Miscellanies 3.6.46
Summary: The law aims at self-restrained marriage and family life; Christ fulfilled, not abolished it; marriage can be used with self-control, and those who call intercourse polluted, being born of it, condemn themselves.
Greek text · Stählin 2:217
τρυφῆς μὲν οὖν καὶ πάσης ἀκοσμίας ἡμᾶς ὁ νόμος ἐξάγειν προῄρηται, καὶ τοῦτό ἐστιν αὐτοῦ τέλος, ἐκ τῆς ἀδικίας ἡμᾶς εἰς δικαιοσύνην ὑπάγειν, γάμους τε αἱρουμένους σώφρονας καὶ παιδοποιίας καὶ πολιτείας. ὁ δὲ κύριος οὐ καταλύειν τὸν νόμον ἀφικνεῖται, ἀλλὰ πληρῶσαι· πληρῶσαι δὲ οὐχ ὡς ἐνδεῆ, ἀλλὰ τῷ τὰς κατὰ νόμον προφητείας ἐπιτελεῖς γενέσθαι κατὰ τὴν αὑτοῦ παρουσίαν, ἐπεὶ τὰ τῆς ὀρθῆς πολιτείας καὶ τοῖς δικαίως βεβιωκόσι πρὸ τοῦ νόμου διὰ τοῦ λόγου ἐκηρύσσετο. οἱ τοίνυν πολλοὶ τὴν ἐγκράτειαν οὐκ εἰδότες σώματι πολιτεύονται, ἀλλʼ οὐ πνεύματι. γῆ δὲ καὶ σποδὸς τὸ σῶμα ἄνευ πνεύματος. αὐτίκα μοιχείαν ἐξ ἐνθυμήσεως κρίνει ὁ κύριος· τί γάρ; οὐκ ἔστι καὶ γάμῳ ἐγκρατῶς χρῆσθαι καὶ μὴ πειρᾶσθαι διαλύειν ὃ συνέζευξεν ὁ θεός; τοιαῦτα γὰρ διδάσκουσιν οἱ τῆς συζυγίας μερισταί, διʼ οὓς καὶ τὸ ὄνομα βλασφημεῖται. μιαρὰν δὲ εἶναι τὴν συνουσίαν λέγοντες οὗτοι οἱ τὴν σύστασιν καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐκ συνουσίας εἰληφότες πῶς οὐκ ἂν εἶεν μιαροί;
English · Claude translation
The law, then, has chosen to lead us away from luxury and all disorder, and this is its goal: to lead us from injustice to justice, choosing self-restrained marriages, begetting of children, and ways of life. And the Lord comes not to destroy the law but to fulfill it: to fulfill it not as though it were lacking, but in that the prophecies according to the law were accomplished by his coming; since the ways of right conduct were proclaimed through the Word even to those who lived justly before the law. The many, then, who do not know self-control live by the body, not by the spirit; and the body without the spirit is earth and ashes. The Lord, for example, judges adultery from the intention. What then? Is it not possible to use marriage with self-control too, and not try to dissolve what God has joined? For such things are taught by those who divide the union, because of whom the Name is blasphemed. And these who say that intercourse is polluted, having themselves received their existence from intercourse, how would they not be polluted?
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations and allusions are Matt 5:17, Gen 18:27 (“earth and ashes”), Matt 5:28, Matt 19:6, and Rom 2:24.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.6.46 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/6/46/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.6.46 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/6/46/).
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