Miscellanies 3.13.91
Summary: Julius Cassianus, founder of Docetism, argues that sexual organs do not prove intercourse is from God, since Christ blessed eunuchs and Isaiah calls them not fruitless trees.
Greek text · Stählin 2:238
Τοιούτοις ἐπιχειρεῖ καὶ ὁ τῆς δοκήσεως ἐξάρχων Ἰούλιος Κασσιανός. ἐν γοῦν τῷ Περὶ ἐγκρατείας ἢ περὶ εὐνουχίας κατὰ λέξιν φησίν· καὶ μηδεὶς λεγέτω ὅτι, ἐπειδὴ τοιαῦτα μόρια ἔσχομεν ὡς τὴν μὲν θήλειαν οὕτως ἐσχηματίσθαι, τὸν δὲ ἄρρενα οὕτως, τὴν μὲν πρὸς τὸ δέχεσθαι, τὸν δὲ πρὸς τὸ ἐνσπείρειν, συγκεχώρηται τὸ τῆς ὁμιλίας παρὰ θεοῦ. εἰ γὰρ ἦν παρὰ θεοῦ εἰς ὃν σπεύδομεν ἡ τοιαύτη διασκευή, οὐκ ἂν ἐμακάρισεν τοὺς εὐνούχους, οὐδʼ ἂν ὁ προφήτης εἰρήκει μὴ εἶναι ξύλον ἄκαρπον αὐτούς, μεταλαβὼν ἀπὸ τοῦ δένδρου ἐπὶ τὸν κατὰ προαίρεσιν ἄνθρωπον ἑαυτὸν τῆς τοιαύτης ἐννοίας εὐνουχίζοντα.
English · Claude translation
Julius Cassianus, the founder of Docetism, attempts such arguments. In his work On Self-Control, or On Eunuchhood, he says word for word: “And let no one say that, because we have such parts, the female shaped in this way and the male in that, the one for receiving and the other for sowing, intercourse has been permitted by God. For if this arrangement were from the God toward whom we hasten, he would not have blessed eunuchs, nor would the prophet have said that they are ‘not a fruitless tree,’ transferring the image from the tree to the man who by choice makes himself a eunuch of such a thought.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is from Cassianus' lost On Self-Control, preserved only here. The allusions are Matt 19:12 and Isa 56:3.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.13.91 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/13/91/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.13.91 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/13/91/).
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