Miscellanies 3.17.103
Summary: Even if Adam and Eve sinned by coming together too soon, birth itself is holy, the means by which all things exist; the church's life needs the body, since Christ came in the flesh; good desire is a tree of life.
Greek text · Stählin 2:243–244
εἰ δὲ ἡ μὲν φύσις ἦγεν αὐτοὺς ὡς καὶ τὰ ἄλογα πρὸς παιδοποιίαν, ἐκινήθησαν δὲ θᾶττον ἢ προσῆκον ἦν ἔτι νέοι πεφυκότες ἀπάτῃ παραχθέντες, δικαία μὲν ἡ κρίσις τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπὶ τοὺς οὐκ ἀναμείναντας τὸ βούλημα, ἁγία δὲ ἡ γένεσις διʼ ἣν ὁ κόσμος συνέστηκεν, διʼ ἣν αἱ οὐσίαι, διʼ ἣν αἱ φύσεις, διʼ ἣν ἄγγελοι, διʼ ἣν δυνάμεις, διʼ ἣν ψυχαί, διʼ ἣν ἐντολαί, διʼ ἣν νόμος, διʼ ἣν τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, διʼ ἣν ἡ γνῶσις τοῦ θεοῦ· καὶ πᾶσα σὰρξ χόρτος, καὶ πᾶσα δόξα ἀνθρώπου ὡς ἄνθος χόρτου· καὶ ὁ μὲν χόρτος ξηραίνεται, τὸ δὲ ἄνθος καταπίπτει· ἀλλὰ τὸ ῥῆμα τοῦ κυρίου μένει, τὸ χρῖσαν τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ ἑνῶσαν τῷ πνεύματι. πῶς δʼ ἂν ἄνευ τοῦ σώματος ἡ κατὰ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν καθʼ ἡμᾶς οἰκονομία τέλος ἐλάμβανεν; ὅπου γε καὶ αὐτὸς ἡ κεφαλὴ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἐν σαρκὶ μέν, ἀειδὴς δὲ ἐλήλυθεν καὶ ἄμορφος, εἰς τὸ ἀειδὲς καὶ ἀσώματον τῆς θείας αἰτίας ἀποβλέπειν ἡμᾶς διδάσκων. δένδρον γὰρ ζωῆς, φησὶν ὁ προφήτης, ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ ἀγαθῇ γίνεται, διδάσκων ἐπιθυμίας ἀστείους καὶ καθαρὰς τὰς ἐν τῷ ζῶντι κυρίῳ.
English · Claude translation
But if nature led them, as it leads the irrational animals, to the begetting of children, and they were moved sooner than was fitting, being still young and led astray by deceit, then God's judgment was just on those who did not wait for his will; yet birth is holy, through which the world was established, through which substances, natures, angels, powers, souls, commandments, law, gospel, and the knowledge of God exist. “And all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains,” which anointed the soul and united it to the Spirit. And how could the arrangement of the church among us have been accomplished without the body? For the head of the church himself came in the flesh, but without comeliness and without form, teaching us to look to the formless and incorporeal nature of the divine cause. “For a tree of life,” says the prophet, “arises in good desire,” teaching that desires in the living Lord are fair and pure.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations and allusions are 1 Pet 1:24–25 (Isa 40:6–8), Eph 5:23, Isa 53:2, and Prov 13:12.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray punctuation in the digital text): καὶ ὁ· μὲν χόρτος → καὶ ὁ μὲν χόρτος.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.17.103 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/17/103/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.17.103 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/17/103/).
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