Stromateis 1 part 15/42

"or, Where is the God of justice?" So then, in order that we may not, by dwelling on this passage at greater length, go on to recall the more absurd points of the many heresies, nor again, being compelled to speak against each one of them individually, be put to shame on their account and stretch these notes out to excessive length - come, let us divide all the heresies into two categories and make our answer to them accordingly.

For indeed, either they teach that one should live without moral distinction, or, extolling an overstrained continence, they proclaim it through impiety and love of contention.

But first we must treat of the former division.

If it is permissible to choose any way of life, clearly also the one lived with self-control; and if every way of life is free from danger for the elect, clearly the one lived with virtue and moderation is far more free from danger;

for since authority has been given him to be lord of the Sabbath, even if one should live licentiously he would be without blame; much more, then, will he who has conducted his life in an orderly manner not be liable to blame.

"All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable," says the apostle.

But if indeed all things are permitted, clearly to be self-controlled is also permitted.

Just as, then, the one who uses his freedom to live according to virtue is praiseworthy, so much more is he who gave us this freedom - sovereign and unrestricted - and allowed us to live as we wish, worthy of reverence and worship, since he did not compel our choices and avoidances to be enslaved by necessity.

But if each of the two - the one who has chosen intemperance and the one who has chosen self-control - alike has nothing to fear, still their dignity is not alike;

for the one who has run aground upon pleasures gratifies the body, while the self-controlled man frees the

soul - mistress of the body - from the passions.

and even if they say we have been called to freedom, let us only take care not to give freedom as an occasion to the flesh, according to the apostle;

but if one must gratify desire and, as they themselves say, consider a disgraceful life a matter of indifference, then one must obey the desires in everything; and if this is so, one must do absolutely all the most licentious and most unholy things, following those who persuade us to do so;

or else we shall turn aside from certain of the desires, and one must no longer live indifferently, nor serve without restraint the most dishonorable parts of ourselves - the belly and the private parts - flattering, for desire's sake, our... dead flesh.

For desire, when ministered to for the sake of enjoyment, is nourished and quickened, just as, on the contrary, when it is curtailed, it withers away.

How is it possible for one who has been overcome by the pleasures of the body to be made like the Lord, or to have knowledge of God? For desire is the origin of every pleasure, and desire is a kind of pain and anxious care, reaching out after something because of lack.

So then, those who have taken up this manner of life seem to me to be doing nothing other than what is proverbially said - to suffer pains added to shame - choosing for themselves a self-inflicted evil, both now and hereafter.

If, then, all things were permitted, and there were no fear of failing to obtain the hope on account of wicked deeds, perhaps they would have some excuse for living both wickedly and pitiably;

but since a blessed life has been shown to us through the commandments - which all must hold fast to, neither disregarding anything that has been said nor making light of what is fitting, even in the smallest matter, but following wherever reason leads; and if we should fail in this, we must inevitably fall into an undying evil; while those who follow the divine Scripture, by which believers make their way, are enabled to be made like the Lord as far as possible - one must not live indifferently, but must, to the utmost of one's power, keep oneself pure of pleasures, and take care of the soul, so that one's whole life may be spent for God alone.

"And everyone who has this hope in the Lord," it says, "purifies himself, even as he is pure."

But it is impossible for those still led by the passions to attain knowledge of God;

therefore neither can those who have gained no knowledge of God obtain the hope.

And in the case of one who fails of this end, ignorance of God seems to be the accusation against him; and it is one's manner of life that shows forth one's ignorance of God.

For it is altogether impossible both to possess knowledge and, at the same time, not to be ashamed of pandering to the body;

for it can never be reconciled that pleasure is good with the tenet that only the noble is good, or that the Lord alone is noble, and God alone is good and alone worthy of love.

But in Christ you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, ... in the circumcision of Christ.

If then you were raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, set your mind on the things above, not on the things upon the earth.

For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God — not the fornication which they practice.

Put to death, therefore, your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, desire, on account of which the wrath comes.

Let them, too, therefore put away anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, and shameful talk out of their mouth, having put off the old man with his desires, and having put on the new man, who is being renewed ... unto knowledge, according to the image of him who created him.

For the manner of one's conduct clearly convicts those who have known the commandments, since one's life is not such as one's word.

But the tree is known from its fruits, not from its blossoms and leaves.

Knowledge, then, is known from the fruit and the conduct of life, not from the word and the blossom.

For we do not say that knowledge is a bare word, but a certain divine science, and that light which comes to be in the soul from obedience to the commandments, which makes all things manifest — both the things in creation and man himself — and prepares a man to know himself, and teaches him to become a partaker of God.

