Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 2.23.142

Clement of Alexandria · Miscellanies · ca. 198–203 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: Refusing marriage is impious and unmanly; since losing children is a great evil, having them is good, and so marriage is good; a child needs both father and mother.

Greek text · Stählin 2:191

τὸ δὲ τοιοῦτον ἀσεβὲς θείαν γένεσιν καταλυόντων. ἤδη δὲ ἄνανδρον καὶ ἀσθενὲς τὴν μετὰ γυναικὸς καὶ τέκνων φεύγειν συμβίωσιν. οὗ γὰρ ἡ ἀποβολὴ κακόν ἐστι, τούτου πάντως ἡ κτῆσις ἀγαθόν· ἔχει δʼ οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν λοιπῶν. ἀλλὰ μὴν ἡ τῶν τέκνων ἀποβολὴ τῶν ἀνωτάτω κακῶν ἐστι, φασίν. ἡ οὖν τῶν τέκνων κτῆσις ἀγαθόν. εἰ δὲ τοῦτο, καὶ ὁ γάμος. ἄνευ δὲ πατρὸς (φησὶ) τέκνον οὐκ εἴη ποτʼ ἄν, ἄνευ δὲ μητρὸς οὐδὲ συλλαβὴ τέκνου.

English · Claude translation

And such conduct is impious, since it destroys divine generation. It is also unmanly and weak to flee a shared life with wife and children. For that whose loss is an evil, its possession is certainly a good; and so with the rest. But the loss of children is among the greatest evils, they say; so the possession of children is a good; and if so, marriage too. “Without a father,” it says, “there could never be a child, and without a mother not even the conception of a child.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:191 · Otto Stählin, ed., Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 2, Stromata Buch I–VI, GCS 15 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1906); vol. 3, Stromata Buch VII und VIII, GCS 17 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909) · Greek text: Otto Stählin, Clemens Alexandrinus 2–3 (GCS 15, 17, 1906–1909), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Stählin, GCS 15, 17. 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), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Stählin (1906–1909); 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) · Book 3 is left partly untranslated (in Latin) there.
Topics
Marriage

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotation is from an unknown poet.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.23.142 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/23/142/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.23.142 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/23/142/).

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