Miscellanies 7.14.87
Summary: Those justified and sanctified may not act against the gospel; people who live to eat are like mere flesh in the body of the church, and the church, Christ's spiritual body, must not be joined to fornication or to a pagan life.
Greek text · Stählin 2
ἀλλʼ οἷον ἀσάρκῳ ἤδη καὶ ἄνω τῆσδε τῆς γῆς [ἁγίῳ] γεγονότι. διόπερ »ἐδικαιώθητε« φησὶ »τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ κυρίου«· ἐποιήθητε ὡς εἰπεῖν ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ δίκαιοι [εἶναι] ὡς αὐτός. καὶ »τῷ πνεύματι τῷ ἁγίῳ« ὡς ἔνι μάλιστα κατὰ δύναμιν ἀνεκράθητε. μὴ γὰρ οὐ »πάντα μοι ἔξεστιν, ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἐξουσιασθήσομαι«, φησί, παρὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιόν τι ποιῆσαι ἢ νοῆσαι ἢ λαλῆσαι; »τὰ δὲ βρώματα τῇ κοιλίᾳ καὶ ἡ κοιλία τοῖς βρώμασιν«. ἃ »ὁ θεὸς καταργήσει«, τουτέστιν τοὺς οὕτω λογιζομένους καὶ βιοῦντας ὡς διὰ τὸ ἐσθίειν γενομένους, μὴ οὐχὶ δὲ ἐσθίοντας ἵνα ζῶσι μὲν κατὰ τὸ ἀκόλουθον, κατὰ δὲ τὸ προηγούμενον τῇ γνώσει προσανέχοντας. καὶ μή τι οἷον σάρκας εἶναι τοῦ ἁγίου σώματος τούτους φησί; σῶμα δὲ ἀλληγορεῖται ἡ ἐκκλησία κυρίου. ὁ πνευματικὸς καὶ ἄγιος χορός, ἐξ ὧν οἱ τὸ ὄνομα ἐπικεκλημένοι μόνον, βιοῦντες δὲ οὐ κατὰ λόγον, σάρκες εἰσί. »τὸ δὲ σῶμα« τοῦτο τὸ πνευματικόν, τουτέστιν ἡ ἁγία ἐκκλησία, »οὐ τῇ πορνείᾳ« οὐδὲ τῇ ἀπὸ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου ἀποστασίᾳ πρὸς τὸν ἐθνικὸν βίον κατʼ οὐδένα τρόπον οὐδʼ ὁπωστιοῦν οἰκειωτέον.
English · Claude translation
but as one already without flesh and become holy above this earth. That is why he says, “You were justified in the name of the Lord”: you were made by him, so to speak, righteous as he is; and “by the Holy Spirit” you were blended with him as far as possible. For surely, “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of anything,” he says, does not mean that one may do or think or speak anything contrary to the gospel? “Food is for the belly and the belly for food,” which “God will destroy,” that is, those who think and live as though they were born to eat, instead of eating in order to live, as a secondary thing, while devoting themselves first of all to knowledge. And does he not say that these are, as it were, the fleshy parts of the holy body? The church of the Lord is allegorically called a body, the spiritual and holy chorus; and of it, those who are called by the name only, but do not live according to reason, are the flesh. “But the body,” this spiritual body, that is, the holy church, must in no way whatever be joined “to fornication,” nor to apostasy from the gospel into the life of the gentiles.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are 1 Cor 6:11–13; the church as body echoes 1 Cor 12:27. Clement reads “fornication” here as apostasy into pagan ways. The bracketed words ἁγίῳ and εἶναι are marked by Stählin for deletion.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (garbled in the digital text; stray periods in the digital text): ο(??)ον ἀσάρκῳ → οἷον ἀσάρκῳ; »πάντα μοι ἔξεστιν. ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἐξουσιασθήσομαι«. φησί. → »πάντα μοι ἔξεστιν, ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἐξουσιασθήσομαι«, φησί,; ὁ πνευματικὸς καὶ ἄγιος χορός. ἐξ ὧν οἱ τὸ ὄνομα ἐπικεκλημένοι μόνον. βιοῦντες δὲ οὐ κατὰ λόγον. σάρκες → ὁ πνευματικὸς καὶ ἄγιος χορός, ἐξ ὧν οἱ τὸ ὄνομα ἐπικεκλημένοι μόνον, βιοῦντες δὲ οὐ κατὰ λόγον, σάρκες; τοῦτο τὸ πνευματικόν. τουτέστιν ἡ ἁγία ἐκκλησία. → τοῦτο τὸ πνευματικόν, τουτέστιν ἡ ἁγία ἐκκλησία,.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.14.87 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/14/87/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.14.87 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/14/87/).
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