyes it shrinks from encountering. Other eyes itself has. It betakes itself for refuge to the veil of the head as to a helmet, as to a shield, to protect its glory against the blows of temptations, against the dam of scandals, against suspicions and whispers and emulation; (against) envy also itself.- On the Apparel of Women, chapter 15

The more holy virgin, accordingly, will fear, even under the name of fascination, on the one hand the adversary, on the other God, the envious disposition of the former, the censorial light of the latter; and will joy in being known to herself alone and to God. But even if she has been recognized by any other, she is wise to have blocked up the pathway against temptations. For who will have the audacity to intrude with his eyes upon a shrouded face? A face without feeling? A face, so to say, morose? Any evil cogitation whatsoever will be broken by the very severity. – On the Apparel of Women, chapter 15

Nay, rather banish quite away from your “free” head all this slavery of ornamentation. In vain do you labor to seem adorned: in vain do you call in the aid of all the most skillful manufacturers of false hair. God bids you “be veiled.” I believe (He does so) for fear the heads of some should be seen! – On the Apparel of Women, chapter 7

So perilous a face, then, ought to be hidden, which has cast stumbling-stones even so far as heaven: that, when standing in the presence of God, at whose bar it stands accused of the driving of the angels from their (native) confines, it may blush before the other angels as well; and may repress that former evil liberty of its head —(a liberty) now to be exhibited not even before human eyes. – On the Apparel of Women, chapter 7

If, moreover, the apostle further adds the prejudgment of nature, that redundancy of locks is an honour to a woman, because hair serves for a covering, of course it is most of all to a virgin that this is a distinction; for their very adornment properly consists in this, that, by being massed together upon the crown, it wholly covers the very citadel of the head with an encirclement of hair. – On the Apparel of Women, chapter 7

It behooves our virgins to be veiled from the time that they have passed the turning-point of their age: that this observance is exacted by truth, on which no one can impose prescription – no space of times, no influence of persons, no privilege of regions. – On The Veiling of Virgins, chapter 1

Throughout Greece, and certain of its barbaric provinces, the majority of Churches keep their virgins covered. There are places, too, beneath this (African) sky, where this practice obtains; lest any ascribe the custom to Greek or barbarian Gentilehood. But I have proposed (as models) those Churches which were founded by apostles or apostolic men…. Those Churches therefore, as well (as others), have the self-same authority of custom (to appeal to)… let me say it once for all, we are one Church. Thus, whatever belongs to our brethren is ours: only, the body divides us. Still, here (as generally happens in all cases of various practice, of doubt, and of uncertainty), examination ought to have been made to see which of two so diverse customs were the more compatible with the discipline of God. And, of course, that ought to have been chosen which keeps virgins veiled, as being known to God alone…. For that custom which belies virgins while it exhibits them, would never have been approved by any except by some men who must have been similar in character to the virgins themselves. Such eyes will wish that a virgin be seen as has the virgin who shall wish to be seen. The same kinds of eyes reciprocally crave after each other. Seeing and being seen belong to the self-same lust. To blush if he see a virgin is as much a mark of a chaste man, as of a chaste virgin if seen by a man. – On The Veiling of Virgins, chapter 2

The virgins of men go about, in opposition to the virgins of God, with front quite bare, excited to a rash audacity…. We are scandalized, they say, because others walk otherwise (than we do); and they prefer being scandalized to being provoked (to modesty). A scandal, if I mistake not, is an example not of a good thing, but of a bad, tending to sinful edification. Good things scandalize none but an evil mind. If modesty, if bashfulness, if contempt of glory, anxious to please God alone, are good things, let women who are scandalized by such good learn to acknowledge their own evil…. Are therefore chaste virgins to be, for the sake of these marketable creatures, dragged into the church, blushing at being recognised in public, quaking at being unveiled, as if they had been invited as it were to rape?  For they are no less unwilling to suffer even this.  Every public exposure of an honourable virgin is (to her) a suffering of rape: and yet the suffering of carnal violence is the less (evil), because it comes of natural office.  But when the very spirit itself is violated in a virgin by the abstraction of her covering, she has learnt to lose what she used to keep.  O sacrilegious hands, which have had the hardihood to drag off a dress dedicated to God!  What worse could any persecutor have done, if he had known that this (garb) had been chosen by a virgin? You have denuded a maiden in regard of her head, and forthwith she wholly ceases to be a virgin to herself; she has undergone a change!- On The Veiling of Virgins, chapter 2

“If  any,” he says, “is contentious, we have not such a custom, nor (has) the Church of God.”… So, too, did the Corinthians themselves understand him. In fact, at this day the Corinthians do veil their virgins. What the apostles taught, their disciples approve. – On The Veiling of Virgins, chapter 8

But even if it is “on account of the angels” that she is to be veiled, doubtless the age from which the law of the veil will come into operation will be that from which “the daughters of men” were able to invite concupiscence of their persons, and to experience marriage. – On The Veiling of Virgins, chapter 11

If on account of men they adopt a false garb, let them carry out that garb fully even for that end; and as they veil their head in presence of heathens, let them at all events in the church conceal their virginity, which they do veil outside the church. They fear strangers: let them stand in awe of the brethren too; or else let them have the consistent hardihood to appear as virgins in the streets as well, as they have the hardihood to do in the churches…. To what purpose, then, do they thrust their glory out of sight abroad, but expose it in the church? I demand a reason. Is it to please the brethren, or God Himself? – On The Veiling of Virgins, chapter 13

I pray you, be you mother, or sister, or virgin-daughter — let me address you according to the names proper to your years — veil your head: if a mother, for your sons’ sakes; if a sister, for your brethren’s sakes; if a daughter for your fathers’ sakes. All ages are perilled in your person. Put on the panoply of modesty; surround yourself with the stockade of bashfulness; rear a rampart for your sex, which must neither allow your own eyes egress nor ingress to other people’s. Wear the full garb of woman, to preserve the standing of virgin.

But we admonish you, too, women of the second (degree of) modesty, who have fallen into wedlock, not to outgrow so far the discipline of the veil, not even in a moment of an hour, as, because you cannot refuse it, to take some other means to nullify it, by going neither covered nor bare. For some, with their turbans and woollen bands, do not veil their head, but bind it up; protected, indeed, in front, but, where the head properly lies, bare. Others are to a certain extent covered over the region of the brain with linen coifs of small dimensions — I suppose for fear of pressing the head — and not reaching quite to the ears. If they are so weak in their hearing as not to be able to hear through a covering, I pity them. Let them know that the whole head constitutes the woman. Its limits and boundaries reach as far as the place where the robe begins. The region of the veil is co-extensive with the space covered by the hair when unbound; in order that the necks too may be encircled.

For it is they which must be subjected, for the sake of which power ought to be had on the head: the veil is their yoke. Arabia’s heathen females will be your judges, who cover not only the head, but the face also, so entirely, that they are content, with one eye free, to enjoy rather half the light than to prostitute the entire face.

To us the Lord has, even by revelations, measured the space for the veil to extend over. For a certain sister of ours was thus addressed by an angel, beating her neck, as if in applause: “Elegant neck, and deservedly bare! It is well for you to unveil yourself from the head right down to the loins, lest withal this freedom of your neck profit you not!” And, of course, what you have said to one you have said to all. But how severe a chastisement will they likewise deserve, who, amid (the recital of) the Psalms, and at any mention of (the name of) God, continue uncovered; (who) even when about to spend time in prayer itself, with the utmost readiness place a fringe, or a tuft, or any thread whatever, on the crown of their heads, and suppose themselves to be covered? – On The Veiling of Virgins, chapter 17

“Of so small extent do they falsely imagine their head to be! Others, who think the palm of their hand plainly greater than any fringe or thread, misuse their head no less; like a certain (creature), more beast than bird, albeit winged, with small head, long legs, and moreover of erect carriage. She, they say, when she has to hide, thrusts away into a thicket her head alone — plainly the whole of it, (though)— leaving all the rest of herself exposed. Thus, while she is secure in head, (but) bare in her larger parts, she is taken wholly, head and all. Such will be their plight withal, covered as they are less than is useful. – Chapter 17, On The Veiling of Virgins

So completely has Paul by naming the sex generally mingled daughters and species together in the genus. Again, while he says that nature herself, which has assigned hair as a tegument and ornament to women, teaches that veiling is the duty of females, has not the same tegument and the same honour of the head been assigned also to virgins? – On Prayer, Chapter 22

Among the Jews, so usual is it for their women to have the head veiled, that they may thereby be recognised. – De Corona, The Chaplet, chapter 4

[What Tertullian means here is that the way you would tell one Jewish woman apart from another was not by looking at their faces, since their faces weren’t visible, but rather by looking at their veils, and memorizing which one belonged to whom. He’s saying the unique features of each woman’s veil was the only way to recognize who was who.]

 

Origen of Alexandria (185 – 253 AD):

Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you tend your flock, where you cause them to rest at noon, lest I become as one that is veiled by the flocks of your companions. – Song of Songs 1:7

The Bride asks her Bridegroom to show her the place of His private retreat and rest, because, being impatient for love, she longs to go to him, even through the noonday heat – that is, at the particular time when the light is brighter and the splendor of the day perfect and pure – so that she may be near Him, as He feeds or refreshes His sheep, And she earnestly desires to learn the way by which she ought to go to Him, lest perchance, if she have not been taught the windings of this way, she should come upon the companions’ flocks and resemble one of those who come veiled to His companions; and, having no care for modesty, she should fear not to run hither and thither and to be seen of many. ‘But I,’ she says, ‘who would be seen of none save Thee alone, desire to know by what road I may come to Thee, that it may be a secret, that none may come between us, and that no vagrant, strange onlooker may fall in with us.’ – Homilies on Song of Songs, Book 2, chapter 4 

After this, speaking as though the Bride were veiled and covered for the sake of reverence, the Bridegroom asks her, when she comes to that place which He has just specified as being more secluded, to lay aside her veil and show her face to Him. – Song of Songs, Book 3, chapter 15

She walks thus veiled and covered, however, because she ought to have a power over her head, because of the angels. But when she has reached the outwork place, that is, the state of the age to come, there He says to her: ‘show me thy face, and let me hear thy voice; for thy voice is sweet.’ – Song of Songs, Book 3, chapter 15

Who among us, do you think, is worthy to attain the midday, and to see where the Bridegroom feeds and where He lies at noon? ‘Tell me, Thou whom my soul has loved, where Thou feedest, where Thou liest in the midday.’ For, unless Thou tell me, I shall begin to be a vagrant, driven to and fro; while I am looking for Thee, I shall begin to run after other people’s flocks and, because these other people make me feel ashamed, I shall begin to cover my face and my mouth. I am the beautiful Bride in sooth, and I show not my naked face to any save Thee only, whom I kissed tenderly but now. Tell me, Thou whom my soul has loved, where Thou feedest, where Thou liest in the midday, lest I have to go veiled beside the flocks of thy companions.’ That I suffer not these things – that I may need not to go veiled nor hide my face; that, mixing with others, I run not the risk of beginning to love also them whom I know not. Tell me, therefore, where I may seek and find Thee in the midday, ‘lest I have to go veiled beside the flocks of Thy companions.’ – Song of Songs, Homily 1, chapter 8

On account of the veil, if the Old Testament is read, he who hears will not understand. Also on account of the veil, the Gospel is hidden to those who are lost. Hence we say about the veil that shame is the veil. For insofar as we have the works of shame, it is clear that we possess the veil, according to the forty-third Psalm: “And the shame of my face veiled me.” I have set forth that he who does not have the works of shame does not have a veil, which was just what Paul says: “But we all with an unveiled face behold the glory of the Lord.” Thus Paul has an unveiled face. For he does not have the works of shame. He who is not like Paul has a veiled face. – Homily 5 on the Psalms, chapter 8