For what the eye is in the body, that knowledge is in the mind.

Nor let them call slavery to pleasure freedom, just as those who call bile sweet.

For we have learned the freedom with which the Lord alone sets us free, releasing us from pleasures and desires and the other passions.

'He who says, "I know the Lord," and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him' — John says.

But to those who, under the fair name of continence, impiously blaspheme both creation and the holy Creator, the almighty, the only God, and who teach that one ought not to accept marriage and the begetting of children, nor bring into the world others who will be unfortunate, nor supply death with nourishment — to them the following must be said.

First, the saying of the apostle John.

'And now many antichrists have come, whereby 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.'

Next, one must also refute them by dissolving the arguments they bring forward, somewhat as follows.

When Salome asked, 'How long shall death hold sway?' the Lord said, 'As long as you women bear children' — not implying that life is evil and creation wicked, but teaching the natural sequence of events.

For decay necessarily follows upon generation.

The law, then, has purposed to lead us out of luxury and every disorder, and this is its end: to bring us from injustice to righteousness, choosing temperate marriages, the begetting of children, and a life of good order.

But the Lord came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.

He fulfilled it, not as though it were deficient, but so that through his own coming the prophecies according to the law might be brought to completion, since the precepts of right conduct were also proclaimed through the Word to those who lived righteously before the law.

The many, therefore, not knowing true continence, live according to the body, but not according to the spirit.

But the body without the spirit is earth and ashes.

For instance, the Lord judges adultery to arise from a thought.

...to use it with self-control, and not to try to dissolve what God has joined together? For such are the things taught by those who divide the marriage bond, on account of whom the Name is blasphemed.

But those who say that intercourse is defiled, while they themselves also received their own existence from intercourse, how could they not be defiled themselves? Whereas, I think, the seed of those who have been sanctified is itself holy.

Not only our spirit, then, ought to be sanctified by us, but also our manner of life, our conduct, and our body.

Otherwise, on what account does the apostle Paul say that the wife is sanctified by the husband, or the husband by the wife? And what is it that the Lord said to those who inquired concerning divorce, whether it is lawful to put away a wife since Moses permitted it? 'Because of the hardness of your hearts,' he says, 'Moses wrote you this commandment.'

'But have you not read that God said to the first-formed man...'

'...you two shall become one flesh'? So then, whoever divorces his wife, except for the cause of fornication, makes her commit adultery.

'But after the resurrection,' he says, 'they neither marry nor are given in marriage.'

For it has also been said concerning the belly and foods.

'Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods; but God will do away with both it and them.'

Rebuking with a slap those who suppose that they may live like boars and goats, so that they might not eat and copulate without fear.

If, then, they have already received the resurrection, as they themselves claim, and on this account reject marriage, let them not eat or drink either.

For the apostle said that both the belly and foods would be done away with in the resurrection.

How then do they hunger and thirst and suffer the things of the flesh, and the other things which he who has received through Christ the perfect resurrection that is expected will no longer suffer? But indeed, even the worshippers of idols abstain from both certain foods and sexual intercourse.

'For the kingdom of God,' he says, 'is not food and drink.'

Indeed, it is also a matter of concern for the Magi, who worship angels and demons, to abstain alike from wine, from things that have life, and from sexual intercourse.

But just as humility is gentleness, and not the ill-treatment of the body, so also continence is a virtue of the soul, one that is not manifest openly, but hidden.

There are also those who say that marriage is outright fornication, and dogmatically teach that it has been handed down by the devil; and these boastful people claim that they imitate the Lord, who neither married nor possessed anything in the world, boasting that they, more than others, have understood the gospel.

'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.'

Then, do they not know the reason why the Lord did not marry?

For, first of all, he had his own bride, the Church; and secondly, he was no common man, that he should need any helper according to the flesh.

Nor was it necessary for him, who remains eternally and is unique, to beget children.

And this same Lord himself says.

'What God has joined together, let no man separate.'

'And just as it was in the days of Noah — they were marrying and giving in marriage, building and planting — and as it was in the days of Lot, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man.'

And that he is not speaking to the nations, he adds.

'When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?' And again.

'But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse infants in those days.'

And yet these things too are spoken allegorically.

For this reason he did not fix the times which the Father has set within his own authority, in order that the world might continue throughout the generations.

'But not all can accept this saying.'

'For there are eunuchs who were born so from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.'

'He who is able to accept this, let him accept it.'

Do they not know that after the saying concerning divorce, when some had asked whether, if such is the case regarding a wife, it is not expedient for a man to marry, then the Lord said.

