Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 3.17.104

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

Summary: Some claim marital “knowledge” was the sin of the tree of knowledge; but then knowledge of truth is the tree of life, and chaste marriage shares in it; Christ healed bodies, so the flesh is not the enemy; “flesh and blood” that cannot inherit the kingdom is sin.

Greek text · Stählin 2:244

ἤδη δὲ ἐθέλουσι τὴν ἀνδρὸς κατὰ γάμον πρὸς γυναῖκα ὁμιλίαν γνῶσιν εἰρημένην ἁμαρτίαν εἶναι· ταύτην γὰρ ὑπὸ τῆς βρώσεως μηνύεσθαι τοῦ ξύλου τοῦ καλοῦ καὶ πονηροῦ, διὰ τῆς τοῦ ἔγνω σημασίας παράβασιν ἐντολῆς διδάσκουσαν. εἰ δὲ τοῦτο, καὶ ἡ τῆς ἀληθείας γνῶσις βρῶσίς ἐστι τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς. ἔστιν οὖν κἀκείνου τοῦ ξύλου μεταλαβεῖν τὸν σώφρονα γάμον· προείρηται δὲ ἡμῖν ὡς καὶ καλῶς καὶ κακῶς ἔστι χρήσασθαι τῷ γάμῳ, καὶ τοῦτʼ ἔστι τὸ ξύλον τῆς γνώσεως, ἐὰν μὴ παρανομῶμεν τὸν γάμον. τί δέ; οὐχὶ ὁ σωτὴρ ὥσπερ τὴν ψυχήν, οὕτω δὲ καὶ τὸ σῶμα ἰᾶτο τῶν παθῶν; οὐκ ἂν δὲ εἰ ἐχθρὰ ἡ σὰρξ ἦν τῆς ψυχῆς, ἐπετείχιζεν αὐτῇ τὴν ἐχθρὰν διʼ ὑγείας ἐπισκευάζων. τοῦτο δέ φημι, ἀδελφοί, ὅτι σὰρξ καὶ αἷμα βασιλείαν θεοῦ κληρονομῆσαι οὐ δύναται, οὐδὲ ἡ φθορὰ τὴν ἀφθαρσίαν κληρονομεῖ, ἡ γὰρ ἁμαρτία φθορὰ οὖσα οὐ δύναται κοινωνίαν ἔχειν μετὰ τῆς ἀφθαρσίας, ἥτις ἐστὶ δικαιοσύνη. οὕτως ἀνόητοι, φησίν, ἐστέ; ἐναρξάμενοι πνεύματι νῦν σαρκὶ ἐπιτελεῖτε;

English · Claude translation

Now they want the intercourse of husband with wife in marriage, called “knowledge,” to be a sin; for they say it is indicated by the eating of the tree of good and evil, the word “knew” signifying the transgression of the commandment. But if so, the knowledge of the truth is also the eating of the tree of life. Self-restrained marriage, then, may share in that tree too. We have said before that marriage can be used well and badly; and this is the tree of knowledge, if we do not transgress in marriage. What then? Did not the Savior heal the body of its passions as well as the soul? He would not, if the flesh were hostile to the soul, have fortified the enemy against it by restoring it to health. “This I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption”; for sin, being corruption, cannot have fellowship with incorruption, which is righteousness. “Are you so foolish?” he says. “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:244 · 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

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions and quotations are Gen 2:17; 3:6; 4:1, Gen 2:9, 1 Cor 15:50, and Gal 3:1, 3.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.17.104 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/17/104/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.17.104 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/17/104/).

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