“Woe,” he says, namely “to those who sew pillows under every elbow of the hands” or “of the hand, and make cloths for veiling the head of every age.” It follows that the one who has this sin also makes “cloths for veiling the head of every age” [Ezek 13:18]. Let us also more carefully consider of what the veil is a figure. The man who has confidence and is truly a man wears no veil upon his head. Instead, he prays to God with his head uncovered, he prophesies with head uncovered. In a hidden way he manifests his spiritual reality by the sign of his bodily attire. Just as he has no veil over his physical head, so he has no veil over the master faculty of his heart. But whoever does the deeds of shame and of sin, he, so to speak, wears womanish veils upon his head. Well, the prophet could have said: On the sons of your people who prophesy. But, as though all who weave veils and sew pillows under every elbow of the hand are women, and none of them deserves the name of man, the prophet says: “On the daughters of your people who prophesy out of their own heart,” and do the things that follow. Effeminate indeed are the souls and wills of their teachers, who are ever putting together fine-sounding and melodious speeches. It is these women, then, who with craft and cunning patch word to word, sewing rather than weaving. They make pillows for the repose not of the head but of the elbow, that is, so that the hands may not be at work or grow weary in labor but be at rest, be at ease, be occupied in those actions that serve our pleasures. But what else follows? “And I will tear up the veils” [Ezek 13:21]. What does he testify that he is going to tear up? Not only the pillows but the veils as well. Now the reason he is going to tear them up is so that the head may become bare. In this way, with assured confidence and with not only the face uncovered but also the head, the man of the church will be able constantly to pray. “I will tear up your veils, and I will deliver my people out of your hand” [Ezek 13:21]. Though you subvert the souls with pillows and veils, I, by tearing up these things, will deliver my people. Now God delivers the people by means of a severe way of life that withdraws them from pleasures. “And they will no longer be in your hands for subversion” – Commentary on Ezekiel, Homily 3, chapter 2-3

We have often said that the opposing powers love the beauty of the human soul and, when a human soul receives the seed of her lovers, in some way she commits fornication with them. But because even in the common life there are certain prostitutes who commit fornication with shame, desiring to be unnoticed, but others who not only do not veil their transgressions with shame but prostitute themselves with all shamelessness, therefore for this sinful Jerusalem he has taken the example of a soul of a prostitute. And he says that in her fornication she has become like a shameless prostitute. Often such things are committed even by us. For those who have not completely withdrawn from religion but are conquered by sin and want to remain unnoticed in their sinning are acting like a blushing prostitute. But those who are completely turned away from religion to such an extent that they don’t care about the bishop, the priests, the deacons, or the brethren, but sin with all shamelessness, are like the prostitute who prostitutes herself with effrontery. – Commentary on Ezekiel, Homily 8, chapter 3

 

Hippolytus (170 – 235 AD):

When the teacher finishes his instruction, the catechumens shall pray by themselves, apart from the believers. And [all] women, whether believers or catechumens, shall stand for their prayers by themselves in a separate part of the church.  And when [the catechumens] finish their prayers, they must not give the kiss of peace, for their kiss is not yet pure.  Only believers shall salute one another, but men with men and women with women; a man shall not salute a woman. And let all the women have their heads covered with an opaque cloth, not with a veil of thin linen, for this is not a true covering. – Apostolic Tradition, chapter 18

[Canons of Hippolytus: Although this book is doubted to have been written by Hippolytus by some scholars, it’s an ancient text laying out the rules of the church, and it specifically commands the veiling of women’s faces]:

Canon Seventeenth – Of a free-born woman, and her duties, of midwives, and of the separation of men from women, of virgins, that they should cover their faces and their heads:

A free woman is not to wear jewellery in church, even if it is a custom sanctioned by her husband. She is not to leave her hair loose, that is waving, in the house of God. She is not to wear fringes on the head when she wishes to partake of the holy mysteries. She is not to give her children, she who has borne them, to nurses, But she is to raise them herself according to the law of marriage. She is not to neglect her housework. She is not to answer her husband back in anything, even if she knows more than he, but she is to remember God at all times; and [if] she knows more than men, she is not to reveal [it] to anyone, but she is to serve her husband like a master. She is to concern herself with the poor, her neighbours; she is to concern herself with the first offerings, in place of a vain adorning, because you will not find a woman adorned with precious stones as beautiful as one like this who is beautiful in her nature and excellence alone. Let this make them careful to be pure and not love pleasure; they are not to be inclined to laugh and are not to talk at all in church, because the house of God is not a place for talk but a place of prayer and reverence. Anyone who talks in church is to be expelled and is not to partake that time of the mysteries…. The girls, when the degree of their youth is accomplished, are to cover the head, like the adult women, with their shawl, not with a thin cloth. 

[The reason why these canons were written was because some heretics had contradicted some of these teachings. You can be sure that some of them were saying only MARRIED women need to veil their faces, which is why Hippolytus flatly decrees that virgins must be veiled as well, as was traditionally practiced from the beginning.]

“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, On Susanna, chapter 31

[Hippolytus says the veil worn by Susanna was the kind of adornment Paul required of ALL women]

 

Commodianus (250 AD):

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 give the terror of the law from your ears to the wind. You affect vanity with all the pomp of the devil. You are adorned at the looking-glass with your curled hair turned back from your brow. And moreover, with evil purposes, you put on false medicaments, on your pure eyes the stibium, with painted beauty, or you dye your hair that it may be always black. God is the overlooker, who dives into each heart. But these things are not necessary for modest women. Pierce your breast with chaste and modest feeling. The law of God bears witness that such laws fail from the heart which believes; to a wife approved of her husband, let it suffice that she is so, not by her dress, but by her good disposition. To put on clothes which the cold and the heat or too much sun demands, only that you may be approved modest, and show forth the gifts of your capacity among the people of God. You who were formerly most illustrious, give to yourself the guise of one who is contemptible. She who lay without life, was raised by the prayers of the widows. She deserved this, that she should be raised from death, not by her costly dress, but by her gifts. 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. Show forth all your wealth in giving. – Writings, Chapter 59

Hear my voice, you who wish to remain a Christian woman, in what way the blessed Paul commands you to be adorned. Isaiah, moreover, the teacher and author that spoke from heaven, for he detests those who follow the wickedness of the world, says: “The daughters of Zion that are lifted up shall be brought low.” It is not right in God that a faithful Christian woman should be adorned. Do you seek to go forth after the fashion of the Gentiles, O you who are consecrated to God? God’s heralds, crying aloud in the law, condemn such to be unrighteous women, who in such wise adorn themselves. You stain your hair; you paint the opening of your eyes with black; you lift up your pretty hair one by one on your painted brow; you anoint your cheeks with some sort of ruddy color laid on; and, moreover, earrings hang down with very heavy weight. You bury your neck with necklaces; with gems and gold you bind hands worthy of God with an evil presage. Why should I tell of your dresses, or of the whole pomp of the devil? You are rejecting the law when you wish to please the world. You dance in your houses; instead of psalms, you sing love songs. You, although you may be chaste, do not prove yourself so by following evil things. Christ therefore makes you, such as you are, equal with the Gentiles. Be pleasing to the hymned chorus, and to an appeased Christ with ardent love fervently offer your savour to Christ. – Writings, Chapter 60

 

Cyprian of Carthage (210 – 258 AD):

You call yourself wealthy and rich; but Paul meets your riches, and with his own voice prescribes for the moderating of your dress and ornament within a just limit. “Let women,” said he, “adorn themselves with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair, nor gold, nor pearls, nor costly array, but as becomes women professing chastity, with a good conversation.” Also Peter consents to these same precepts, and says, “Let there be in the woman not the outward adorning of array, or gold, or apparel, but the adorning of the heart.” …For the rest, if you dress your hair sumptuously, and walk so as to draw attention in public, and attract the eyes of youth upon you, and draw the sighs of young men after you, nourish the lust of concupiscence, and inflame the fuel of sighs, so that, although you yourself perish not, yet you cause others to perish, and offer yourself, as it were, a sword or poison to the spectators; you cannot be excused on the pretense that you are chaste and modest in mind. Your shameful dress and immodest ornament accuse you; nor can you be counted now among Christ’s maidens and virgins, since you live in such a manner as to make yourselves objects of desire. – Treatise 2, chapter 9

The characteristics of ornaments, and of garments, and the allurements of beauty, are not fitting for any but prostitutes and immodest women; and the dress of none is more precious than of those whose modesty is lowly. Thus in the Holy Scriptures, by which the Lord wished us to be both instructed and admonished, the harlot city is described more beautifully arrayed and adorned, and with her ornaments; and the rather on account of those very ornaments about to perish. And there came, it is said, one of the seven angels, which had the seven phials, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show you the judgment of the great whore, that sits upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication. And he carried me away in spirit; and I saw a woman sit upon a beast, and that woman was arrayed in a purple and scarlet mantle, and was adorned with gold, and precious stones, and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of curses, and filthiness, and fornication of the whole earth. Let chaste and modest virgins avoid the dress of the unchaste, the manners of the immodest, the ensigns of brothels, the ornaments of harlots. – Treatise 2, chapter 12

For God neither made the sheep scarlet or purple, nor taught the juices of herbs and shell-fish to dye and colour wool, nor arranged necklaces with stones set in gold, and with pearls distributed in a woven series or numerous cluster, wherewith you would hide the neck which He made; that what God formed in man may be covered, and that may be seen upon it which the devil has invented in addition. Has God willed that wounds should be made in the ears, wherewith infancy, as yet innocent, and unconscious of worldly evil, may be put to pain, that subsequently from the scars and holes of the ears precious beads may hang, heavy, if not by their weight, still by the amount of their cost? – Treatise 2, chapter 14-15

All which things sinning and apostate angels put forth by their arts, when, lowered to the contagious of earth, they forsook their heavenly vigour. They taught them also to paint the eyes with blackness drawn round them in a circle, and to stain the cheeks with a deceitful red, and to change the hair with false colours, and to drive out all truth, both of face and head, by the assault of their own corruption. And indeed in that very matter, for the sake of the fear which faith suggests to me, for the sake of the love which brotherhood requires, I think that not virgins only and widows, but married women also, and all of the sex alike, should be admonished, that the work of God and His fashioning and formation ought in no manner to be adulterated, either with the application of yellow colour, or with black dust or rouge, or with any kind of medicament which can corrupt the native lineaments. – Treatise 2, chapter 14-15

Paul proclaims in a loud and lofty voice, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” And yet a virgin in the Church glories concerning her fleshly appearance and the beauty of her body! Paul adds, and says, “For they that are Christ’s have crucified their flesh, with its faults and lusts.” And she who professes to have renounced the lusts and vices of the flesh, is found in the midst of those very things which she has renounced! Virgin, you are taken, you are exposed, you boast one thing and do another. You sprinkle yourself with the stains of carnal concupiscence, although you are a candidate of purity and modesty. – Treatise 2, chapter 6

Among thieves there is at any rate some modesty in their crimes. They love pathless ravines and deserted solitudes; and they do wrong in such a way, that still the crime of the wrong-doers is veiled by darkness and night. – Treatise 5, chapter 11

 

Ordinances of the Apostles (Didascalia Apostolorum):

