Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 3.10.68

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

Summary: “Where two or three are gathered” may mean husband, wife, and child, since God joins them; the heretics set the Creator with the many and the Savior with the one elect, but the same God is with the married and the celibate.

Greek text · Stählin 2:226–227

Τίνες δὲ οἱ δύο καὶ τρεῖς ὑπάρχουσιν ἐν ὀνόματι Χριστοῦ συναγόμενοι, παρʼ οἷς μέσος ἐστὶν ὁ κύριος; ἢ οὐχὶ ἄνδρα καὶ γυναῖκα καὶ τέκνον τοὺς τρεῖς λέγει, ὅτι ἀνδρὶ γυνὴ διὰ θεοῦ ἁρμόζεται; ἀλλὰ κἂν εὔζωνός τις εἶναι θέλῃ, οὐχ αἱρούμενος τὴν παιδοποιίαν διὰ τὴν ἐν παιδοποιίᾳ ἀσχολίαν, μενέτω φησὶν ὁ ἀπόστολος ἄγαμος ὡς κἀγώ. βούλεσθαι γὰρ λέγειν τὸν κύριον ἐξηγοῦνται μετὰ μὲν τῶν πλειόνων τὸν δημιουργὸν εἶναι τὸν γενεσιουργὸν θεόν, μετὰ δὲ τοῦ ἑνὸς τοῦ ἐκλεκτοῦ τὸν σωτῆρα, ἄλλου δηλονότι θεοῦ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ υἱὸν πεφυκότα. τὸ δʼ οὐχ οὕτως ἔχει· ἀλλʼ ἔστι μὲν καὶ μετὰ τῶν σωφρόνως γημάντων καὶ τεκνοποιησάντων ὁ θεὸς διʼ υἱοῦ, ἔστι δὲ καὶ μετὰ τοῦ ἐγκρατευσαμένου λογικῶς ὁ αὐτὸς ὡσαύτως θεός. Εἶεν δʼ ἂν καὶ ἄλλως οἱ μὲν τρεῖς θυμός τε καὶ ἐπιθυμία καὶ λογισμός, σὰρξ δὲ καὶ ψυχὴ καὶ πνεῦμα κατʼ ἄλλον λόγον.

English · Claude translation

Who are the two or three gathered in the name of Christ, among whom the Lord is in the midst? Does he not mean by the three a husband, a wife, and a child, since a wife is joined to a husband through God? But if someone wishes to be unencumbered, not choosing to beget children because of the occupation it involves, “let him remain unmarried as I am,” says the apostle. For they explain that the Lord means that with the many is the Creator, the God who causes birth, but with the one, the elect one, is the Savior, clearly the son of another God, the good one. But this is not so; rather, God through the Son is with those who marry with self-restraint and beget children, and the same God is likewise with the one who exercises self-control according to reason. The three might also be, in another way, anger, desire, and reason; and in another sense flesh, soul, and spirit.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:226–227 · 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.
Scripture
Topics
Marriage, Heresy, Trinity

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations and allusions are Matt 18:20, Prov 19:14 (LXX), and 1 Cor 7:8. The heretical interpretation seems to use a form of the saying found in Gos. Thom. 30.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.10.68 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/10/68/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.10.68 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/10/68/).

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