A Plea for the Christians 33
Summary: Christians marry only for children, many remain celibate, and marriage is for life: divorce and remarriage, and even remarriage after a spouse's death, are condemned as adultery.
Greek text · Otto 7:170–174
Ἐλπίδα οὖν ζωῆς αἰωνίου ἔχοντες, τῶν ἐν τούτῳ τῷ βίῳ καταφρονοῦμεν, μέχρι καὶ τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς ἡδέων· γυναῖκα μὲν ἕκαστος ἡμῶν ἣν ἠγάγετο κατὰ τοὺς ὑφʼ ἡμῶν τεθειμένους νόμους νομίζων, καὶ ταύτην μέχρι τοῦ παιδοποιήσασθαι. Ὡς γὰρ ὁ γεωργὸς καταβάλλων εἰς γῆν τὰ σπέρματα ἄμητον περιμένει, οὐκ ἐπισπείρων, καὶ ἡμῖν μέτρον ἐπιθυμίας ἡ παιδοποιΐα. Εὕροις δʼ ἂν πολλοὺς τῶν παρʼ ἡμῖν, καὶ ἄνδρας καὶ γυναῖκας, καταγηράσκοντας ἀγάμους ἐλπίδι τοῦ μᾶλλον συνέσεσθαι τῷ θεῷ. Εἰ δὲ τὸ ἐν παρθενίᾳ καὶ ἐν εὐνουχίᾳ μεῖναι μᾶλλον παρίστησι τῷ θεῷ, τὸ δὲ μέχρις ἐννοίας καὶ ἐπιθυμίας ἐλθεῖν ἀπάγει, ὧν τὰς ἐννοίας φεύγομεν, πολὺ πρότερον τὰ ἔργα παραιτούμεθα. Οὐ γὰρ μελέτῃ λόγων ἀλλʼ ἐπιδείξει καὶ διδασκαλίᾳ ἔργων τὰ ἡμέτερα, ἢ οἷός τις ἐτέχθη μένειν ἢ ἐφʼ ἑνὶ γάμῳ· ὁ γὰρ δεύτερος εὐπρεπής ἐστι μοιχεία. Ὃς γὰρ ἂν ἀπολύσῃ, φησί, τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ καὶ γαμήσῃ ἄλλην, μοιχᾶται, οὔτε ἀπολύειν ἐπιτρέπων ἧς ἔπαυσέ τις τὴν παρθενίαν οὔτε ἐπιγαμεῖν. Ὁ γὰρ ἀποστερῶν ἑαυτὸν τῆς προτέρας γυναικός, καὶ εἰ τέθνηκε, μοιχός ἐστι παρακεκαλυμμένος, παραβαίνων μὲν τὴν χεῖρα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅτι ἐν ἀρχῇ ὁ θεὸς ἕνα ἄνδρα ἔπλασε καὶ μίαν γυναῖκα, λύων δὲ τὴν σαρκὸς πρὸς σάρκα κατὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν πρόσμιξιν εἰς τοῦ γένους κοινωνίαν.
English · Claude translation
Having, then, the hope of eternal life, we despise the things of this life, even the pleasures of the soul. Each of us regards as his wife the woman he has married according to the laws laid down among us, and that only for the purpose of having children. For as the farmer casts his seed into the ground and waits for the harvest, and does not sow more on top of it, so for us the begetting of children is the limit of desire. You would find many among us, both men and women, growing old unmarried in the hope of being closer to God. If remaining a virgin and a eunuch brings one nearer to God, while even a thought or a desire leads one away, then, since we flee the thoughts, much more do we reject the deeds. For our concern is not with practicing speeches but with showing and teaching by deeds that a person should either remain as he was born or be content with one marriage; for a second marriage is a respectable adultery. “For whoever puts away his wife,” it says, “and marries another, commits adultery”; so he permits neither putting away her whose virginity one has ended, nor marrying again. For he who deprives himself of his first wife, even if she has died, is a covert adulterer: he transgresses the hand of God, because in the beginning God formed one man and one woman, and he dissolves the joining of flesh to flesh in unity for the fellowship of the race.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- Athenagoras takes a rigorous view: he calls any second marriage, even after the death of a spouse, “a respectable adultery.” Paul allows widows to remarry (1 Cor 7:39; cf. 1 Tim 5:14), and the church generally permitted a second marriage after bereavement while honoring those who did not remarry. Athenagoras's view was shared by some (e.g. Tertullian later) but did not become the church's rule.
- “He permits neither putting away her whose virginity one has ended, nor marrying again” is Athenagoras's reading of Jesus's saying on divorce (Matt 19:9; Mark 10:11).
- “Remaining a virgin and a eunuch” alludes to Matt 19:12.
Cite this passage
Athenagoras, Leg. 33 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/athenagoras-legatio/33/).
Plain text
Athenagoras, Leg. 33 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/athenagoras-legatio/33/).
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