You have heard, then, how great praise a chaste woman and one that loves her husband receives of the Lord God, one that is found faithful and is minded to please God. You therefore, O woman, shall not adorn yourself that you may please other men; and you shall not be plaited with the tresses of harlotry, nor put on the dress of harlotry, nor be shod with shoes so that you resemble them that are such; lest you bring upon you those who are ensnared by these things. And if you sin not yourself in this work of uncleanness, yet in this you will have sinned, that you have constrained and caused that (man) to desire you. But if you also sin, you have destroyed your life from God, and have become guilty also of the soul of that (man). – Chapter 3

You therefore that are a Christian, do not imitate such women; but if you would be a faithful woman, please your husband only. And when you walk in the street, cover your head with your robe, that by reason of your veil your great beauty may be hidden. And adorn not your natural face; but walk with downcast looks, being veiled. – Chapter 3

For it behooves women by a veil of modesty and humility to shew (their) fear of God, for the conversion and the increase of faith of them that are without, (both) of men and women. – Chapter 3

 

Apostolic Constitutions:

You have learned what great commendations a prudent and loving wife receives from the Lord God. If you desire to be one of the faithful, and to please the Lord, O wife, do not superadd ornaments to your beauty, in order to please other men; neither affect to wear fine broidering, garments, or shoes, to entice those who are allured by such things. For although you do not do these wicked things with design of sinning yourself, but only for the sake of ornament and beauty, yet will you not so escape future punishment, as having compelled another to look so hard at you as to lust after you, and as not having taken care both to avoid sin yourself, and the affording scandal to others. – Book 1, section 3

You, therefore, who are Christian women, do not imitate such as these. But you who design to be faithful to you own husband, take care to please him alone. And when you are in the streets, cover your head; for by such a covering you will avoid being viewed of idle persons. Do not paint your face, which is God’s workmanship; for there is no part of you which lacks ornament, inasmuch as all things which God has made are very good. But the lascivious additional adorning of what is already good is an affront to the bounty of the Creator. Look downward when you walk abroad, veiling yourself as becomes women. – Book 1, section 3

Avoid also that disorderly practice of bathing in the same place with men; for many are the nets of the evil one. And let not a Christian woman bathe with an hermaphrodite; for if she is to veil her face, and conceal it with modesty from strange men, how can she bear to enter naked into the bath together with men? But if the bath be appropriated to women, let her bathe orderly, modestly, and moderately. But let her not bathe without occasion, nor much, nor often, nor in the middle of the day, nor, if possible, every day; and let the tenth hour of the day be the set time for such seasonable bathing. For it is convenient that you, who are a Christian woman, should ever constantly avoid a curiosity which has many eyes. – Book 1, section 3

And when the oblation has been made, let every rank by itself partake of the Lord’s body and precious blood in order, and approach with reverence and holy fear, as to the body of their king. Let the women approach with their heads covered, as is becoming the order of women; – Book 2, chapter 7

 

Athanasius (296 – 373 AD):

As the time of dismissal however had arrived, the greater part had already left the Church, but there being a few women still remaining, they did as the men had charged them, whereupon a piteous spectacle ensued. The few women had just risen from prayer and had sat down when the youths suddenly came upon them naked with stones and clubs. Some of them the godless wretches stoned to death; they scourged with stripes the holy persons of the Virgins, tore off their veils and exposed their heads, and when they resisted the insult, the cowards kicked them with their feet. – History of the Arians, Part VII, chapter 55

For they made themselves formidable to all men, and treated all with great arrogance, using the name of the Emperor, and threatening them with his displeasure. They had to assist them in their wickedness the Duke Sebastianus, a Manichee, and a profligate young man; the Prefect, the Count, and the Receiver-General as a dissembler. Many Virgins who condemned their impiety, and professed the truth, they brought out from the houses; others they insulted as they walked along the streets, and caused their heads to be uncovered by their young men…. In a word, so cruel and bitter were they against all, that all men called them hangmen, murderers, lawless, intruders, evil-doers, and by any other name rather than that of Christians. – History of the Arians, Part VII, chapter 59

Those who are attached to the world and who beautify their bodies with perfume, incense, and sweet smells, and in extravagant cloth and gold in order to please men are unable to please God. But Christ does not expect any of these things from you, but only a pure heart and an undefiled body mortified by fasting. – Pseudo-Athanasius, Discourse on Salvation to a Virgin, chapter 6

But you, if you do not put on youthful airs, you are not called younger, but you are even called aged and have honor like an elder. Let the material of your clothing not be high-priced. Your outer garment should be black, not dipped in dye, but its own natural color or the color of onyx; and your veil should be without fringe, likewise its own color, and your sleeves wool, covering your arms up to the fingers…. Your little headband should be woolen, with the head bound tight and the hood and cape without fringe. If you should by chance meet someone, let your face be veiled, covered up, bent down, and do not lift your face toward a person, but only toward your God. When you stand for prayer keep your feet hidden by your shoes, for this is seemly for a sacred person. – Pseudo-Athanasius, Discourse on Salvation to a Virgin, chapter 11

You shall not anoint your body with costly ointments nor put expensive perfumes onto your outer garment. – Pseudo-Athanasius, Discourse on Salvation to a Virgin, chapter 12

It is not good for you to go out, except in great necessity. Love silence as much as you are able. Do not forget the servants of God, nor let them be left out of your heart. If a saint should come to your home, receive him in such a way as the Son of God. For our Lord Jesus Christ says, “The one who receives you, receives me” [Matt. 10:40]. If a just man should come into your house, you shall face him with fear and trembling, and you shall prostrate yourself on the ground at his feet. For you do not prostrate yourself to him, but to God who sent him. You shall take water and wash his feet and you shall listen to his words with all reverence. Do not feel confident in your self-control, lest you fall. But be fearful, for to the extent that you are fearful, you do not fall. It is best for the abstinent one to eat her bread in private. – Pseudo-Athanasius, Discourse on Salvation to a Virgin, chapter 22

It is good to flee from the crowd and withdraw in solitude. – Pseudo-Athanasius, Discourse on Salvation to a Virgin, chapter 24

Mary was, therefore, a pure virgin with a balanced state of mind, enriched in a twofold way. She loved good works, fulfilling her duties while maintaining upright thoughts regarding faith and purity. She did not desire to be seen by men but prayed to God to be her examiner. She was in no hurry to leave her home and had no familiarity at all with public squares. Instead, she remained diligently at home, living a life of seclusion, like a honeybee. The surplus of the work of her hands she generously distributed to the needy. She did not concern herself with gazing out the window but instead gazed into the Scriptures. She prayed to God in private, focusing on two main goals: To prevent any evil thought from taking root in her heart; to avoid curiosity and to prevent herself from learning hardness of heart. She left no part of her body uncovered. She mastered her anger and calmed any surge of emotion. Her words were measured, and her voice was controlled. She did not raise her voice and was careful in her heart not to slander anyone, nor would she willingly listen to others doing so. – Athanasius, Letter to Virgins

She did not go out or wander, except when it was necessary for her to go to the temple. She never neglected this duty. She went there in the company of her parents, walking as one ought and with decency in her appearance and careful watchfulness over her eyes. – Athanasius, Letter to Virgins

 

John Chrysostom (347 – 407 AD):

“I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becomes women professing godliness) with good works.” – 1 Timothy 2:8-10

Paul however requires something more of women, that they adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broidered hair or gold or pearls or costly array; But (which becomes women professing godliness) with good works. But what is this modest apparel? Such attire as covers them completely, and decently, not with superfluous ornaments, for the one is becoming, the other is not.

What? Do you approach God to pray, with broidered hair and ornaments of gold? Have you come to a dance? To a marriage? To a gay procession? There such a broidery, such costly garments, had been seasonable, here not one of them is wanted. You have come to pray, to supplicate for pardon of your sins, to plead for your offenses, beseeching the Lord, and hoping to render Him propitious to you. Why do you adorn yourself? This is not the dress of a suppliant. How can you groan? How can you weep? How pray with fervency, when thus attired? Should thou weep, your tears will be the ridicule of the beholders. She that weeps ought not to be wearing gold. It were but acting, and hypocrisy. For is it not acting to pour forth tears from a soul so overgrown with extravagance and ambition? Away with such hypocrisy! God is not mocked! This is the attire of actors and dancers, that live upon the stage. Nothing of this sort becomes a modest woman, who should be adorned “with shamefacedness and sobriety.” – Commentary on 1 Timothy, Homily 8

What can I do, you say, if another suspects me? But you give the occasion by your dress, your looks, your gestures. It is for this reason that Paul discourses much of dress and much of modesty. And if he would remove those things which are only the indications of wealth, as gold, and pearls, and costly array; how much more those things which imply studied ornament, as painting, coloring the eyes, a mincing gait, the affected voice, a languishing and wanton look; the exquisite care in putting on the cloak and bodice, the nicely wrought girdle, and the closely-fitted shoes? For he glances at all these things, in speaking of modest apparel and shamefacedness. For such things are shameless and indecent.

You have Christ for your Bridegroom, O virgin, why do you seek to attract human lovers? He will judge you as an adulteress. Why do you not wear the ornament that is pleasing to Him; modesty, chastity, orderliness, and sober apparel? This is meretricious, and disgraceful. We can no longer distinguish harlots and virgins, to such indecency have they advanced. – Homily 8 on First Timothy

And discoursing concerning the idol-sacrifices, he said not that one ought to abstain from things forbidden only, but also from things permitted when offense is given: and not only not to hurt the brethren, but not even Greeks, nor Jews. Thus, give no occasion of stumbling, says he, either to Jews, or to Greeks, or to the Church of God. 1 Corinthians 10:32

4. But we must also orderly go over the whole passage. For perhaps some one might here have doubt also, questioning with himself, what sort of a crime it was for the woman to be uncovered, or the man covered? What sort of crime it is, learn now from hence.

But I would have ye know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of every woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

Symbols many and diverse have been given both to man and woman; to him of rule, to her of subjection: and among them this also, that she should be covered, while he has his head bare. If now these be symbols you see that both err when they disturb the proper order, and transgress the disposition of God, and their own proper limits, both the man falling into the woman’s inferiority, and the woman rising up against the man by her outward habiliments.

For if exchange of garments be not lawful, so that neither she should be clad with a cloak, nor he with a mantle or a veil: (for the woman, says He, shall not wear that which pertains to a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garments (Deuteronomy 22:5), much more is it unseemly for these things to be interchanged. For the former indeed were ordained by men, even although God afterwards ratified them: but this by nature, I mean the being covered or uncovered. But when I say Nature, I mean God. For He it is Who created Nature. When therefore you overturn these boundaries, see how great injuries ensue.

And tell me not this, that the error is but small. For first, it is great even of itself: being as it is disobedience. Next, though it were small, it became great because of the greatness of the things whereof it is a sign. However, that it is a great matter, is evident from its ministering so effectually to good order among mankind, the governor and the governed being regularly kept in their several places by it.

So that he who transgresses disturbs all things, and betrays the gifts of God, and casts to the ground the honor bestowed on him from above; not however the man only, but also the woman. For to her also it is the greatest of honors to preserve her own rank; as indeed of disgraces, the behavior of a rebel.

And not even with this only was he content, but added again, saying, “The woman ought to have authority on her head, because of the angels.” He signifies that not at the time of prayer only but also continually, she ought to be covered.

But if a woman is not veiled, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be veiled.

Thus, in the beginning he simply requires that the head be not bare: but as he proceeds he intimates both the continuance of the rule, saying, for it is one and the same thing as if she were shaven, and the keeping of it with all care and diligence. For he said not merely covered, but covered over, meaning that she be carefully wrapped up on every side. And by reducing it to an absurdity, he appeals to their shame, saying by way of severe reprimand, but if she be not covered, let her also be shorn. As if he had said, If you cast away the covering appointed by the law of God, cast away likewise that appointed by nature.

