Early Church Father Clement of Alexandria wrote,

“How womanly it is for one who is a man to comb himself and shave himself with a razor, for the sake of fine effect, and to arrange his hair at the mirror, shave his cheeks, pluck hairs out of them, and smooth them!…For God wished women to be smooth and to rejoice in their locks alone growing spontaneously, as a horse in his mane. But He adorned man like the lions, with a beard, and endowed him as an attribute of manhood, with a hairy chest–a sign of strength and rule.” 2.275

“This, then, is the mark of the man, the beard. By this, he is seen to be a man. It is older than Eve. It is the token of the superior nature….It is therefore unholy to desecrate the symbol of manhood, hairiness.” 2.276

“It is not lawful to pluck out the beard, man’s natural and noble adornment.” 2.277





What does fellow Puritans think of these quotes and the merits of them?

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Michael Daniels
Reformed, RPCNA
Denton, Maryland

As For Me And My House, We Will Serve The Lord

Unum Deum in Trinitate: Pater, Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus

Sola scriptura - Sola gratia - Sola fide - Solus Christus - Soli Deo gloria - Solum psalterium - Lex talionis

Well, seeing as how not all men are endowed with the ability to grow thick, acceptable, beards, I think the quotes are nonsense. It really irks me to see some guy who's incapable of growing a beard try to do it anyway. They're chin looks like teen boy's armpit. Yeck!. But it certainly doesn't bring into question their manhood. That's absurd.

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Daddy
Member of TRBC. My Blog
The Puritan Pub (Team Blog)
Board Rules-Signature Requirements-Suggestions?

Well, I guess the question would be, does it mean any type of beard or does it have to be a full fledged beard.......

Right now, I have a pretty good chin/upper lip beard going on with a long sideburns on each side, but I have to shave an 2 inch area between the chin and the side burn because I have pockets of no hair in between....

Hmmm, didn't Bill Gothard teach that beards indicate a lack of humility and were a symbol of rebellion.

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Tom Albrecht
Member, Covenant URCNA, New Holland, PA.

"I'm not a famous man. I'm just a simple country doctor with horse sense."



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To what/whom does "it" refer in this sentence?

Does anyone believe anything that Gothard says...

To Clements concept of beard = manhood and token of superior nature....

I think we have much better and more important things to be concerned about than whether "true men" have beards.

As for paying much attention to Clement's comments on adiaphora like beardedness, you perhaps can guess my opinion. Token of a superior nature? Get real!

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Todd K. Pedlar
member, First Congregational Church, (CCCC) Cresco, IA
http://semperubi.rtrc.net

"Many men, after a long conversion, see more of the workings of sin in their hearts than ever they did before or at their first conversion. Now, such men have not an increase of sin, but an increase of illumination and light" (Christopher Love)

Like I said, I think it's absurd.

Also, who says that a beard HAS to be acceptable. If a man can only grow a teenage arm pit style on his chin then who am I to say if it is not acceptable..

Yeah, that pretty much sounds like me. I wish I could grow a beard.

And I agree. The quotes are absurd.

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Davidius
Member: First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham (RPCNA) - Durham, NC
Student: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, German Literature and Classics

And though the really inspired artist may complain that, with the majority, piano-playing is mere strumming, and painting little more than daubing, yet, the exuberant feeling of having a share in the privileges of art is so overwhelming, that the scorn of the artist is preferred to the abandonment of art training in education. To have laid a production of your own, however poor, upon the altar of art becomes more and more the characteristic of an accomplished civilization. - Abraham Kuyper

No one said it HAS to be acceptable. Go ahead, have chin of a sparse hair forest. It just looks nasty, that's all. I never said it was right or wrong. (But it is oooooo soooo wrong in soooo many ways ... sort of like mullets)

"But the embellishment of smoothing (for I am warned by the Word), if it is to attract men, is the act of an effeminate person,—if to attract women, is the act of an adulterer; and both must be driven as far as possible from our society. "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered," says the Lord; those on the chin, too, are numbered, and those on the whole body. There must be therefore no plucking out, contrary to God's appointment, which has counted them in according to His will."

According to Clement any hair removal at all violates providence. Let's face it, he was a 7 point Calvinist.

This is why the other kids wouldn't let him leave his letters in the Bible.

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Bob Vigneault (Bawb Vēēn-yo)
I'm learning more about less and less; soon I won't know anything at all!

The Heartbeat of Heaven (blog) MySpace (Music), MySpace (Personal)
Member of Christ Presbyterian Church, Janesville, WI OPC www.christ-opc.org
Jude 24,25

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All I have is my personal experience. When I had a full bushy beard, store security men would follow me around when I was shopping, and young Jewish kids would come up to me to ask for my understanding of the Torah.

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R.Vic Bottomly
Providence Reformed Baptist Church, Tacoma, WA

Todd,

I am going to politely disagree with you... I am not saying I believe what Clement is saying... I thought it was an interesting quote to discuss... But What I disagree with is saying that whether or not a beard is less important or the implicit underlying (maybe I am wrong how I read it) statement that outward issues are unimportant... But I don't agree that outward issues are unimportant or straining at gnats.. I believe that both inward or internal and outward or external needs to be kept in balance but both are important... Nor do I believe that such topics are a waste of time.. Anything that is in scripture, whether someone thinks they are the smallest of issues are important to discuss, and I believe Clement might be getting some of his understanding from the passage about not shaving the beard... So part of his statement is in the scriptures and worthy to discuss....

Where we come out on the passage is a different matter... I see the beard passage as a type of shadow of new testament realities of sanctification and separation..... Of course I could be wrong and Clement could be right... So I believe it is important to discuss the matters.... So I don't see it as unimportant...

I also have very little love for cultural arguments... If I were to throw away the modesty issue, the headcovering passages, and other token passages that people label cultural aspects I might as well throw out the rest.... It becomes a very slippery slope when you start to label things as cultural....

Again, I am not saying I agree with Clement, but it is a very fascinating Quote and I believe worth discussing....

A citing of this passage to which you refer would have been helpful, Brother. Surely, you're not quoting Clement as the Scripture?

Agreed, Sorry... Still trying to get moving and mind fogging from little sleep in the night...


Leviticus 19:27

Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.