Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 3.12.83

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

Summary: The law's washing after emission of seed foreshadowed baptismal rebirth without condemning birth; marriage is not merely of the old law, for the same God gave law and gospel, and what God joined man may not separate.

Greek text · Stählin 2:234

ἄνωθεν οὖν ὁ νόμος τὴν ἀναγέννησιν ἡμῶν προφητεύων διὰ σαρκικῆς γενέσεως ἐπὶ τῇ γεννητικῇ καταβολῇ τοῦ σπέρματος προσέφερε τὸ βάπτισμα, οὐ βδελυσσόμενος ἀνθρώπου γένεσιν· ὃ γὰρ φαίνεται γεννηθεὶς ἄνθρωπος, τοῦτο δύναται ἡ τοῦ σπέρματος καταβολή. οὔκουν αἱ πολλαὶ συνουσίαι γόνιμοι, ἀλλʼ ἡ τῆς μήτρας παραδοχὴ τὴν γένεσιν ὁμολογεῖ, ἐν τῷ τῆς φύσεως ἐργαστηρίῳ διαπλαττομένου τοῦ σπέρματος εἰς ἔμβρυον. πῶς δὲ ὁ μὲν γάμος παλαιὸς μόνον καὶ νόμου εὕρημα, ἀλλοῖος δὲ ὁ κατὰ τὸν κύριον γάμος τοῦ αὐτοῦ θεοῦ πρὸς ἡμῶν τηρουμένου; οὐ γὰρ ἂν ὃ συνέζευξεν ὁ θεός, διαλύσειέν ποτε ἄνθρωπος εὐλόγως. πολὺ δὲ πλέον ἅπερ ὁ πατὴρ προσέταξεν, τηρήσει ταῦτα καὶ ὁ υἱός. εἰ δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς νομοθέτης ἅμα καὶ εὐαγγελιστής, οὐ μάχεταί ποτε ἑαυτῷ. ζῇ γὰρ ὁ νόμος πνευματικὸς ὢν καὶ γνωστικῶς νοούμενος. ἡμεῖς δʼ ἐθανατώθημεν τῷ νόμῳ διὰ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰς τὸ γενέσθαι ἡμᾶς ἑτέρῳ, τῷ ἐκ νεκρῶν ἐγερθέντι, τῷ ὑπὸ τοῦ νόμου προφητευθέντι, ἵνα καρποφορήσωμεν τῷ θεῷ.

English · Claude translation

From of old, then, the law, prophesying our regeneration through fleshly birth, applied baptism to the generative discharge of seed, not abhorring human birth; for what appears as a man born, this is what the discharge of seed is capable of. So it is not the many acts of intercourse that are fruitful, but the womb's reception that testifies to birth, when the seed is formed into an embryo in nature's workshop. And how is marriage merely old and an invention of the law, while marriage according to the Lord is different, when the same God is kept by us? For a man could never rightly dissolve what God has joined. Much more will the Son keep what the Father commanded. And if the same one is lawgiver and evangelist, he never fights with himself. For the law lives, being spiritual and understood in the way of knowledge. “And we were put to death to the law through the body of Christ, so that we might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead,” who was prophesied by the law, “so that we might bear fruit for God.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:234 · 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, Baptism, Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions and quotations are Lev 15:16, Matt 19:6, Rom 7:14, and Rom 7:4.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (wrong accent on the relative ὃ): οὐ γὰρ ἂν ὅ συνέζευξεν → οὐ γὰρ ἂν ὃ συνέζευξεν.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.12.83 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/12/83/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.12.83 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/12/83/).

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