But if any say, And how is it one, if this woman have the covering of nature, but the other who is shaven have not even this? We answer, that as far as her will goes, she threw that off likewise by having the head bare. And if it be not bare of tresses, that is nature’s doing, not her own. So that as she who is shaven has her head bare, so this woman in like manner. For this cause He left it to nature to provide her with a covering, that even of it she might learn this lesson and veil herself.

It follows that being covered is a mark of subjection and authority. For it induces her to look down and be ashamed and preserve entire her proper virtue. For the virtue and honor of the governed is to abide in his obedience.

“Judge ye in yourselves: is it seemly that a woman pray unto God unveiled?” Again he places them as judges of the things said, which also he did respecting the idol-sacrifices. For as there he says, judge ye what I say (1 Corinthians 10:15), so here, judge in yourselves: and he hints something more awful here. For he says that the affront here passes on unto God: although thus indeed he does not express himself, but in something of a milder and more enigmatical form of speech: is it seemly that a woman pray unto God unveiled?

1 Corinthians 11:14
“Does not even nature itself teach you, that if a man have long hair, it is a dishonor unto him?”

1 Corinthians 11:15
“But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given her for a covering.”

His constant practice of stating commonly received reasons he adopts also in this place, betaking himself to the common custom, and greatly abashing those who waited to be taught these things from him, which even from men’s ordinary practice they might have learned. For such things are not unknown even to Barbarians: and see how he everywhere deals in piercing expressions: “every man praying having his head covered dishonors his head;” and again, “but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be veiled:” and here again, “if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him; but if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering.”

“And if it be given her for a covering,” say you, “wherefore need she add another covering?” That not nature only, but also her own will may have part in her acknowledgment of subjection. For that you ought to be covered nature herself by anticipation enacted a law. Add now, I pray, your own part also, that you may not seem to subvert the very laws of nature; a proof of most insolent rashness, to buffet not only with us, but with nature also. This is why God accusing the Jews said, “You have slain your sons and your daughters: this is beyond all your abominations.”

And again, Paul rebuking the unclean among the Romans thus aggravates the accusation, saying, that their usage was not only against the law of God, but even against nature. “For they changed the natural use into that which is against nature” (Romans 1:26). For this cause then here also he employs this argument signifying this very thing, both that he is not enacting any strange law and that among Gentiles their inventions would all be reckoned as a kind of novelty against nature. So also Christ, implying the same, said, “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye also so them;” showing that He is not introducing anything new.

“But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the Churches of God.”

It is then contentiousness to oppose these things, and not any exercise of reason. Notwithstanding, even thus it is a measured sort of rebuke which he adopts, to fill them the more with self-reproach; which in truth rendered his saying the more severe. For we, says he, have no such custom, so as to contend and to strive and to oppose ourselves. And he stopped not even here, but also added, neither the Churches of God; signifying that they resist and oppose themselves to the whole world by not yielding. However, even if the Corinthians were then contentious, yet now the whole world has both received and kept this law. So great is the power of the Crucified. – Homily 26 on First Corinthians

Moreover, a father according to the flesh has many things which make the custody of his daughter easy; for the mother, and nurse, and a multitude of handmaids share in helping the parent to keep the maiden safe. For neither is she permitted to be perpetually hurrying into the market-place, nor when she does go there is she compelled to show herself to any of the passers-by, the evening darkness concealing one who does not wish to be seen no less than the walls of the house. And apart from these things, she is relieved from every cause which might otherwise compel her to meet the gaze of men; for no anxiety about the necessaries of life, no menaces of oppressors, nor anything of that kind reduces her to this unfortunate necessity, her father acting in her stead in all these matters; while she herself has only one anxiety, which is to avoid doing or saying anything unworthy the modest conduct which becomes her…. Now he who commands her to stay always at home ought to cut off these pretexts, providing for her independence in the necessaries of life, and giving her some woman who will see to the management of these things. He must also keep her away from funeral obsequies, and nocturnal festivals; for that artful serpent knows only too well how to scatter his poison through the medium even of good deeds. And the maiden must be fenced on every side, and rarely go out of the house during the whole year, except when she is constrained by inexorable necessity. – On The Priesthood, book 3, chapter 17

For how can it be other than worthy of the utmost condemnation that a damsel who has spent her life entirely at home and been schooled in modesty from earliest childhood, should be compelled on a sudden to cast off all shame, and from the very commencement of her marriage be instructed in imprudence; and find herself put forward in the midst of wanton and rude men, and unchaste, and effeminate? What evil will not be implanted in the bride from that day forth? Immodesty, petulance, insolence, the love of vain glory: since they will naturally go on and desire to have all their days such as these. Hence our women become expensive and profuse; hence are they void of modesty, hence proceed their unnumbered evils.

Behold then what follows from all this. Not in the day only but also in the evening, they provide on purpose men that have well drunk, besotted, and inflamed with luxurious fare, to look upon the beauty of the damsel’s countenance; nor yet in the house only but even through the market-place do they lead her in pomp to make an exhibition; conducting her with torches late in the evening so as that she may be seen of all: by their doings recommending nothing else than that henceforth she put off all modesty.

“What then, says one, do you find fault with marriage? Tell me.” That be far from me. I am not so senseless: but the things which are so unworthily appended to marriage, the painting the face, the coloring the eyebrows, and all the other niceness of that kind. For indeed from that day she will receive many lovers even before her destined consort. – Homily 12, on 1 Corinthians:

 

Ambrose of Milan (339 – 397 AD):

10. Was it a small sign of modesty that when Rebecca came to wed Isaac, and saw her bridegroom, she took a veil, that she might not be seen before they were united? Certainly the fair virgin feared not for her beauty, but for her modesty. What of Rachel, how she, when Jacob’s kiss had been taken, wept and groaned, and would not have ceased weeping had she not known him to be a kinsman? So she both observed what was due to modesty, and omitted not kindly affection. But if it is said to a man: Gaze not on a maid, lest she cause you to fall (Sirach 9:5), what is to be said to a consecrated virgin, who, if she loves, sins in mind; if she is loved, in act also? – Concerning Virginity, chapter 3

27. A banquet of death is set out with royal luxury, and when a larger concourse than usual had come together, the daughter of [queen Herodias], sent for from within the private apartments, is brought forth to dance in the sight of men. What could she have learned from an adulteress but loss of modesty? Is anything so conducive to lust as with unseemly movements thus to expose in nakedness those parts of the body which either nature has hidden or custom has veiled, to sport with the looks, to turn the neck, to loosen the hair? Fitly was the next step an offense against God. For what modesty can there be where there is dancing and noise and clapping of hands? – Concerning Virginity, chapter 6

69. Let custom itself teach us. A woman covers her face with a veil for this reason, that in public her modesty may be safe. That her face may not easily meet the gaze of a youth, let her be covered with the nuptial veil, so that not even in chance meetings she might be exposed to the wounding of another or of herself, though the wound of either were indeed hers. But if she cover her head with a veil that she may not accidentally see or be seen (for when the head is veiled the face is hidden), how much more ought she to cover herself with the veil of modesty, so as even in public to have her own secret place. – Two Books Concerning Repentance, Chapter XIV

232. At the same time let us note that it is seemly to live in accordance with nature, and to pass our time in accordance with it, and that whatever is contrary to nature is shameful. For the Apostle asks: “Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered; doth not nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? For it is contrary to nature.” And again he says: “If a woman have long hair, it is a glory unto her.” It is according to nature, since her hair is given her for a veil, for it is a natural veil. Thus nature arranges for us both character and appearance, and we ought to observe her directions. – Three Books on the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter XLVI

25. But in the former the fruit is later, in virginity it is earlier; old age proves them, virginity is the praise of youth, and does not need the help of years, being the fruit of every age. It becomes early years, it adorns youth, it adds to the dignity of age, and at all ages it has the gray hairs of its righteousness, the ripeness of its gravity, the veil of modesty…. – The Treatise Concerning Widows, chapter IV

You have referred to me, as to a father, the inquiry which has been made of you, why the Law was so severe in pronouncing those unclean who used the garments of the other sex, whether they were men or women, for it is written, The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord (Deut. xxii. 5.). – Ambrose, Letter LXIX, chapter 1

Now, if you will consider it well, that which nature herself abhors must be incongruous. For why do you not wish to be thought a man, seeing that you are born such? Why do you assume an appearance which is foreign to you? Why do you play the woman, or you, O woman, the man? Nature clothes each sex in their proper raiment. Moreover in men and women, habits, complexion, gestures, gait, strength and voice are all different. – Ambrose, Letter LXIX, chapter 2

I conceive however that it is spoken not so much of garments as of manners, and of our habits and actions, in that one kind of act becomes a man, the other a woman. – Ambrose, Letter LXIX, chapter 5

But how unseemly is it for a man to do the works of a woman! As for those who curl their hair, like women, let them conceive also, let them bring forth. Yet the one sex wears veils, the other wages war. – Ambrose, Letter LXIX, chapter 6

It is but just that chastity should be lost where the distinction of sexes is not preserved, a point wherein the teaching of nature is unambiguous, according to the Apostle’s words;  Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him: but if a woman hath long hair, it is a glory unto her; for her hair is given her for a covering. Such is the answer which you may make to those who have referred to you. – Ambrose, Letter LXIX, chapter 7

33. A virgin bore Him Whom this world cannot contain or support. He, born of the womb of Mary, preserved inviolate her chastity, and the seal of her virginity. Therefore Christ found in the Virgin what He would take for His own, what the Lord of all would assume to Himself. By the woman and the man our flesh was cast out of Paradise, by the Virgin it was re-united to God.

34. And what shall I say of the other Mary, the sister of Moses, who, leading the female band, passed on foot over the straights of the sea?

36. And we ought to wonder at the greatness of the commendation of it which the Prophet, or rather Christ in the person of the Prophet, has expressed in one short verse: “A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed” (Song of Songs 4:12). Christ says this to the Church, whom He would have a virgin without spot or wrinkle (Ephesians 5:27). Virginity is a fertile garden, which bears many fruits of a good odour; a garden inclosed because it is surrounded on all sides with the wall of chastity…. – LETTER LXIII, chapter 33-36

[Ambrose is specifically connecting Mary to this passage about virgins being enclosed in the house, and implies Mary was veiled when she left home.]

9. She was unaccustomed to go from home, except for divine service, and this with parents or kinsfolk. Busy in private at home, accompanied by others abroad, yet with no better guardian than herself, as she, inspiring respect by her gait and address, progressed not so much by the motion of her feet as by step upon step of virtue.

11. And so, too, when Gabriel visited her, Luke 1:28 did he find her, and Mary trembled, being disturbed, as though at the form of a man, but on hearing his name recognized him as one not unknown to her. And so she was a stranger as to men, but not as to the angel; that we might know that her ears were modest and her eyes bashful.

14. And then, how she also went every year to Jerusalem at the solemn day of the passover, and went with Joseph. Everywhere is modesty the companion of her singular virtues in the Virgin. This, without which virginity cannot exist, must be the inseparable companion of virginity. And so Mary did not go even to the temple without the guardianship of her modesty.

