Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 3.12.87

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

Summary: “They neither marry nor are given in marriage” does not reject marriage but corrects hopes of fleshly pleasure in the resurrection; “call no one father on earth” means the earthly father is only a servant of birth, God the true Father.

Greek text · Stählin 2:236

διό φησιν· ἐργάζεσθε μὴ τὴν ἀπολλυμένην βρῶσιν, ἀλλὰ τὴν μένουσαν εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον. ὁμοίως δὲ κἀκεῖνο κομίζουσι τὸ ῥητόν· οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ αἰῶνος ἐκείνου οὔτε γαμοῦσιν οὔτε γαμίζονται. ἀλλὰ τὸ ἐρώτημα τοῦτο τὸ περὶ νεκρῶν ἀναστάσεως καὶ τοὺς πυνθανομένους αὐτοὺς ἐὰν ἀναπεμπάσηταί τις, οὐκ ἀποδοκιμάζοντα τὸν γάμον εὑρήσει τὸν κύριον, θεραπεύοντα δὲ τὴν κατὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν τῆς σαρκικῆς ἐπιθυμίας προσδοκίαν. τὸ δὲ οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου οὐ πρὸς ἀντιδιαστολὴν τῶν ἄλλου τινὸς αἰῶνος υἱῶν εἴρηκεν, ἀλλʼ ἐπʼ ἴσης τῷ οἱ ἐν τούτῳ γενόμενοι τῷ αἰῶνι, διὰ τὴν γένεσιν υἱοὶ ὄντες, γεννῶσι καὶ γεννῶνται, ἐπεὶ μὴ ἄνευ γενέσεώς τις εἰς τόνδε τὸν βίον παρελεύσεται, ἀλλʼ ἥδε ἡ γένεσις τὴν ὁμοίαν ἐπιδεχομένη φθορὰν οὐκέτι ἀναμένει τὸν ἅπαξ τοῦδε τοῦ βίου κεχωρισμένον. εἷς μὲν οὖν ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἁπάντων πατὴρ κατὰ τὴν δημιουργίαν αὐτός. μὴ καλέσητε οὖν ὑμῖν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς πατέρα φησίν, οἷον μὴ αἴτιον ἡγήσησθε τὸν σπείραντα ὑμᾶς τὴν κατὰ σάρκα σπορὰν τῆς οὐσίας ὑμῶν, ἀλλὰ συναίτιον γενέσεως, μᾶλλον δὲ διάκονον γενέσεως.

English · Claude translation

That is why he says: “Work not for the food that perishes, but for that which endures to eternal life.” Likewise they bring forward this saying too: “The sons of that age neither marry nor are given in marriage.” But if one reconsiders this question about the resurrection of the dead and the questioners themselves, he will find that the Lord was not rejecting marriage but curing the expectation of fleshly desire in the resurrection. And “the sons of this age” he said not in contrast to the sons of some other age, but equivalently to “those born in this age, being sons by birth, beget and are begotten,” since no one will pass into this life without birth; but this birth, receiving a like corruption, no longer awaits the one who has once departed this life. “One is your Father in heaven”; but he is also Father of all by creation. “So call no one on earth your father,” he says, as if to say: do not consider the one who sowed you by fleshly sowing the cause of your being, but a joint cause of birth, or rather a servant of birth.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:236 · 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, Eschatology, Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are John 6:27, Luke 20:34–35 (a free form), and Matt 23:9.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.12.87 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/12/87/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.12.87 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/12/87/).

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