Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 3.6.48

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

Summary: If the ascetics have already received the resurrection, they should stop eating too; abstinence alone proves nothing, since pagans and the Magi practice it; the kingdom is not food and drink, and self-control is a hidden virtue of the soul.

Greek text · Stählin 2:218

εἰ γοῦν τὴν ἀνάστασιν ἀπειλήφασιν, ὡς αὐτοὶ λέγουσι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἀθετοῦσι τὸν γάμον, μηδὲ ἐσθιέτωσαν μηδὲ πινέτωσαν· καταργεῖσθαι γὰρ ἔφη τὴν κοιλίαν καὶ τὰ βρώματα ὁ ἀπόστολος ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει. πῶς οὖν καὶ πεινῶσι καὶ διψῶσι καὶ τὰ κατὰ τὴν σάρκα πάσχουσι καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ὅσα ὁ διὰ Χριστοῦ τελείαν τὴν προσδοκωμένην ἀνάστασιν λαβὼν οὐ πείσεται; ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ τὰ εἴδωλα σεβόμενοι βρωμάτων τε ἅμα καὶ ἀφροδισίων ἀπέχονται. οὐκ ἔστι δὲ ἡ βασιλεία θεοῦ βρῶσις καὶ πόσις φησίν. ἀμέλει διὰ φροντίδος ἐστὶ καὶ τοῖς Μάγοις οἴνου τε ὁμοῦ καὶ ἐμψύχων καὶ ἀφροδισίων ἀπέχεσθαι λατρεύουσιν ἀγγέλοις καὶ δαίμοσιν. ὡς δὲ ἡ ταπεινοφροσύνη πραότης ἐστίν, οὐχὶ δὲ κακουχία σώματος, οὕτω καὶ ἡ ἐγκράτεια ψυχῆς ἀρετὴ ἡ οὐκ ἐν φανερῷ, ἀλλʼ ἐν ἀποκρύφῳ.

English · Claude translation

If, at any rate, they have received the resurrection, as they themselves say, and for this reason reject marriage, let them neither eat nor drink; for the apostle said that the belly and foods are done away in the resurrection. How, then, do they hunger and thirst and suffer the things of the flesh, and the other things which the one who has received through Christ the perfect resurrection that is awaited will not suffer? Besides, even idol-worshipers abstain from food and from sexual intercourse. “But the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking,” it says. Indeed the Magi too take care to abstain at once from wine, from meat, and from sexual intercourse, while they serve angels and demons. But as humility is gentleness, not ill-treatment of the body, so self-control is a virtue of the soul, not in the open, but in secret.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:218 · 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, Fasting, Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations and allusions are 1 Cor 6:13, 2 Tim 2:18 (the resurrection already past), Rom 14:17, Col 2:18, 23, and Matt 6:4–6.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.6.48 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/6/48/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.6.48 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/6/48/).

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