15. The secret of modesty, the banner of faith, the service of devotion, the Virgin within the house…

22. There was lately at Antioch a virgin who avoided being seen in public, but the more she shrank from men’s eyes, the more they longed for her…. – On Virginity, book 2, chapters 9-15

Let them lift up the eyes of soul and body, let them look upon a people of modesty, a people of purity, an assembly of virginity. Not fillets are the ornament of their heads, but a veil common in use but ennobled by chastity, the enticement of beauty not sought out but laid aside. – Epistle XVIII, chapter 13

“Command that Your house be filled, bring in all unto Your supper, for You will make him whom You shall call worthy, if he follow You. He indeed is rejected who has not the wedding garment, that is, the vestment of charity, the veil of grace. Send forth I pray You to all.” – On Repentance by Ambrose, Chapter 7

 

Gregory of Nazianzus (329 – 390 AD):

To Basilissa: … I won’t hesitate to strengthen your enthusiasm as much as I can, not by the addition of different or strange precepts but with reminders of what I’ve often said and what you continuously practice. Here they are. Guide your soul over miseries with a lifestyle geared toward the most excellent things. Separate from your thought everything alien to virtue and unworthy of your judgment. Direct yourself toward piety and every form of orderly behavior…. Bring your way of life into rhythm with forbearance, your routine into rhythm with calm detachment, your tongue into rhythm with taciturnity. With these, adorn your head by covering it, your brow by keeping it restrained, your eyes by bowing them down and glancing about with decency, your mouth by not speaking improperly, your ears by listening to only serious matters, and your whole face with the hue of shame. In everything and by all means, keep yourself unmolested like an untouched relic. For gravity, constancy, temperance—these are the appropriate and proper adornment for a woman. – Letter 244

8. In modesty she so greatly excelled, and so far surpassed, those of her own day, to say nothing of those of old time who have been illustrious for modesty, that, in regard to the two divisions of the life of all, that is, the married and the unmarried state, the latter being higher and more divine, though more difficult and dangerous, while the former is more humble and more safe, she was able to avoid the disadvantages of each, and to select and combine all that is best in both… presenting herself, as long as she lived, as an example to her offspring of all that was good, and when summoned hence, leaving her will behind her, as a silent exhortation to her house.

9. Who was more deserving of renown, and yet who avoided it so much and made herself inaccessible to the eyes of man? … Listen, ye women addicted to ease and display, who despise the veil of shamefastness. Who ever so kept her eyes under control? Who so derided laughter, that the ripple of a smile seemed a great thing to her? Who more steadfastly closed her ears? And who opened them more to the Divine words, or rather, who installed the mind as ruler of the tongue in uttering the judgments of God? Who, as she, regulated her lips?

10. Here, if you will, is another point of her excellence: one of which neither she nor any truly modest and decorous woman thinks anything: but which we have been made to think much of, by those who are too fond of ornament and display, and refuse to listen to instruction on such matters. She was never adorned with gold wrought into artistic forms of surpassing beauty, nor flaxen tresses, fully or partially displayed, nor spiral curls, nor dishonouring designs of men who construct erections on the honourable head, nor costly folds of flowing and transparent robes, nor graces of brilliant stones, which color the neighbouring air, and cast a glow upon the form; nor the arts and witcheries of the painter, nor that cheap beauty of the infernal creator who works against the Divine, hiding with his treacherous pigments the creation of God, and putting it to shame with his honour, and setting before eager eyes the imitation of an harlot instead of the form of God, so that this bastard beauty may steal away that image which should be kept for God and for the world to come. But though she was aware of the many and various external ornaments of women, yet none of them was more precious to her than her own character, and the brilliancy stored up within. One red tint was dear to her, the blush of modesty; one white one, the sign of temperance: but pigments and pencillings, and living pictures, and flowing lines of beauty, she left to women of the stage and of the streets, and to all who think it a shame and a reproach to be ashamed.

11. What could be keener than the intellect of her who was recognized as a common adviser not only by those of her family, those of the same people and of the one fold, but even by all men round about, who treated her counsels and advice as a law not to be broken? What more sagacious than her words? What more prudent than her silence? Having mentioned silence, I will proceed to that which was most characteristic of her, most becoming to women, and most serviceable to these times. Who had a fuller knowledge of the things of God, both from the Divine oracles, and from her own understanding? But who was less ready to speak, confining herself within the due limits of women?

15. You know how her maddened mules ran away with her carriage, and unfortunately overturned it, how horribly she was dragged along, and seriously injured, to the scandal of unbelievers at the permission of such accidents to the righteous, and how quickly their unbelief was corrected: for, all crushed and bruised as she was, in bones and limbs, alike in those exposed and in those out of sight, she would have none of any physician, except Him Who had permitted it; both because she shrunk from the inspection and the hands of men, preserving, even in suffering, her modesty, and also awaiting her justification from Him Who allowed this to happen, so that she owed her preservation to none other than to Him.

But the following incident, hitherto unknown and concealed from moot men by the Christian principle I spoke of, and her pious shrinking from vanity and display…. – Oration VIII., Funeral Oration on His Sister Gorgonia.

 

Cyril of Jerusalem (313 – 386 AD):

Let your feet take you swiftly to the catachetical instructions. Submit to the exorcisms devoutly…. The veiling of your face is to foster recollection, lest a roving eye make your heart also stray. But the veiling of the eyes does not hinder the ears from receiving salvation. – Cyril of Jerusalem, Prologue to the Catechetical Lectures, chapter 9

God grant that, your soul’s face unveiled with a clear conscience, you may “reflecting as in a glass the glory of the Lord,” go “from glory to glory”23 in Christ Jesus our Lord, whose is the glory forever and ever. Amen. – Cyril of Jerusalem, On The Mysteries, Lecture 4

 

Gregory of Nyssa (335 – 394 AD):

… She replied weeping: “For the holy one [Macrina], the pure life was what she sought as adornment; for her, this was both the ornament of her life and the shroud of death. She had so little concern for dress that she owned nothing during her lifetime and stored none away for the present situation, so that, even if we desired it, there is nothing more to use than what is already here.” I said: “Is there nothing in the storage closets to decorate the funeral bier?” “What closets?” she replied. “You have everything she possessed in your hands. Look at her dress, look at the covering of her head, her worn sandals. This is her wealth, this is her property. There is nothing beyond what you see put aside in hidden places or made secure in treasures houses. She recognized one storage place for private wealth: the treasury of heaven.” – Gregory of Nyssa, Life of St. Macrina

 

Basil of Caesarea (330 – 379 AD):

“Dissolute women, having forgotten the fear of God and scorned the eternal fire, on a day when they ought to have remained in their homes to reflect on the resurrection, and to ponder that day when the heavens will be opened, the Judge will appear to us from heaven, the trumpets of God will sound, the dead will be raised, righteous judgment will take place, and each will be recompensed according to their deeds— instead of keeping such things in their thoughts, purifying their hearts from wicked thoughts, erasing past sins with tears, and preparing to meet Christ on the great day of His appearing—they have cast off the yoke of Christ’s bondage. They have thrown off the veils of modesty from their heads, despised God, and disregarded His angels. They have shamelessly exposed themselves to the eyes of men, shaking their hair, dragging their garments, playing with their feet, casting lustful glances, laughing excessively, and abandoning themselves to frenzied dancing. They invite upon themselves all manner of youthful recklessness. Gathering in the public squares outside the city, they form choirs, turning sacred places into workshops of their own shamelessness. They have polluted the air with lewd songs and defiled the earth with the unclean feet that stamped it in their dances. Surrounding themselves with crowds of young men as spectators, they truly act as insolent and unruly women, leaving no excess of madness untried. How can I remain silent about these things? How can I adequately lament them?” – Basil of Caesarea, Homily 14, On The Drunkards, Patrologia Graeca 31, 447-448

 

Rufinus of Aquileia (340 – 410 AD):

But while they were on the way in the conveyance into which the soldiers had forced them, the devout and chaste mother spoke to her daughters: “You know, my sweetest daughters, how I have brought you up in God’s discipline; you know that from childhood God has been to you a father, a nurturer, and an instructor, and that together with me you have so loved what is good in modesty and chastity that never have your very eyes been tainted by the sight of impurity, as I know of you. You can see that the whole purpose of this violence is to separate us from God or from chastity. Are these limbs, then, which the common air itself has hardly known, to be prostituted in the common brothels? – Rufinus, Church History, book 8, chapter 12, paragraph 3

Women too who were mistresses of households and well born were forced by famine to forget propriety and go out into the streets to seek alms, and those whom modesty used not to allow to look at the faces of others were compelled by famine to beg for a bit of food or even to seize it for themselves. – Rufinus, Church History, book 9, chapter 8, paragraph 7

At the same time he saw some common woman come bursting out of her house with such haste and speed that she paused neither to close the door nor to cover herself properly as women should; she was pulling with her a small child and hurrying along at such a rate that she even collided with the retinue. – Rufinus, Church History, book 11, chapter 5

 

Jerome (342 – 420 AD):

You should choose for your companions staid and serious women, particularly widows and virgins, persons of approved conversation, of few words, and of a holy modesty. Shun gay and thoughtless girls, who deck their heads and wear their hair in fringes, who use cosmetics to improve their skins and affect tight sleeves, dresses without a crease, and dainty buskins; and by pretending to be virgins more easily sell themselves into destruction. Moreover, the character and tastes of a mistress are often inferred from the behavior of her attendants. Regard as fair and lovable and a fitting companion one who is unconscious of her good looks and careless of her appearance; who does not expose her breast out of doors or throw back her cloak to reveal her neck; who veils all of her face except her eyes, and only uses these to find her way. – Letter 130, chapter 18

The women who ought to scandalize Christians are those who paint their eyes and lips with rouge and cosmetics; whose chalked faces, unnaturally white, are like those of idols; upon whose cheeks every chance tear leaves a furrow; who fail to realize that years make them old; who heap their heads with hair not their own; who smooth their faces, and rub out the wrinkles of age; and who, in the presence of their grandsons, behave like trembling school-girls. A Christian woman should blush to do violence to nature, or to stimulate desire by bestowing care upon the flesh. They that are in the flesh, the apostle tells us, cannot please God. – Letter 38, to Marcella, chapter 3

[And then, speaking of a recently-deceased widow, who had repented of her luxurious lifestyle, he writes]:

In days gone by our dear widow was extremely fastidious in her dress, and spent whole days before her mirror to correct its deficiencies…. In those days maids arranged her hair, and her head, which had done no harm, was forced into a waving head-dress. Now she leaves her hair alone, and her only head-dress is a veil. – Letter 38, to Marcella, chapter 4

There are some who hate their parents and have no affection for their kin. Their state of mind is indicated by a restlessness which disdains excuses; they rend the veil of chastity and put it aside like a cobweb. Such are the ways of women; not, indeed, that men are any better. – Letter 125, chapter 6

[In a letter addressed to a virgin named Eustochium, he draws similar parallels from the Song of Songs as Origen does, advising her from its spiritual teachings about Christ’s bride]:

Go not from home nor visit the daughters of a strange land, though you have patriarchs for brothers and Israel for a father. Dinah went out and was seduced. Do not seek the Bridegroom in the streets; do not go round the corners of the city. For though you may say: I will rise now and go about the city: in the streets and in the broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul loves, and though you may ask the watchmen: Have you seen Him whom my soul loves? no one will deign to answer you. The Bridegroom cannot be found in the streets: Strait and narrow is the way which leads unto life. So the Song goes on: I sought him but I could not find him: I called him but he gave me no answer. And would that failure to find Him were all. You will be wounded and stripped, you will lament and say: The watchmen that went about the city found me: they smote me, they wounded me, they took away my veil from me. Now… if one who could speak thus suffered so much because she went abroad, what shall become of us who are but young girls; of us who, when the bride goes in with the Bridegroom, still remain without? Jesus is jealous. He does not choose that your face should be seen of others. You may excuse yourself and say: I have drawn close my veil, I have covered my face and I have sought You there… yet in spite of your excuses He will be angry and say…. “Unless you know yourself, and keep your heart with all diligence, unless also you avoid the eyes of the young men, you will be turned out of My bride-chamber to feed the goats, which shall be set on the left hand.” – Letter 22, to Eustochium

