On the Veiling of Virgins
Tertullian
Chapter 14
About this work
- Author
- Tertullian
Chapter XIV.—Perils to the Virgins Themselves Attendant Upon Not-Veiling.
They report a saying uttered at one time by some one
Opening the library…
Opening the library…
On the Veiling of Virgins
Tertullian
They report a saying uttered at one time by some one
These crimes does a forced and unwilling virginity incur. The very concupiscence of non-concealment is not modest: it experiences somewhat which is no mark of a virgin,—the study of pleasing, of course, ay, and (of pleasing) men. Let her strive as much as you please with an honest mind; she must necessarily be imperilled by the public exhibition of herself, while she is penetrated by the gaze of untrustworthy and multitudinous’ eyes, while she is tickled by pointing fingers, while she is too well loved, while she feels a warmth creep over her amid assiduous embraces and kisses. Thus the forehead hardens; thus the sense of shame wears away; thus it relaxes; thus is learned the desire of pleasing in another way!
Comp. Phil. iii. 19.
See Isa. v. 18.
So Oehler, with Rig., seems to understand “publicato bono suo.” But it may be doubted whether the use of the singular “bono,” and the sense in which “publicare” and “bonum” have previously occurred in this treatise, do not warrant the rendering, “and elated by the public announcement of their good deed”—in self-devotion. Comp. “omnis publicatio virginis bonæ” in c. iii., and similar phrases. Perhaps the two meanings may be intentionally implied.
Matt. x. 26. Again apparently a double meaning, in the word “revelabitus” ="unveiled,” which (of course) is the strict sense of “revealed,” i.e., “re-veiled.”
Comp. the note above on “publicato bono suo.”