Rings of Gold—Neither “Modest” Nor “Sensible”

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Several passages in the New Testament discourage Christian women—and men—from adorning themselves with gold rings. But by the time the Christian movement became more secure—and wealthier—one Church father said gold rings were all right—at least for limited purposes.

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Footnotes

Common Era (C.E.) an Before the Common Era (B.C.E.), used by this author, are the alternate designations corresponding to A.D. and B.C. often used in scholarly literature.

Endnotes

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 33.33 (vol. 9), trans. H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1952).

Martial, Epigrammaton libri 2.29, 11.37.

Pliny, Natural History 33.11.

Tertullian, Apology 6.

Pliny, Natural History 33.22.

Pliny, Natural History 33.28.

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 3.57.1, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. A Roberts and J. Donaldson (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986 [reprint]), vol. 2, p. 285. For the following Clement quotations, see Instructor 3.57–58 (pp. 285–286 in Roberts and Donaldson).

“Who is the Rich Person that Shall Be Saved?”