When Paula comes to be a little older and to increase like her Spouse in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man, Luke 2:52 let her go with her parents to the temple of her true Father but let her not come out of the temple with them. Let them seek her upon the world’s highway amid the crowds and the throng of their kinsfolk, and let them find her nowhere but in the shrine of the scriptures, Luke 2:43-46 questioning the prophets and the apostles on the meaning of that spiritual marriage to which she is vowed. Let her imitate the retirement of Mary whom Gabriel found alone in her chamber and who was frightened, Luke 1:29 it would appear, by seeing a man there. Let the child emulate her of whom it is written that the king’s daughter is all glorious within. Wounded with love’s arrow let her say to her beloved, the king has brought me into his chambers. Song of Songs 1:4 At no time let her go abroad, lest the watchmen find her that go about the city, and lest they smite and wound her and take away from her the veil of her chastity, Song of Songs 5:7 and leave her naked in her blood. Ezekiel 16:1-10 Nay rather when one knocks at her door Song of Songs 5:2 let her say: I am a wall and my breasts like towers. Song of Songs 8:10 I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? – Jerome, Letter 107 To Laeta, chapter 7

But now that you have despised the boastfulness of the world, do not let the fact inspire you with new boastfulness. Harbor not the secret thought that having ceased to court attention in garments of gold you may begin to do so in mean attire. And when you come into a room full of brothers and sisters, do not sit in too low a place or plead that you are unworthy of a footstool. Do not deliberately lower your voice as though worn out with fasting; nor, leaning on the shoulder of another, mimic the tottering gait of one who is faint. Some women, it is true, disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. As soon as they catch sight of any one they groan, they look down; they cover up their faces, all but one eye, which they keep free to see with. Their dress is somber, their girdles are of sackcloth, their hands and feet are dirty; only their stomachs — which cannot be seen — are hot with food. Of these the psalm is sung daily: The Lord will scatter the bones of them that please themselves. Others change their garb and assume the mien of men, being ashamed of being what they were born to be — women. They cut off their hair and are not ashamed to look like eunuchs. – Letter 27, to Eustochium

It is usual in the monasteries of Egypt and Syria for virgins and widows who have vowed themselves to God and have renounced the world and have trodden under foot its pleasures, to ask the mothers of their communities to cut their hair; not that afterwards they go about with heads uncovered in defiance of the apostle’s command, for they wear a close-fitting cap and a veil. – Jerome, Letter 147, chapter 5

A book On Marriage, worth its weight in gold, passes under the name of Theophrastus. In it the author asks whether a wise man marries. And after laying down the conditions — that the wife must be fair, of good character, and honest parentage, the husband in good health and of ample means, and after saying that under these circumstances a wise man sometimes enters the state of matrimony, he immediately proceeds thus: “But all these conditions are seldom satisfied in marriage. A wise man therefore must not take a wife…. Notice, too, that in the case of a wife you cannot pick and choose: you must take her as you find her. If she has a bad temper, or is a fool, if she has a blemish, or is proud, or has bad breath, whatever her fault may be — all this we learn after marriage. Horses, asses, cattle, even slaves of the smallest worth, clothes, kettles, wooden seats, cups, and earthenware pitchers, are first tried and then bought: a wife is the only thing that is not shown before she is married, for fear she may not give satisfaction. – Jerome, Against Jovinianus, book 1, chapter 47

 

Augustine (354 – 430 AD):

Every man praying or prophesying with veiled head shameth his head;’ and, ‘A man ought not to veil his head, for so much as he is the image and glory of God.’” Now if it is true of a man that he is not to veil his head, then the opposite is true of a woman, that she is to veil her head. – On The Holy Trinity, book 12, chapter 7

“We ought not therefore so to understand that made in the image of the Supreme Trinity, that is, in the image of God, as that same image should be understood to be in three human beings; especially when the apostle says that the man is the image of God, and on that account removes the covering from his head, which he warns the woman to use, speaking thus: ‘For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man.’” – On The Holy Trinity, book 12, chapter 7

It is usual, therefore, to ask what He means, when He says: “But ye, when ye fast, anoint your head, and wash your faces, that ye appear not unto men to fast.” … Hence, to anoint the head refers to joy; to wash the face, on the other hand, refers to purity: and therefore that man anoints his head who rejoices inwardly in his mind and reason…. For the flesh, which ought to be subject, is in no way the head of the whole nature of man. “No man,” indeed, “ever yet hated his own flesh,” as the apostle says, when giving the precept as to loving one’s wife; but the man is the head of the woman, and Christ is the head of the man…. For thus also he will wash his face [i.e. cleanse his heart], with which he shall see God, no veil being interposed on account of the infirmity contracted from squalor. – Augustine, On Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Book II, chapter 12 (or paragraph 42)

Let your apparel be in no wise conspicuous; and aspire to please others by your behaviour rather than by your attire. Let your head-dresses not be so thin as to let the nets below them be seen. Let your hair be worn wholly covered…. Though a passing glance be directed towards any man, let your eyes look fixedly at none… Nor let her who fixes her eyes upon one of the other sex, and takes pleasure in his eye being fixed on her, imagine that the act is not observed by others; she is seen assuredly by those by whom she supposes herself not to be remarked. But even though she should elude notice, and be seen by no human eye, what shall she do with that Witness above us from whom nothing can be concealed? – Augustine, letter 211, chapter 10

… No one is to work in making any article of clothing or for the couch, or any girdle, hooded cloak, or veil (velum) for her own private comfort, but that all your works be done for the common good of all, with greater zeal and more cheerful perseverance than if you were each working for your individual interest. – Augustine, letter 211, chapter 12

[The hood and veil combination matches Shepherd of Hermas’, Athanasius’, and Jerome’s description of the head-covering.]

But no women, even those who are married, should display their hair, for the apostle commands them even to veil their heads. – Augustine, Letter 245

Nor on such as are drunken, or covetous, or who are lying in any other kind whatever of damnable disease, at the same time that they have profession of bodily continence, and through perverse manners are at variance with their own name, do I impose this great anxiety about pious humility: unless haply in these evils they shall dare even to make a display of themselves, unto whom it is not enough, that the punishments of these are deferred. Nor am I treating of these, in whom there is a certain aim of pleasing, either by more elegant dress than the necessity of so great profession demands, or by remarkable manner of binding the head, whether by bosses of hair swelling forth, or by coverings so yielding, that the fine net-work below appears: unto these we must give precepts, not as yet concerning humility, but concerning chastity itself, or virgin modesty. Give me one who makes profession of perpetual continence, and who is free from these, and all such faults and spots of conduct; for this one I fear pride, for this so great good I am in alarm from the swelling of arrogance. The more there is in any one on account of which to be self-pleased, the more I fear, lest, by pleasing self, he please not Him, Who resists the proud, but unto the humble gives grace. – Augustine, On Holy Virginity, chapter 34

These I drive away with the hand of my heart, from the face of my remembrance; until what I wish for be unveiled, and appear in sight, out of its secret place. – Augustine, Confessions, book 10, paragraph 12

 

Cyril of Alexandria (376 – 444 AD):

For, falling into sin, we have wrapped the shame of it like a veil about the face of our soul, and are fast bound by the cords of death. When therefore the Christ shall at the time of the resurrection bring us out from our tombs in the earth, then in very truth does He loosen us from our former evils, and as it were remove the veil of shame, and command that we be let go freely from that time forward. – Commentary on John, book 7

Your face has been veiled, that your mind may henceforward be free, lest the eye by roving make the heart rove also. But when your eyes are veiled, your ears are not hindered from receiving the means of salvation. –  Catechetical Lectures, Protocatechesis, chapter 9

… We believe that He who is begotten of the unbegotten Father is uncreated. We say that He is the head of every man, as the archetype, as I have said, because He appeared as man in the last days and, in human form, is the head of the Church, which is His body. For He is preeminent in all things, according to the word of Paul: ‘Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head,’ etc. Do you see how the law of nature acts as the arbiter and regulator of each? Boldness is most fitting for men, but for a woman, covering herself is decorous. To show contempt toward the archetype would indeed be an insult to the image. For if man is the glory of God—created as the Scriptures say—then let him preserve the proper boldness before God by having his head uncovered, since it is not fitting by nature for him to be veiled. For the divine is free, without blemish, and entirely adorned in its own glory and wonder. And if the woman is, in the likeness of man, the image of the image and the glory of his glory, nature has ordained for her to grow her hair. Why does that which is secondary contend over grace? For she too is in the image and likeness of God, though with a slight difference by nature, as it is through the man that she reflects the image. Modesty adorns her as much as possible as a living creature and crowns her with her hair. For boldness in a woman is not fitting. – Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11, Patrologia Graeca 74:881

 

Theodoret of Cyrus (393-457 AD):

He has clearly demonstrated that it is appropriate for a woman to veil herself, as seen from her hair. A man, on the other hand, should not veil his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man. Man is the image of God, not with respect to his body nor his soul, but solely with respect to his role as ruler. For, having been entrusted with authority over all things on earth, he is rightly called the image of God….

For this reason, a woman ought to have authority on her head, because of the angels. He called the covering “authority” as a sign that she should show her submission, wrapping herself up, and this is especially for the sake of the angels, who stand over human beings and have been entrusted with their care…. If she considers her hair an honor and its removal a disgrace, then let her understand that she dishonors the one who gave her the hair, if she does not approach with the proper shamefacedness and honor…. But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God. This statement alone is sufficient to refute even those who are excessively argumentative. For he demonstrated that these views are not his own alone but are also shared by all the churches of God. – Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11, Patrologia Graeca 82:232-235

 

JEWISH TEACHING ON MODESTY:

Matthew 5:20: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

 

Philo of Alexandria:

But if the charge which is made against her be contested, and if the evidence be doubtful, so as not to incline to either side, then let the two parties go up to the temple, and let the man stand in front of the altar, in the presence of the priest for the day, and then let him state his suspicions and his grounds for them, and let him produce and offer some barley flour, as a species of oblation on behalf of his wife, to prove that he accuses her, not out of insult, but with an honest intention, because he has a reasonable doubt. And the priest shall take the barley and offer it to the woman, and shall take away from her the head-dress on her head, that she may be judged with her head bare, and deprived of the symbol of modesty, which all those women are accustomed to wear who are completely blameless…. – Philo, The Special Laws III, chapter X

… but if she be convicted by her own conscience, let her cover her face, making her modesty the veil for her iniquities, for to persist in her impudence is the very extravagance of wickedness. – Philo, The Special Laws III, chapter X

But there are times when virtue, as if making experiment of those who come to her as pupils, to see how much eagerness they have, does not come forward to meet them, but veiling her face like Tamar, sits down in the public road, giving room to those who are traveling along the road to look upon her as a harlot, in order that those who are over curious on the subject may take off her veil and disclose her features, and may behold the untouched, and unpolluted, and most exquisite, and truly virgin beauty of modesty and chastity. – Philo, On Mating With The Preliminary Studies, chapter XXIII

