Chapter IV.
Of the Tunics of the Egyptians.
They
wear also linen
tunics
648
which scarcely reach to the elbows, and
for the rest leave their hands bare, that the cutting off of the
sleeves may suggest that they have cut off all the deeds and works of
this world, and the garment of linen teach that they are dead to all
earthly conversation, and that hereby they may hear the Apostle saying
day by day to them: “Mortify your members which are upon the
earth;” their very dress also declaring this: “For ye are
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God;” and again:
“And I live, yet now not I but Christ liveth in me. To me indeed
the world is crucified, and I to the world.”
649
648
Colobium
(
κολόβιον
), a
tunic with very short sleeves. Cf. Dorotheus (Migne, Patrol. Græca
lxxxviii. 1631).
Τὸ
σχῆμα ὃ
φοροῦμεν
κολόβιόν
ἐστι, μὴ ἕχον
χειρίδια, καὶ
ζώνη
δερματίνη
καὶ ἀνάλαβος
καὶ
κουκούλιον
.
649
Col. iii. 5, 3. Gal. ii. 20; vi. 14
. Cf. Sozomen l. c.: “They wore
their tunics without sleeves in order to teach that the hands ought not
to be ready to do evil.”