Miscellanies 3.17.102
Summary: If birth were evil, then Christ and the Virgin would be in evil; this is the root of Docetism in Cassianus, Marcion, and Valentinus; man becomes a beast not in marriage but in adultery; the view that the serpent taught Adam intercourse insults the Creator.
Greek text · Stählin 2:243
Εἰ δὲ ἡ γένεσις κακόν, ἐν κακῷ λεγόντων οἱ βλάσφημοι τὸν γενέσεως μετειληφότα κύριον, ἐν κακῷ τὴν γεννήσασαν παρθένον. οἴμοι τῶν κακῶν, βλασφημοῦσι τὸ βούλημα τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὸ μυστήριον τῆς κτίσεως, τὴν γένεσιν διαβάλλοντες. διὰ ταῦτα ἡ δόκησις Κασσιανῷ, διὰ ταῦτα καὶ Μαρκίωνι, ναὶ μὴν καὶ Οὐαλεντίνῳ τὸ σῶμα τὸ ψυχικόν, ὅτι φασίν· ὁ ἄνθρωπος παρωμοιώθη τοῖς κτήνεσιν εἰς συνδυασμὸν ἀφικνούμενος· ἀλλʼ ὅταν ἐπιβαίνειν ἀλλοτρίᾳ κοίτῃ ὀργήσας ὡς ἀληθῶς θελήσῃ, τότε τῷ ὄντι ὁ τοιοῦτος ἐκθηριοῦται· ἵπποι θηλυμανεῖς ἐγενήθησαν, ἕκαστος ἐπὶ τὴν γυναῖκα τοῦ πλησίον ἐχρεμέτιζεν. κἂν ἀπὸ τῶν ἀλόγων ζῴων τὴν ἐπιτήδευσιν τῆς συνουσίας ὁ ὄφις εἰληφὼς καὶ παραπείσας τῇ κοινωνίᾳ τῆς Εὔας συγκαταθέσθαι τὸν Ἀδὰμ τύχῃ, ὡς ἂν μὴ φύσει ταύτῃ κεχρημένων τῶν πρωτοπλάστων, ὡς ἀξιοῦσί τινες, ἡ κτίσις πάλιν βλασφημεῖται ἀσθενεστέρους τοὺς ἀνθρώπους τῆς τῶν ἀλόγων φύσεως πεποιηκυῖα, οἷς κατηκολούθησαν οἱ πρωτόπλαστοι τοῦ θεοῦ.
English · Claude translation
If birth is evil, let the blasphemers say that the Lord who shared in birth was in evil, and the virgin who bore him in evil. Alas for the evils! They blaspheme the will of God and the mystery of creation by slandering birth. This is the reason for Cassianus' Docetism, and for Marcion's, and indeed for Valentinus's psychic body; because they say: “Man became like the beasts when he came to sexual union.” But it is when, being in heat, a man truly wishes to mount another's bed that such a one really becomes a beast: “They became horses mad for females; each neighed after his neighbor's wife.” And if the serpent, having taken the practice of intercourse from the irrational animals, persuaded Adam to consent to union with Eve, as though the first-formed did not use this by nature, as some think, then creation is blasphemed again, as having made men weaker than the nature of the irrational animals, whom God's first-formed followed.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Ps 49:12 (48:13 LXX) and Jer 5:8. Clement links the rejection of birth to Docetism, the denial that Christ had a real human body.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (wrong accent on ὄφις): τῆς συνουσίας ὁ ὂφις εἰληφὼς → τῆς συνουσίας ὁ ὄφις εἰληφὼς.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.17.102 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/17/102/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.17.102 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/17/102/).
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