The Instructor 2.10.96

Summary: Marriage aims at children; abortion, used to hide sexual immorality, destroys humanity with the embryo; the married should not have intercourse by day, the time for prayer, reading, and good works.

Greek text · Stählin 1:215

γάμος δὲ ἡ παιδοποιίας ὄρεξις, οὐχ ἡ τοῦ σπέρματος ἄτακτος ἔκκρισις ἡ παράνομος καὶ ἡ παράλογος. κατὰ φύσιν δʼ ἂν ἡμῖν χωροίη ὁ βίος ἅπας κρατοῦσι τῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν ἄνωθεν μὴ κτείνουσί τε τὸ ἐκ προνοίας θεϊκῆς φυόμενον τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος κακοτέχνοις μηχαναῖς· αὗται γὰρ πορνείας ἐπικαλύμματι τοῖς ἐς παντελῆ κατασπῶσι φθορὰν φθορίοις συγχρώμεναι φαρμάκοις ἐξαμβλίσκουσιν ἅμα τῷ ἐμβρύῳ τὴν φιλανθρωπίαν. ἀλλʼ οἷς γε συγκεχώρηται γῆμαι, τούτοις ἐδέησεν παιδαγωγοῦ, ὡς μὴ μεθʼ ἡμέραν τὰ μυστικὰ τῆς φύσεως ἐκτελεῖσθαι ὄργια μηδὲ ἐξ ἐκκλησίας, φέρε, ἢ ἀγορᾶς ἥκοντα ἑωθινὸν ἀλεκτρυόνος ὀχεύειν δίκην, ὁπηνίκα εὐχῆς καὶ ἀναγνώσεως καὶ τῶν μεθʼ ἡμέραν εὐεργῶν ἔργων ὁ καιρός· ἑσπέρας δὲ ἀναπαύσασθαι καθήκει μετὰ τὴν ἑστίασιν καὶ

English · Claude translation

Marriage is the desire for the begetting of children, not the disorderly, unlawful, and irrational emission of seed. Our whole life would go according to nature if we mastered our desires from the start and did not kill, by evil devices, the human race born by divine providence. For women who, to hide their sexual immorality, use abortive drugs that bring on complete ruin, cast out their humanity together with the embryo. But those who have been permitted to marry need an Instructor, so that they may not perform the mystic rites of nature by day, nor, say, coming from church or from the market at dawn, mate like a rooster, when it is the time for prayer, reading, and the good works of the day. In the evening it is fitting to rest after the meal and

About this passage

Source

Stählin 1:215 · Otto Stählin, ed., Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 1, Protrepticus und Paedagogus, GCS 12 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1905) · Greek text: Otto Stählin, Clemens Alexandrinus 1: Protrepticus und Paedagogus (GCS 12, 1905), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Stählin, GCS 12. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Stählin (1905); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Extrabiblical texts

Did. 2.2 (Didache) · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Marriage, Ethics, Prayer

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.10.96 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/10/96/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.10.96 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/10/96/).

Greek text · Stählin 1:215

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Translation notes

Cite this passage