Market places, and council chambers, and courts of justice, and large companies and assemblies of numerous crowds, and a life in the open air full of arguments and actions relating to war and peace, are suited to men; but taking care of the house and remaining at home are the proper duties of women; the virgins having their apartments in the centre of the house within the innermost doors, and the full-grown women not going beyond the vestibule and outer courts; for there are two kinds of states, the greater and the smaller. And the larger ones are called really cities; but the smaller ones are called houses. And the superintendence and management of these is allotted to the two sexes separately; the men having the government of the greater, which government is called a polity; and the women that of the smaller, which is called oeconomy. Therefore let no woman busy herself about those things which are beyond the province of oeconomy, but let her cultivate solitude, and not be seen to be going about like a woman who walks the streets in the sight of other men, except when it is necessary for her to go to the temple, if she has any proper regard for herself; and even then let her not go at noon when the market is full, but after the greater part of the people have returned home; like a well-born woman, a real and true citizen, performing her vows and her sacrifices in tranquillity, so as to avert evils and to receive blessings. – Philo, The Special Laws III, chapter XXXI

Their wives, who were shut up, and who did not actually come forth out of their inner chambers, and their virgins, who were kept in the strictest privacy, shunning the eyes of men, even of those who were their nearest relations, out of modesty, were now alarmed by being displayed to the public gaze, not only of persons who were no relations to them, but even of common soldiers. – Against Flaccus, chapter 11

 

Josephus:

But if any one suspect that his wife has been guilty of adultery, he was to bring a tenth deal of barley flour; they then cast one handful to God and gave the rest of it to the priests for food. One of the priests set the woman at the gates that are turned towards the temple, and took the veil from her head, and wrote the name of God on parchment, and enjoined her to swear that she had not at all injured her husband. – Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, book 3, chapter 11, paragraph 6

The first veil was ten cubits every way, and this they spread over the pillars which parted the temple, and kept the most holy place concealed within; and this veil was that which made this part not visible to any. – Antiquities of the Jews, book 3, chapter 6, paragraph 4

Whereupon she was sorely grieved at the injury and violence that had been offered to her, and rent her loose coat (for the virgins of old time wore such loose coats tied at the hands, and let down to the ankles, that the inner coats might not be seen)…. – Antiquities of the Jews, book 7, chapter 8, paragraph 1

 

Jewish Tradition:

The mishna stated: And who is considered a woman who violates the precepts of Jewish women? One who goes out and her head is uncovered. The Gemara asks: The prohibition against a woman going out with her head uncovered is not merely a custom of Jewish women. Rather, it is by Torah law, as it is written with regard to a woman suspected by her husband of having been unfaithful: “And he shall uncover the head of the woman” (Numbers 5:18). And the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: From here there is a warning to Jewish women not to go out with an uncovered head, since if the Torah states that a woman suspected of adultery must have her head uncovered, this indicates that a married woman must generally cover her head. – Mishna, 72a

If she covers her head with her basket [kilta], it seems well and is sufficient. But by precepts of Jewish women (i.e. custom), even if her head is covered by her basket this is also prohibited; she requires a substantial head covering. – Mishna, 72b

Rabbi Asi said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: If she covers her head with her basket, there is no violation of the prohibition against having an uncovered head. Rabbi Zeira discussed it: Where is the woman that Rabbi Yoḥanan is referring to? If we say he means that she appears this way in the marketplace, this is a violation of precepts of Jewish women, as explained previously. And if you say rather that he means she appears this way in her own courtyard, if so, you have not allowed any daughter of our father Abraham to remain with her husband, since most women are not careful to cover their heads completely inside their own courtyards. Abaye said, and some say that Rav Kahana said: Rabbi Yoḥanan is referring to when she walks from one courtyard to another courtyard or via an alleyway. Although these places are not considered public areas, strangers may still be present in them. – Mishna, 72b

“Eastern women take no part in public life. This was true of Judaism in the time of Jesus, in all cases where Jewish families faithfully observed the Law. When the Jewess of Jerusalem left her house, her face was hidden by an arrangement of two head veils, a head-band on the forehead with bands to the chin, and a hairnet with ribbons and knots, so that her features could not be recognized. It was said that once, for example, a chief priest in Jerusalem did not recognize his own mother when he had to carry out against her the prescribed process for a woman suspected of adultery. Any woman who went out without this headdress, i.e., without her face being hidden, committed such an offence against good taste that her husband had the right—and indeed the duty—to put her away from him, and was under no obligation to pay the sum of money to which, on divorce, the wife had a right by virtue of the marriage contract. There were even women so strict that they did not once uncover their head in the house, women like Qimhit, who, it was said, saw seven sons admitted to the high priesthood, which was regarded as divine reward for her extreme propriety: ‘May it [this and that] befall me if the beams of my house have ever seen the hair of my head’ (j. Megillah i.12, 72a. 53; j. Horayoth iii.5, 47d.15; j. Yoma i.i, 38d.9).” – Joachim Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus, chapter XVIII (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), pp. 359-360

 

VEILING AROUND THE WORLD:

 

Greece / Rome:

Dio Chrysostom (40-120 AD):

And yet what need have we to mention deities? Take Athenodorus, who became governor of Tarsus, whom Augustus held in honour — had he known your city to be what it is today, would he, do you suppose, have preferred being here to living with the emperor? In days gone by, therefore, your city was renowned for orderliness and sobriety, and the men it produced were of like character; but now I fear that it may be rated just the opposite and so be classed with this or that other city I might name. And yet many of the customs still in force reveal in one way or another the sobriety and severity of deportment of those earlier days. Among these is the convention regarding feminine attire, a convention which prescribes that women should be so arrayed and should so deport themselves when in the street that nobody could see any part of them, neither of the face nor of the rest of the body, and that they themselves might not see anything off the road. And yet what could they see as shocking as what they hear? Consequently, beginning the process of corruption with the ears, most of them have come to utter ruin. For wantonness slips in from every quarter, through ears and eyes alike. Therefore, while they have their faces covered as they walk, they have their soul uncovered and its doors thrown wide open. For that reason they, like surveyors, can see more keenly with but one of their eyes. – Dio Chrysostom (40-120 AD), Orations/Speeches, Discourse 33, chapters 48-49

 

Valerius Maximus (14-37 AD):

Terrible also was the matrimonial frown of Sulpitius Gallus, who divorced his wife, because he understood that she went abroad with her head unveiled. A rigid sentence, and yet there was some reason for it. For the law, said he, confines you to have no other judges of your beauty but my eyes; for these, adorn yourself; be fair only to these, and believe their judgment. The farther sight of you, where it was needless, must of necessity be suspicious and criminal. – Valerius Maximus (14-37 AD), Memorable Acts and Sayings, VI.3.10

 

Menander (342 BC):

“She’ll be shy now when we enter. That, of course, I may assume. Cover up her face – ’tis custom – but I must on entering… win her wholly to my will, turn to flattery and tell her that for her alone I live.” [His friend replies]: “She perhaps won’t give in, you understand me, offhand, at the first assault. For she comes as no mere flute-girl nor degraded courtesan….” – Menander (342 BC), Perikeiromene, Act III

 

Euripides (424 BC):

Polymestor, I am holden in such wretched plight that I blush to meet thine eye; for my present evil case makes me ashamed to face thee who didst see me in happier days, and I cannot look on thee with unfaltering gaze. Do not then think it ill-will on my part, Polymestor; there is another cause as well, I mean the custom which forbids women to meet men’s gaze. – Euripides (424 BC), Hecubus

Phaedra: “Lift my body, raise my head! … O handmaids, lift my arms, my shapely arms. The tire on my head is too heavy for me to wear; away with it, and let my tresses o’er my shoulders fall.”
Nurse: “My child, what wild speech is this? O say not such things in public, wild whirling words of frenzy bred!”
Phaedra: “Ah me! Alas! What have I done? Whither have I strayed, my senses leaving? Mad, mad! Stricken by some demon’s curse! Woe is me! Cover my head again, nurse. Shame fills me for the words I have spoken. Hide me then. From my eyes, the tear-drops stream, and for very shame I turn them away. ‘Tis painful coming to one’s senses again….” – Euripides (480–406 BC), Hippolytus

 

Homer (700 BC):

And now, from high above in her room and deep in thought, she caught his inspired strains … Icarius’ daughter Penelope, wary and reserved, and down the steep stair from her chamber she descended, not alone: two of her women followed close behind. That radiant woman, once she reached her suitors, drawing her glistening veil across her cheeks, paused now where a column propped the sturdy roof, with one of her loyal handmaids stationed either side. – Homer (700 BC), The Odyssey, book 1

When she reached the battlements and the crowd of people, she stood looking out upon the wall, and saw Hector being borne away in front of the city—the horses dragging him without heed or care over the ground towards the ships of the Achaeans. Her eyes were then shrouded as with the darkness of night and she fell fainting backwards. She tore the attiring from her head and flung it from her, the frontlet and net with its plaited band, and the veil which golden Venus had given her on the day when Hector took her with him from the house of Eetion, after having given countless gifts of wooing for her sake. – Homer (700 BC), The Iliad, Book 22

 

Plutarch (46–120 AD):

[You ask] “Why is it the custom for the women of Chalcedon, whenever they encounter strange men, and especially officials, to veil [only] one cheek?” The Chalcedonians were involved in a war against the Bithynians, to which they were provoked by all kinds of reasons. When Zeipoetes became king of Bithynia, the Chalcedonians, in full force and with the addition of Thracian allies, devastated the country with fire and sword. When Zeipoetes attacked them near the so-called Phalion, they fought badly through rashness and lack of discipline, and lost over eight thousand soldiers. It was only because Zeipoetes granted an armistice to please the Byzantines that they were not completely annihilated at that time. Since, then, there was a great scarcity of men throughout the city, most of the women were forced to consort with freedmen and resident aliens. But those women who preferred to have no husband at all rather than a marriage of this sort, themselves conducted whatever business they needed to transact with the judges or the officials, drawing aside one part of the veil that covered their faces. And the married women, for very shame, followed the example of these, who, they felt, were better than themselves, and also changed to a similar custom. – Plutarch (46–120 AD), The Roman and Greek Questions, number 49

When someone inquired [of King Charillus] why they took their girls into public places unveiled, but their married women veiled, he said, “Because the girls have to find husbands, and the married women have to keep to those who have them!” – Plutarch (46–120 AD), Apophthegmata Laconica, Sayings of the Spartans, page 395

… It is in this regard, that unto sorrow and heaviness is best beseeming that which is extraordinary and unusual: now more ordinary it is with women to go abroad with their heads veiled and covered: and likewise with men, to be discovered and bare headed. So in Greece, whenever any misfortune comes, the women cut off their hair and the men let it grow, for it is usual for men to have their hair cut and for women to let it grow. – Plutarch (46–120 AD), Romane Questions, question 14

It was a custom among the Egyptian ladies not to wear shoes, that they might stay at home all day and not go abroad. But most of our women will only stay at home if you strip them of their golden shoes, and bracelets, and shoe-buckles, and purple robes, and pearls. Theano, in throwing on her mantle-veil, exposed her forearm. Somebody exclaimed, “A lovely forearm!” and she replied, “But not for the public.” So ought not even the speech, any more than the arm, of a chaste woman, to be common, for speech must be considered as it were the exposing of the mind, especially in the presence of strangers. For in words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker. Phidias made a statue of Aphrodite at Elis, with one foot on a tortoise, as a symbol that women should stay at home and be silent. For the wife ought only to speak either to her husband, or by her husband, not being vexed if, like a flute-player, she speaks more decorously by another mouth-piece. – Plutarch (46–120 AD), Moralia, chapters xxx-xxxii

 

Theognis of Megara (570 -485 BC)

“I hate a bad man, and pass by veiling myself, keeping my mind as light as a little bird’s.” – Theognis of Megara (570 -485 BC), Elegies, 579-580

 

Aristophanes (446–386 BC):

Lysistrata: “Up to now, through this long war, we kept silent about all those things you men were doing. We were being modest. And you did not allow us to speak up, although we were not happy…. Why should we delay? If you’d like to hear us give some good advice, then start to listen, keep your mouths quite shut, the way we did. We’ll save you from yourselves.”
Magistrate: “Me, shut up for you? A damned woman with a veil on your face too? I’d sooner die!”
Lysistrata: “If it’s the veil that’s the obstacle, here, take mine, it’s yours. Put it over your face, and then shut up!” – Aristophanes (446–386 BC), Lysistrata

 

Nonius (400 AD):

 

Plato (427–348 BC):

SOCRATES: Shall I tell you what I will do?
PHAEDRUS: What?
SOCRATES: I will veil my face and gallop through the discourse as fast as I can, for if I
see you I shall feel ashamed and not know what to say. – Plato (427–348 BC), Dialogue of Phaedrus

Later, he says:

SOCRATES: … And this I will attempt, not as before, veiled and ashamed, but with forehead bold and bare. 

