Revelation 14:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

A virgin is born from a man, but a man is not born from a virgin.

There can be no middle way. One must follow either my opinion or Jovinian's.

If I am to be condemned because I place wedlock below virginity, then let them praise him who places them on the same level.

But if the man who considered them equal was condemned, then his condemnation supports my way of thinking.

Let the people of this age be displeased that they are placed on a lower level than virginal people. I am not surprised that spiritual men, monks, and the continent do not praise what they themselves do.

They withdraw from their own wives in order to imitate virginal purity, yet they want married women to stand at the same height of perfection as virgins.

Let them either be united to the wives to whom they gave vows, or, if they abstain from their wives, let them rather confess in silence that there is something they prefer to the marriage bond.

Am I so ignorant of the Scriptures, and am I reading the sacred books now for the first time, that I could not draw a line and, so to speak, a fine thread of distinction between virginity and wedlock?

Indeed, I did not know the saying, "Be not righteous overmuch" (Eccl 7:17). While I was covering one side, I was wounded on the other.

To speak more plainly, while I go with firm steps against Jovinian, my rear is wounded by Manichaeus.

I ask, did I not say this beforehand, immediately at the beginning of my work?

For we do not reproach wedlock, following the teaching of Marcion and Manichaeus. Nor do we consider marital union generally vile, following the error of Tatian, leader of the Encratites.

He condemns and despises not only wedlock, but even food created by God for use.

We know that in a great house there are vessels not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay.

We know that on the foundation of Christ, laid by the architect Paul, some build gold, silver, and precious stones. Others, on the contrary, build wood, hay, and stubble.

We do not deny honorable marriage and the undefiled bed.

We have read among the first sayings of God: "Increase and multiply and fill the earth" (Gen 1:28).

Yet we still place wedlock below virginity, which is born from wedlock.

Has silver ceased to be silver because there is gold, which is more precious than silver?

Is it a humiliation for wood and harvest grasses if fruit and grain are preferred to root and leaves, stalk and chaff?

As fruit comes from the tree and grain from the stalk, so virginity comes from wedlock.

The harvests of a hundred, sixty, and thirty, though they come from one soil and even from one sowing, differ greatly in quantity.

Thirty belongs to the married, since the very joining of the fingers in counting thirty, as if embracing and interlacing in a complex kiss, points to husband and wife.

Sixty belongs to widows, because they are in a constrained and sorrowful state. Corresponding to this, the number is expressed by the thumb.

For the more difficult it is for one who has tasted pleasures to abstain from their lure, the greater her reward.

But the number one hundred, I ask the reader to note, is transferred from the left hand to the right.

Although it is shown with the same fingers by which married women and widows are indicated on the left, it is not on the same hand. Shown in the form of a ring, it represents the crown of virginity.

I ask you, does the one who says this condemn marriage?

We said that virginity is gold and marriage is silver.

Is it not also clear what we think about virgins, widows, and spouses from the place where we presented the saying from the Apocalypse?

"These, singing a new song which no one could learn, are virgins. These are the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb, and are without blemish" (Rev 14:3-4).

If virgins are the firstfruits of God, then widows and those in marriage will be after the firstfruits, that is, in the second and third degree.

Yet they say of us that with heretical frenzy we condemn marriages!