ABSTRACT
The Fathers are the authoritative teachers of the Christian Church in the centuries of its formation within Graeco-Roman culture. Patristics, the study of their writings, conveys almost overwhelmingly the weight of male authority. Historians of women are used to the Graeco-Roman assumption that the male human being is the norm and that females can be taken for granted, unless they are directly under attack or being advised on proper conduct. Grey hair is a sign of wisdom; and beards are particularly important: This, then, is the sign of the man, the beard, by which he is seen to be a man, is older than Eve, and is the symbol of the superior nature. God saw fit that he should stand out in shagginess, and dispersed hairs over man’s whole body. Patristic exegesis of the creation narratives is another likely place to look for expectations about maleness.
