One of the more popular pseudo-Scriptural quotes, the cleanliness admonition, comes, not from the Bible, but from John Wesley, the 18th-century British clergyman who founded Methodism. In a sermon entitled "On Dress," based on a passage in the New Testament, Wesley told his congregation:
"Let it be observed, that slovenliness is no part of religion; that neither this nor any text of Scripture condemns neatness of apparel; certainly this is a duty, not a sign. 'Cleanliness is, indeed, next to godliness.'" Wesley was quoting an old proverb which goes back to Phinehas ben-Yair, a Hebrew sage who lived in the latter part of the second century and formulated the famous "ladder to saintliness." Wrote Rabbi Phinehas: "The doctrines of religion are resolved into carefulness; carefulness into vigorousness; vigorousness into guiltlessness; guiltlessness into abstemiousness; abstemiousness into cleanliness; cleanliness into godliness." |