Miscellanies 3.4.37
Summary: If the Opposers were consistent they would defy every commandment, even to abstain from marriage and food, and worship idols; by following the lawgiver's will to sin they make him stronger than their own “good” father.
Greek text · Stählin 2:212–213
τί δʼ οὐχὶ πάσαις ταῖς ἐντολαῖς ἀντιτάσσεσθε; εἰπόντος γὰρ αὐξάνεσθε καὶ πληθύνεσθε ὑμᾶς τοὺς ἀντιτεταγμένους ἐχρῆν μηδʼ ὅλως συνουσίᾳ χρῆσθαι, καὶ εἰπόντος ἔδωκα ὑμῖν πάντα εἰς τροφὰς καὶ ἀπολαύσεις ὑμᾶς ἐχρῆν μηδενὸς ἀπολαύειν. ἀλλὰ καὶ ὀφθαλμὸν ἀντὶ ὀφθαλμοῦ λέγοντος ὑμᾶς ἐχρῆν μὴ ἀποδιδόναι ἀντίταξιν ἀντιτάξει, καὶ τὸν κλέπτην κελεύσαντος τετραπλοῦν ἀποδιδόναι ὑμᾶς ἐχρῆν καὶ προσδοῦναι τῷ κλέπτῃ· ὁμοίως τε αὖ καὶ τῇ ἀγαπήσεις τὸν κύριον ἐντολῇ ἀντιτασσομένους ἔδει οὐδὲ τὸν τῶν ὅλων θεὸν ἀγαπῆσαι, καὶ πάλιν εἰπόντος οὐ ποιήσεις γλυπτὸν οὐδὲ χωνευτὸν ὑμᾶς ἀκόλουθον ἦν καὶ τὰ γλυπτὰ προσκυνεῖν. πῶς οὖν οὐκ ἀσεβεῖτε ἀντιτασσόμενοι μέν, ὥς φατε, τῷ δημιουργῷ, τὰ δὲ ὅμοια ταῖς πόρναις καὶ τοῖς μοιχοῖς ἐζηλωκότες; πῶς δὲ οὐκ αἰσθάνεσθε μείζονα ποιοῦντες ὃν ὡς ἀσθενῆ νομίζετε, εἴπερ ὃ βούλεται, τοῦτο γίνεται, ἀλλʼ οὐχὶ ἐκεῖνο ὅπερ ἠθέλησεν ὁ ἀγαθός; ἔμπαλιν γὰρ ἀσθενὴς δείκνυται πρὸς ὑμῶν αὐτῶν ὁ ὑμέτερος, ὥς φατε, πατήρ.
English · Claude translation
Why do you not oppose all the commandments? For when he said, “Increase and multiply,” you who oppose him ought not to use intercourse at all; and when he said, “I have given you all things for food and enjoyment,” you ought to enjoy nothing. And when he said, “Eye for eye,” you ought not to return opposition for opposition; and when he ordered the thief to repay fourfold, you ought also to give something more to the thief. Likewise, opposing the commandment “You shall love the Lord,” you ought not to love even the God of the universe; and again, when he said, “You shall not make a carved or molten image,” it would follow that you should worship carved images. How, then, are you not impious, opposing the Creator, as you say, while emulating prostitutes and adulterers? And how do you not see that you make him greater whom you consider weak, if what he wishes comes about, and not what the good God wished? Conversely your “father,” as you call him, is shown by you yourselves to be weak.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations and allusions are Gen 1:28, Gen 9:3 (1 Tim 6:17), Exod 21:24, Exod 22:1, Deut 6:5, and Deut 27:15 (Exod 20:4).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (misreading in the digital text (τροφὰς)): πάντα εἰς προφὰς καὶ ἀπολαύσεις → πάντα εἰς τροφὰς καὶ ἀπολαύσεις.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.4.37 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/4/37/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.4.37 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/4/37/).
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