The Instructor 2.10.83
Summary: The aim of marital intercourse is children, and in begetting a human being cooperates with God; seed must not be wasted in unnatural acts. Moses's prohibition of the hare and the hyena was read as a symbolic ban on pederasty and adultery.
Greek text · Stählin 1:208
Συνουσίας δὲ τὸν καιρὸν μόνοις τοῖς γεγαμηκόσιν ἀπολέλειπται σκοπεῖν, τοῖς δὲ γεγαμηκόσι σκοπὸς ἡ παιδοποιία, τέλος δὲ ἡ εὐτεκνία, καθάπερ καὶ τῷ γεωργῷ τῆς τῶν σπερμάτων καταβολῆς αἰτία μὲν ἡ τῆς τροφῆς προμήθεια, τέλος δὲ αὐτῷ τῆς γεωργίας ἡ τῶν καρπῶν συγκομιδή. μακρῷ δὲ ἀμείνων γεωργὸς ὁ ἔμψυχον σπείρων ἄρουραν· ὃ μὲν γὰρ ἐπικαίρου τροφῆς ὀριγνώμενος, ὃ δὲ τῆς τοῦ παντὸς διαμονῆς προμηθούμενος γεωργεῖ, καὶ ὃ μὲν διʼ ἑαυτόν, ὃ δὲ διὰ τὸν θεὸν φυτουργεῖ· »πληθύνεσθε« γὰρ εἴρηκεν, καὶ ὑπακουστέον· καὶ κατὰ τοῦτο εἰκὼν ὁ ἄνθρωπος γίνεται τοῦ θεοῦ, καθὸ εἰς γένεσιν ἀνθρώπου ἄνθρωπος συνεργεῖ. οὐ πᾶσα οὖν γῆ εὔθετος εἰς σπερμάτων ὑποδοχήν, εἰ δὲ καὶ πᾶσα, ἀλλʼ οὐχὶ τῷ αὐτῷ γεωργῷ· οὐδὲ μὴν εἰς πέτρας σπαρτέον οὐδὲ καθυβριστέον τὸ σπέρμα, ἀρχηγὸν γενέσεως οὐσίαν, συνεσπαρμένους ἔχουσαν τῆς φύσεως τοὺς λογισμούς· τοὺς δὲ κατὰ φύσιν λογισμοὺς ἀλόγως εἰς τοὺς παρὰ φύσιν καταισχύνειν πόρους ἄθεον κομιδῇ. ὁρᾶτε γοῦν ὁ πάνσοφος Μωσῆς ὅπως ποτὲ συμβολικῶς τὴν ἄκαρπον ἀποκρούεται σποράν, »οὐκ ἔδεσαι« λέγων »τὸν λαγὼν οὐδὲ τὴν ὕαιναν«. οὐ βούλεται τῆς ποιότητος αὐτῶν μεταλαμβάνειν τὸν ἄνθρωπον οὐδὲ μὴν τῆς ἴσης ἀσελγείας ἀπογεύσασθαι· κατακόρως γάρ τοι περὶ τὰς μίξεις τὰ ζῷα ταῦτα ἐπτόηνται· καὶ τὸν μὲν λαγὼ κατʼ ἔτος πλεονεκτεῖν φασι τὴν ἀφόδευσιν, ἰσαρίθμους οἷς βεβίωκεν ἔτεσιν ἴσχοντα τρύπας· ταύτῃ ἄρα τὴν κώλυσιν τῆς ἐδωδῆς τοῦ λαγὼ παιδεραστίας ἐμφαίνειν ἀποτροπήν· τὴν δὲ ὕαιναν ἐναλλὰξ ἀμείβειν τὸ ἄρρεν εἰς τὸ θῆλυ παρʼ ἔτος ἕκαστον, αἰνίττεσθαι δὲ μὴ χρῆν ἐπὶ μοιχείας ὁρμᾶν τὸν τῆς
English · Claude translation
Only the married are left to consider the right time for intercourse; and for the married the aim is the begetting of children, and the end is good offspring, just as for the farmer the reason for sowing seed is to provide food, and the end of his farming is the gathering of the fruits. But far better is the farmer who sows living soil; for the one farms seeking food for a season, the other providing for the continuance of the whole; the one plants for himself, the other for God. For he said, “Multiply,” and we must obey. In this the human being becomes an image of God, in that a human being cooperates in the coming into being of a human being. Not all ground is suitable for receiving seed; and even if all were, not for the same farmer. Nor must seed be sown on rocks, nor seed be outraged, since it is the originating substance of generation, having the principles of nature sown within it. To shame the principles of nature irrationally in unnatural passages is utterly godless. See how the all-wise Moses symbolically rejects unfruitful sowing, saying, “You shall not eat the hare nor the hyena.” He does not want the human being to share their quality, nor to taste a like licentiousness; for these animals are excessively excited about mating. They say that the hare each year increases the number of its anal openings, having as many holes as the years it has lived; so the prohibition of eating the hare shows a turning away from pederasty. And they say the hyena changes alternately from male to female each year; and it hints that one who abstains from the
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- Clement's view that procreation is the aim of intercourse in marriage follows Stoic and Jewish ethics (Musonius, Philo).
- The prohibition of the hare is Lev 11:5–6 (Deut 14:7); the hyena is not in the Mosaic law, and Clement follows Barnabas 10.6–7, which gives the same symbolic interpretation. Clement goes on (2.10.84–85) to reject the natural-history claims on which it rests.
- The quotation is Gen 1:28; the allusions are Matt 13:5 (rocky ground) and Rom 1:26–27. The sentence continues in the next section.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.10.83 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/10/83/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.10.83 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/10/83/).
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