Note 3 — Chapter I · The Present Position of Women

It might be argued against the line taken in the Introduction that here is an instance of the care of the body in the literature from which the body-despising values are alleged to hail. But this is a misunderstanding. Not only is Ecclesiasticus apocryphal, but also, as everybody must know, the Old Testament and the New are quite different in their attitude towards the body. In the New Dispensation, and certainly in traditional Christianity, it is never suggested, as it is in Judaic law, that a man who is bodily defective defiles the sanctuary of the Lord when he approaches it. This healthy attitude to the body, which constantly recurs in the Old Testament, can be found neither in the New Testament nor in historical Christianity.