Miscellanies 3.6.45
Summary: Against ascetics who reject marriage as feeding death, Clement cites John on antichrists who left the church, and explains the saying to Salome, “as long as women bear children,” as teaching the natural order, not that birth is evil.
Greek text · Stählin 2:216–217
Τοῖς δὲ εὐφήμως διʼ ἐγκρατείας ἀσεβοῦσιν εἴς τε τὴν κτίσιν καὶ τὸν ἅγιον δημιουργὸν τὸν παντοκράτορα μόνον θεὸν καὶ διδάσκουσι μὴ δεῖν παραδέχεσθαι γάμον καὶ παιδοποιίαν μηδὲ ἀντεισάγειν τῷ κόσμῳ δυστυχήσοντας ἑτέρους μηδὲ ἐπιχορηγεῖν τῷ θανάτῳ τροφὴν ἐκεῖνα λεκτέον· πρῶτον μὲν τὸ τοῦ ἀποστόλου Ἰωάννου· καὶ νῦν ἀντίχριστοι πολλοὶ γεγόνασιν, ὅθεν ἐγνώκαμεν ὅτι ἐσχάτη ὥρα ἐστίν. ἐξ ἡμῶν ἐξῆλθον, ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἦσαν ἐξ ἡμῶν· εἰ γὰρ ἦσαν ἐξ ἡμῶν, μεμενήκεισαν ἂν μεθʼ ἡμῶν. ἔπειτα καὶ διαστρεπτέον αὐτοὺς τὰ ὑπʼ αὐτῶν φερόμενα διαλύοντας ὧδέ πως· τῇ Σαλώμῃ ὁ κύριος πυνθανομένῃ, μέχρι πότε θάνατος ἰσχύσει; οὐχ ὡς κακοῦ τοῦ βίου ὄντος καὶ τῆς κτίσεως πονηρᾶς, μέχρις ἂν εἶπεν ὑμεῖς αἱ γυναῖκες τίκτητε, ἀλλʼ ὡς τὴν ἀκολουθίαν τὴν φυσικὴν διδάσκων· γενέσει γὰρ πάντως ἕπεται καὶ φθορά.
English · Claude translation
To those who, under the fair name of self-control, act impiously toward creation and the holy Creator, the Almighty, the only God, and teach that marriage and the begetting of children must not be accepted, nor others brought into the world to be unhappy, nor food supplied to death, we must say this. First, the words of the apostle John: “And now many antichrists have come, from which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us.” Then we must also turn them around, refuting what they put forward in this way. When Salome asked, “How long will death have power?” the Lord said, “As long as you women bear children,” not as though life were evil and creation wicked, but teaching the natural sequence; for decay always follows birth.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are 1 John 2:18–19 and the Gospel of the Egyptians (a lost apocryphal gospel, also quoted in 3.9.63–64, 3.13.92). Clement names the gospel in 3.9.63.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.6.45 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/6/45/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.6.45 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/6/45/).
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