At various points in Plato’s dialogs, he will describe the argument as if it were a female, and say things like:

… Then the argument turned aside and veiled her face; not liking to stir the question which has now arisen. – Plato (427–348 BC), The Republic, book 6

 

Apollonius Rhodius (died 295 BC):

The maiden, looking sideways behind her shining veil, glanced at him with wandering eyes. Her heart smoldered with pain as he left her sight and her soul crept out of her as in a dream and fluttered in his steps. – Apollonius Rhodius (died 295 BC), Argonautica, book 3

And with bare feet she sped along the narrow paths, with her left hand holding her robe over her brow to veil her face and fair cheeks, and with her right lifting up the hem of her tunic. – Apollonius Rhodius (died 295 BC), Argonautica (died 295 BC), book 4

 

Lysias (445 – 380 BC):

I think it proper that you should hear the numerous offences that [Simon] has committed against myself. Hearing that the boy was at my house, he came there in a drunken state, broke down the doors, and entered into the area the women use. Within were my sister and my nieces who had lived such well-ordered lives that they were embarrassed even to be seen by their relatives. This man, then, carried insolence to such a level that he refused to go away until the people who appeared on the spot and those who had accompanied him, thinking it a terrible thing to intrude on young women and orphans, drove him out by force. – Lysias (445 – 380 BC), The Orations of Lysias

 

Cicero (106–43 BC):

If, however, you have found in the province itself anyone, hitherto unknown to us, who has made his way into intimacy with you, take care how much confidence you repose in him; not that there may not be many good provincials, but, though we may hope so, it is risky to be positive. For everyone’s real character is covered by many wrappings of pretence and is concealed by a kind of veil: face, eyes, expression very often lie, speech most often of all. – Cicero (106–43 BC), Letter V, To His Brother Quintus

Yet, after all, a man who has once passed the border-line of modesty had better put a bold face on it and be frankly impudent. – Cicero (106–43 BC), Letter CVIII (F V, 12) To L. Lucceius

 

Assyria:

Middle Assyrian Law (1450 – 1250 BC):

Married women, widows, and Assyrian women must not have their heads uncovered when they go out into the street. Daughters of status must be veiled, whether by a veil, a robe, or a [mantle]; they must not have their heads uncovered…. A concubine on the street with her mistress is to be veiled. A hierodule (prostitute) who has gotten married must be veiled on the street, but a single hierodule must have her head uncovered; she may not be veiled. A harlot is not to be veiled; her head must be uncovered. Any man who sees a veiled harlot is to apprehend her, produce witnesses and bring her to the palace entrance. Although her jewelry may not be taken the one who apprehended her may take her clothing. She shall be flogged fifty times and have pitch poured on her head. – Middle Assyrian Law (1450 – 1250 BC, Article 40

The translator left a note here which reads:

“The covering of the head does not refer to a hat or bonnet, but means that women must conceal their entire head by a drapery, as is still the custom in parts of Syria and in Tunis, Algiers and Morocco. See the illustrations in Ploss-Bartels Dag Weib (9th ed. Vol. 1, pp. 527 and 531).”

 

Persia:

Vis and Rāmin (100 AD):

A fresh spring breeze arose and stirred the curtains on the litter one by one; it was as if a sword had been drawn from the scabbard, or as if the sun had come out from behind a cloud. The face of Vis came out from behind the veil and Ramin’s heart became its slave at one glance. It was as if a sorceress4 had shown her face to him and robbed his body of life with one look. Even had this been a poisoned arrow, its wound could not have been thus catastrophic; for no sooner had Ramin seen the face of that moonlike beauty than he was as one in whose heart an arrow had suddenly lodged. He fell from his horse as mighty as a mountain, like a leaf that the wind rips from the tree. The brain in his head had begun to boil from the fire in his heart; heart had fled from body and sense from head. Love penetrated his heart by way of the eye, and thus stole his heart through a single glance – Vīs o Rāmīn, chapter 15, page 32

He would say, “How if fair fortune once more showed me the face of that Moon? How if again a wind came and snatched the veil from the face of Vis? How if she heard one of my sighs and covertly showed that cheek out of the veil?” – Vīs o Rāmīn, chapter 32, page 61

When he saw the Nurse alone in the garden it was as if he had seen the face of everlasting Fortune. He greeted her and pronounced many salutations; the Nurse did likewise to him. They inquired of each other’s health like two fond lovers, dearly devoted to each other. Then they took hands and went to a meadow of wild lilies; they spoke together of everything under the sun; their talk was ointment to the wounded heart. Râmïn rent the veil of shame, for his dear soul was hot within him. – Vīs o Rāmīn, page 76

From the moment my eyes fell on that glorious paradise my heart fell a prisoner in Hell. It was as if that was no wind, but a cataclysm; it unveiled to me all of a sudden the face of disaster. – Vīs o Rāmīn, chapter 40, page 77

When Râmïn rose from the Nurse’s embrace her heart was exercised on his behalf; there and then the veil of bashfulness was rent, her former cold words grew warm. She said to him, “Winning speaker that you are! you have carried off the prize from all in oratory. Your heart seeks its desire from everyone; every woman you see is called Vis! Till today you were dear to me; but I am become dearer to you from this day forth. Barriers are down between us; for the arrow of desire has found the target…. – Vīs o Rāmīn, chapter 40, page 84

“How do you presume to take my wife, helpless and weak as you are? Although Vïseh is your sister, how can my wife sit as your spouse? Why do you hold her in your house? I shall listen to no excuse for this deed. Where have you ever seen a wife mated to two husbands? Or two fierce elephants tied on a hair ?… I shall cause a Tigris of blood to flow over the plain. I shall bring Vis, barefooted and unveiled, on foot in front of the army like a dog. I shall so humiliate her that henceforth no one shall dare to make an enemy of the great!” – Vīs o Rāmīn, chapter 51, page 127-129

He sat his sweetheart in the litter, like a royal pearl in a crown; the dust of every road grew like musk and tulips from the scent of the locks and the color of the face of that Moon; though hidden in the veil, she yet shone like a moon two weeks old; though she was a caravantraveler on the road, she was yet like a cypress grown to royal stature; – Vīs o Rāmīn, chapter 58, page 145

The night was dark as a soul forlorn; camphor rained from its musky clouds. The clouds of December spread their canopy; the moon was veiled like the face of Vïs. The sky had fallen to weeping like the eye of Râmïn, in sorrow that the Moon was hidden from it. The moon was hidden in the winter clouds, like the face of Princess Vïs in the seraglio. – Vīs o Rāmīn, chapter 59, page 150

The beauty like a silvery hill took off her shoes and mounted it like a flying falcon; when she gained its top, she leapt from the pavilion onto the roof; the wind carried off the rosy-red tiara from her head. She was left bareheaded and barefooted; her necklace snapped, its pearls scattered. The earrings were quite shattered on her ears; her fair face was left without ornament. Then she hurried to the edge of the garden, her soul full of desire and her heart full of brands; she tied her linen chadur (2) in a cranny, gripped it, and then leapt from the wall. – Vīs o Rāmīn, chapter 67, page 192

The footnote reads: 2. A flowing garment of a single piece of material, worn over the head and
capable of veiling the face.

How sweet all her reproach in the time of union; how sweet when she veiled her face in flirtation; if she withdrew into the veil so much as one day in the week, she enslaved me like a prisoner. – Vīs o Rāmīn, chapter 82, page 272

 

Shahnameh, The Epic of Kings (977-1010 AD):

Then he sent forth a strong band into the camp of Iran, and veiled women went with them, and he charged them that they bring back Soodabeh unto his arms. – Shahnameh, Chapter 7

And Soodabeh went with the army in a litter clothed with fair stuffs, and encrusted with wood of aloes. And she was veiled that none might behold her beauty, and she went with the men like to the sun when he marcheth behind a cloud. – Shahnameh, Chapter 7

And there stepped within a slave bearing a lamp perfumed with amber, and a woman whose beauty was veiled came after her. – Shahnameh, Chapter 8

Then the Peri-faced answered him, saying, “I am Tahmineh, the daughter of the King of Samengan, of the race of the leopard and the lion, and none of the princes of this earth are worthy of my hand, neither hath any man seen me unveiled. – Shahnameh, Chapter 8

Gurdafrid with fury, and seized the reins of her steed, and caught her by the waist, and tore her armour, and threw her upon the ground. Yet ere he could raise his hand to strike her, she drew her sword and shivered his lance in twain, and leaped again upon her steed. And when she saw that the day was hers, she was weary of further combat, and she sped back unto the fortress. But Sohrab gave rein unto his horse, and followed after her in his great anger. And he caught her, and seized her, and tore the helmet from off her head, for he desired to look upon the face of the man who could withstand the son of Rostam. And lo! when he had done so, there rolled forth from the helmet coils of dusky hue, and Sohrab beheld it was a woman that had overcome him in the fight…. Then Gurdafrid, full of wile, turned unto him her face that was unveiled, for she beheld no other means of safety, and she said unto him… etc. – Shahnameh, Chapter 8

And Gersiwaz did as Afrasiyab commanded, and he tore the veil from off Manijeh, and he caused her to walk barefooted unto the spot where Bijan was hid. – Shahnameh, Chapter 13

 

India:

 

China:

Pang Tai Ku / Lady Tsao (90 AD):

Fully understand. Boys and girls must not be together. With outside business you have no concern; therefore, go not beyond the court. If it is necessary to go outside, exhibit not your form, but screen your face with a fan or veil. To men who are not with you related, you may not speak. With women and girls of not careful conduct you may not associate. Following virtue, decorum, and uprightness, you so accomplish the end of your being. – Pang Tai Ku/Lady Tsao (90 AD), Instruction for Chinese Women and Girls (translated by Esther E. Baldwin, 1900)

 

Song Ruozhao (761- 825 AD):

When walking, don’t turn your head; when talking, don’t open your mouth wide; when sitting, don’t move your knees; when standing, don’t rustle your skirts; when happy, don’t exult with loud laughter; when angry, don’t raise your voice. The inner and outer quarters are each distinct; the sexes should be segregated. Don’t peer over the outer wall or go beyond the outer courtyard. If you have to go outside, cover your face; if you peep outside, conceal yourself as much as possible. Do not be on familiar terms with men outside the family; have nothing to do with women of bad character. Establish your proper self so as to become a [true] human being…. Daughters remain behind in the women’s quarters and should not be allowed to go out very often. … Teach them sewing, cooking, and etiquette.… Don’t allow them to be indulged, lest they throw tantrums to get their own way; don’t allow them to defy authority, lest they become rude and haughty; don’t allow them to sing songs, lest they become dissolute; and don’t allow them to go on outings, lest some scandal spoil their good names. – Song Ruozhao (761- 825 AD), Analects for Women, from “Sources of Chinese Tradition,” compiled by Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom, 2nd ed., vol. 1