Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 3.12.89

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

Summary: To call marriage fornication is blasphemy; fornication, like idolatry, is falling from the one to the many, and defilement is union with another's body; Paul wants younger widows to marry and bear children.

Greek text · Stählin 2:237

εἰ δὲ πορνείαν τὸν γάμον τολμᾷ τις λέγειν, πάλιν ἐπὶ τὸν νόμον καὶ τὸν κύριον ἀνατρέχων βλασφημεῖ. ὡς γὰρ ἡ πλεονεξία πορνεία λέγεται τῇ αὐταρκείᾳ ἐναντιουμένη, καὶ ὡς ἡ εἰδωλολατρεία ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς εἰς τοὺς πολλοὺς ἐπινέμησίς ἐστι θεούς, οὕτως ἡ πορνεία ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς γάμου εἰς τοὺς πολλούς ἐστιν ἔκπτωσις· τριχῶς γάρ, ὡς εἰρήκαμεν, ἥ τε πορνεία ἥ τε μοιχεία παρὰ τῷ ἀποστόλῳ λαμβάνεται. ἐπὶ τούτων ὁ προφήτης φησί· ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν ἐπράθητε, καὶ πάλιν· κατεμιάνθης ἐν γῇ ἀλλοτρίᾳ, τὴν τε κοινωνίαν μιαρὰν ἡγούμενος τὴν ἀλλοτρίῳ σώματι συμπλακεῖσαν καὶ μὴ τῷ κατὰ συζυγίαν εἰς παιδοποιίαν διδομένῳ. ὅθεν καὶ ὁ ἀπόστολος βούλομαι οὖν φησὶ νεωτέρας γαμεῖν, τεκνογονεῖν, οἰκοδεσποτεῖν, μηδεμίαν ἀφορμὴν διδόναι τῷ ἀντικειμένῳ λοιδορίας χάριν· ἤδη γάρ τινες ἐξετράπησαν ὀπίσω τοῦ σατανᾶ.

English · Claude translation

But if anyone dares to call marriage sexual immorality, he blasphemes, running back again to the law and the Lord. For as greed is called sexual immorality, being opposed to contentment, and as idolatry is a distribution from the one God to many gods, so sexual immorality is a falling away from the one marriage to many. For, as we have said, both sexual immorality and adultery are taken in three senses by the apostle. About these the prophet says: “You were sold for your sins”; and again: “You were defiled in a foreign land,” considering defiled the union joined with a foreign body and not with the one given in marriage for the begetting of children. That is why the apostle too says: “I wish, then, younger women to marry, bear children, manage their households, give the adversary no occasion for reproach; for some have already turned aside after Satan.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:237 · 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
Extrabiblical texts
  • Bar 3:10–11 (Baruch) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Marriage, Heresy, Remarriage

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Isa 50:1, Bar 3:10–11, and 1 Tim 5:14–15. “As we have said” refers to a lost or later discussion.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.12.89 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/12/89/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.12.89 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/12/89/).

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