Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.23.147

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

Summary: All created things, including marriage and childbearing with self-restraint, are good, though freedom from passion is better; those who abstain from fear or dislike slander the Creator; true obedience to “do not desire” comes from within.

Greek text · Stählin 2:313

Οὐ γὰρ αὐτῇ τῇ φύσει τοῦ πράγματος οἰκειοῦνται ὡς τῷ ὄντι γνωστικῶς καταλαβέσθαι καλὰ μὲν εἶναι πάντα ὅσα εἰς χρῆσιν ἡμῶν ἐκτίσθη, ὡς γάμον φέρε εἰπεῖν καὶ παιδοποιίαν μετὰ σωφροσύνης παρειλημμένα, καλοῦ δὲ εἶναι ἄμεινον τὸ διὰ τὴν πρὸς τὸ θεῖον ἐξομοίωσιν ἀπαθῆ καὶ ἐνάρετον γενέσθαι. τοῖς δὲ ἔξωθεν εὐχρήστοις ἢ δυσχρήστοις προσαγόμενοι τῶν μὲν ἀπέχονται, τῶν δʼ οὔ· ἀλλὰ καὶ ὧν ἀφίστανται, μυσαττόμενοι ταῦτα φαίνονται, τὴν κτίσιν καὶ τὸν δημιουργὸν διαβάλλοντες, κἀν τῷ δοκεῖν πιστῶς ἀναστρέφεσθαι τὴν κρίσιν ἔχουσιν ἀνόσιον. τὸ δὲ οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις οὔτε ἀνάγκης τῆς ἐκ φόβου δεῖται, τῆς βιαζομένης ἀπέχεσθαι τῶν ἡδέων, οὔτε μισθοῦ τοῦ διʼ ἐπαγγελίας ἀναπείθοντος ἀνακόπτειν τὰς ὁρμάς· οὐδὲ τὴν ὑπακοὴν διὰ τὴν ἐντολήν.

English · Claude translation

For they are not attracted by the very nature of the thing, so as to grasp truly in the way of knowledge that all things created for our use are good, such as marriage, for example, and the begetting of children taken up with self-restraint, but that better than good is becoming passionless and virtuous for the sake of likeness to the divine. Led by external advantages or disadvantages, they abstain from some things and not from others; and even what they keep away from they clearly loathe, slandering creation and the Creator; and while seeming to live faithfully, they hold an unholy judgment. But “You shall not desire” needs neither the compulsion of fear, forcing abstinence from pleasant things, nor a reward persuading by promise to check the impulses; nor obedience because of the commandment.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:313 · 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, Ethics, Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions are 1 Tim 4:4 and Exod 20:17.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.23.147 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/23/147/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.23.147 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/23/147/).

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