Paul M. Nguyen Patristics, A.

Orlando October 2, 2012 On Women's Discipline in Tertullian's On Prayer In an elaborate passage following his treatment on the Lord's Prayer, Tertullian includes a lengthy teaching on the discipline and conduct of women and virgins at prayer. His basic tenet is that women at prayer should be quite modestly dressed and veiled. In support, Tertullian offers first logicaltextual arguments based on varying degrees of inclusion of terms in past formulations that approximate his own, and ultimately, a theological argument. Tertullian first takes his authoritative cue from the apostle Paul regarding the doctrine of modest dress and simple adornment, including hair styles. 1 He then seeks to refute the claim by some communities that virgins may be unveiled. He attempts to show that these communities interpret Paul's usage of the term women to exclude virgins, but that the opposite should be true and that because Paul did not say married women or virgins explicitly, he meant to include both in his teaching. 2 Tertullian traces the terms back to the language of Genesis, in which the unwedded virgin Eve was called woman, and then to Paul's usage of woman. 3 He does not overlook the subtle note that in Greek (including Paul), is more popularly used to represent either woman or female (that is, the entire class of the female sex without distinguishing within it) and that on this basis, it is possible that Paul could have meant only non-virgins but sacrificed this precision to avoid overburdening his text. 4 But Tertullian has saved his most convincing textual argument for last. He further identifies that Paul in fact used the quantitative adjective meaning every to modify woman (1 Cor 11:5: ), and that finally, we have reached the
1 2 3 4 Tertullian, On Prayer, Ch. 20 (1). Ibid., Ch. 21 (24). Ibid., Ch. 22 (1). Ibid., Ch. 22 (3).

Nguyen 2 inclusive meaning that supports Tertullian's claim that all women, including virgins, ought to be veiled at prayer.5 Two minor arguments follow. Tertullian argues that, as the younger should imitate the older, virgins should be veiled. He also facetiously explores the point that, should it be preferable that men be veiled and women unveiled, this same logic should hold, with boys likewise veiled and virgins likewise unveiled.6 His next argument for this consistency is that, as the angels' concupiscence is the motivation for women to be veiled, so too may virgins be a temptation for them, and the same discipline should follow. He argues that the phrase characterizing the angels' fall, for wives, is obviously consistent in that once taken, they indeed became such, but that it is irrelevant beforehand whether they were married or yet virgins. 7 Finally, Tertullian arrives at a theological argument that seems to offer far less opportunity for refutation or speculation between alternatives. He argues that the virgin's dedication to God requires or motivates her modest dress and concealment among men. He says further that the convergence of her concealment with that of married women is all the more evidence of the virgin's own marriage to Christ: that she, too, is married. As Christ bids (in the words of the Apostle) that other wives be veiled, how much more, Tertullian suggests, ought His own to be veiled? Having accepted this, Tertullian extends his veil discipline to the stage of betrothal and thus achieves his full point that all women be so concealed at prayer.8 Following upon Tertullian's Letter to His Wife, in which he advocates celibate widowhood upon his own death, his ideal here stresses further the corporeal isolation of women in the name of preserving their dignity, but is perhaps overly broad in his disciplines and practices that may, in fact, deny legitimate aspects of their humanity.
5 6 7 8 Ibid., Ch. 22 (4). Ibid. Ibid., Ch. 22 (56). Ibid., Ch. 22 (810).