The Instructor 3.8.44
Summary: The destruction of Sodom for its luxury, adultery, and pederasty is an instruction to us, as Jude teaches with the examples of Israel in the desert and the fallen angels.
Greek text · Stählin 1:262
πολλαὶ τοιαῦται τῆς θεϊκῆς σοφίας αἱ εἰκόνες· ἑνὸς δὲ ὑποδείγματος μνησθήσομαι καὶ διὰ βραχέων παραθήσομαι· τὸ Σοδομιτῶν πάθος κρίσις μὲν ἀδικήσασι, παιδαγωγία δὲ ἀκούσασιν. οἱ Σοδομῖται ὑπὸ πολλῆς τρυφῆς ἐξοκείλαντες εἰς ἀσέλγειαν, μοιχεύοντες μὲν ἀδεῶς, περὶ τὰ παιδικὰ ἐκμανῶς ἐπτοημένοι, ἐπεῖδεν αὐτοὺς ὁ παντεπόπτης λόγος, ὃν οὐκ ἔστι λαθεῖν ἀνόσια δρῶντας, οὐδὲ ἐπηρέμησεν τῇ ἀσελγείᾳ αὐτῶν ὁ ἄγρυπνος τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος φύλαξ· ἀποτρέπων δὲ ἡμᾶς τῆς μιμήσεως τῆς ἐκείνων, πρὸς σωφροσύνην τὴν αὑτοῦ παιδαγωγῶν, τίσιν τοῖς ἁμαρτωλοῖς ἐπιβαλών, ὡς μὴ τὸ ἀτιμώρητον τῆς ἀκολασίας ἀδείας ἐπιρροὴν προσλάβῃ, καταφλεχθῆναι προσέταξε τὰ Σόδομα, ὀλίγον τι τοῦ φρονίμου πυρὸς ἐκείνου ἐπὶ τὴν ἀκολασίαν ἐκχέων, ὡς μὴ ἀκόλαστον αὐτῶν τὸ λάγνον γενόμενον πλατείας ἀναπετάσῃ κλισιάδας τοῖς εἰς ἡδυπάθειαν φερομένοις. γέγονεν τοίνυν ἡ Σοδομιτῶν δικαία τιμωρία τῆς εὐλογίστου τοῖς ἀνθρώποις σωτηρίας εἰκών· οἱ γὰρ μὴ τὰ ὅμοια τοῖς κεκολασμένοις ἁμαρτήσαντες οὐ τὴν ὁμοίαν ποτὲ τοῖς ἁμαρτωλοῖς ὑπόσχοιεν ἂν δίκην τῷ μὴ ἁμαρτεῖν τὸ μὴ παθεῖν πεφυλαγμένοι. »εἰδέναι γὰρ ὑμᾶς«, φησὶν ὁ Ἰούδας, »βούλομαι, ὅτι ὁ θεὸς ἅπαξ ἐκ γῆς Αἰγύπτου λαὸν σώσας τὸ δεύτερον τοὺς μὴ πιστεύσαντας ἀπώλεσεν, ἀγγέλους τε τοὺς μὴ τηρήσαντας τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἀρχήν, ἀλλὰ ἀπολιπόντας τὸ ἴδιον οἰκητήριον εἰς κρίσιν μεγάλης ἡμέρας δεσμοῖς ἀιδίοις ὑπὸ ζόφον
English · Claude translation
Many such are the images of divine wisdom; I will recall one example and set it out briefly. The suffering of the Sodomites is judgment for the wrongdoers and instruction for those who hear. The Sodomites, running aground through much luxury on licentiousness, committing adultery without fear and madly excited over boys: the all-seeing Word, whom those who do unholy things cannot escape, looked upon them; and the sleepless guardian of humanity did not keep quiet at their licentiousness. Turning us from imitating them, training us to his own self-control, inflicting punishment on the sinners so that impunity for their incontinence might not bring an influx of fearlessness, he commanded Sodom to be burned up, pouring a little of that wise fire on licentiousness, lest their lust, left unchecked, should throw wide the doors to those carried away into voluptuousness. The just punishment of the Sodomites, then, has become an image of salvation well-reasoned for human beings; for those who have not sinned like those who were punished would never suffer a penalty like the sinners, having guarded against suffering by not sinning. “For I want you to know,” says Jude, “that God, having once saved a people from the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe; and the angels who did not keep their own dominion, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusion is Gen 19:24; the quotation is Jude 5–6, which continues in the next section.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 3.8.44 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/3/8/44/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 3.8.44 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/3/8/44/).
Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)
Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text