Chapter 10
TERTULLIAN
themselves are so to be had as if they be not had, because the times are straitened, what would he think about all these vain appliances of theirs?
(7) In fact, are there not many who do just that, dedi cating themselves to be eunuchs and for the kingdom of God voluntarily foregoing a desire which is so strong and, as we know, permitted to us?3 Are there not some who deny them selves what God has created, abstaining from wine and from dishes of meat, the enjoyment of which provides no particular danger or fear? But they sacrifice to God the humility of their soul in restricting their use of food. Therefore, you have used your wealth and finery quite enough, and you have plucked the fruit of your dowries sufficiently before you came to know the teaching of salvation. (8) For, we are the ones for whom the times were to run their course to the end; we were pre destined by God before the world was created for the extreme end of time; and so we are trained by God to castigate and, so to speak, emasculate the world. We are the circumcision of all things both spiritual and carnal, for in both spirit and in the flesh we circumcise the things of this world.
Chapter 10 (1) Of course, it was God who taught men how to dye wool with the juice of herbs and the slime of shells; it had escaped Him, when He bade all things to come into existence, to issue a command for the production of purple and scarlet sheep! It was God, too, who devised the manufacture of those very garments which, light and thin in themselves, are heavy only in their price; God it was who produced such a 3 Cf. Matt. 19.12.
THE APPAREL OF WOMEN
great amount of gold for the careful setting and fitting of jewels; and it was God, too, to be sure, who caused the puncturing of ears and was so interested in tormenting his own creatures as to order suffering to infants with their first breath; and this, in order that from these scars on the body—it seems as if the latter was born to be cut—there might hang some sort of precious stones which, as is well known, the Parthians insert in their shoes in place of studs! (2) As a matter of fact, this gold whose glitter you find so attractive is used by some nations for chains, as pagan literature tells us.
And so, it is not because of intrinsic value that these things are good, but merely because they happen to be rare. After artistic skills, however, had been introduced by the fallen angels, who had also discovered the materials themselves, elaborate workmanship, combined with the rareness of these things, brought about the idea of their being precious and stimulated the desire on the part of the women to possess them because of their precious character.
(3) Now, if these very angels who discovered the material substances of this kind as well as their charms—I mean gold and precious stones—and passed on the techniques of working them and taught, among other things, the use of eyelid-powder and the dyeing of cloth, if these angels, I say, are condemned by God, as Henoch tells us,1 how are we ever going to please God by taking pleasure in things developed by those who because of those acts provoked the wrath and punishment of God?
(4) I will grant you that God foresaw all these things and that He has permitted them, and that Isaias2 does not object to any purple garments, permits the wearing of an ornament
1 Cf. Book of Henoch 7.1.
2 Cf. Isa. 3.18-23.