'Not all can accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given.'

For this is what those who were asking wished to learn: whether, when a wife has been condemned for fornication and put away, it is permitted to marry another.

...abstaining from sexual intercourse through bodily discipline, exercising self-control, as did Astylus of Croton and Crison of Himera.

And Amoebeus the cithara-player also, though newly married, abstained from his bride.

And Aristotle the Cyrenaic alone disregarded Laïs, though she was in love with him.

Having sworn to the courtesan that he would indeed take her back to his homeland if she would assist him against his rivals, when she had accomplished this, he gracefully fulfilled his oath: having a portrait painted of her as lifelike as possible, he set it up in Cyrene, as Istros relates in his work On the Peculiarity of Contests.

So that not even celibacy is virtuous, unless it comes about through love for God.

For instance, concerning those who abhor marriage, the blessed Paul says.

'In later times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods.'

'Let no one disqualify you, delighting in self-abasement and severity to the body.'

And the same man writes these things too:

Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek release.

Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife.

But let each man have his own wife, lest Satan tempt you.

What then? Did not the righteous men of old also partake of creation with thanksgiving? And some, though they married, begot children with self-control.

And to Elijah the ravens brought food, bread and meat;

And the prophet Samuel too, bringing the portion of meat he had kept back from what he himself was eating, gave it to Saul to eat.

But they, though claiming to surpass even these men in conduct and manner of life, will not be able even to be compared with their deeds.

Therefore let not him who does not eat despise him who eats, and let not him who eats judge him who does not eat;

for God has received him.

But the Lord too, speaking of himself, says, 'John came neither eating nor drinking,' and they say:

'The Son of Man came eating and drinking,' and they say:

'Behold, a gluttonous man and a wine-drinker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'

Or do they reject the apostles as well? For Peter and Philip begot children, and Philip also gave his daughters in marriage to husbands; and Paul himself does not hesitate, in a certain letter, to address his own yoke-fellow, whom he did not carry about with him, for the sake of the convenience of his ministry.

He says, then, in a certain letter:

'Do we not have the right to lead about a sister as a wife, as do the other apostles?' — but these men, devoting themselves fittingly to the ministry and attending to the preaching without distraction, led the women about not as wives but as sisters, to be fellow-ministers to the women who kept house, through whom the Lord's teaching also made its way into the women's quarters without giving occasion for slander.

For we also know what the noble Paul ordains concerning women deacons in the second letter to Timothy.

But indeed this same man proclaims that the kingdom of God is not food and drink, nor is it abstinence from wine and meat, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Which of them goes about wearing a sheepskin and a leather belt, as Elijah did? Which of them is wrapped in sackcloth, otherwise naked and unshod, as Isaiah was? Or wears only a linen loincloth, as Jeremiah did? And who will imitate the gnostic constancy of John's way of life? Yet even living in such a manner, the blessed prophets gave thanks to their Creator.

But the 'righteousness' of Carpocrates, and of those who along with him likewise pursue a licentious 'community [of wives],' is refuted in this way, more or less:

For at the same moment as saying, 'Give to him who asks of you,' he adds:

'and do not turn away from him who wishes to borrow' — teaching this kind of sharing, not the lascivious kind.

But how could one ask, and receive, and borrow, if there existed no one who has, and gives, and lends? And what of when the Lord says:

'I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took me in, naked and you clothed me' —

'Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.'

Does it not lay down as law: 'He who gives to the poor lends to God,' and, 'Do not withhold from doing good to the one in need,' as it says?

And again it says: 'Let not mercy and faithfulness forsake you.'

'But the hands of the diligent make rich.'

'Behold, the man who has not lent his silver for interest becomes acceptable;'

and does it not plainly declare that a man's own wealth is judged to be the ransom of his soul? As, then, the world is composed of opposites, as of hot and cold, dry and moist, so too it is composed both of those who give and of those who receive.

'If you wish to become perfect, sell your possessions and give to the poor' — this refutes the man who boasted of having kept all the commandments from his youth;

for he had not fulfilled, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'

But then, being brought to perfection by the Lord, he was taught to share out of love.

He has not, then, forbidden being rich in a right manner, but rather being rich unjustly and insatiably;

for wealth hastily gathered through lawlessness becomes diminished.

For there are those who sow and yet gain more, and those who gather and yet are diminished;

'He has scattered abroad, he has given to the poor; his righteousness remains forever;'

For he who sows and gathers more is the one who, through earthly and temporary distribution, acquires heavenly and eternal things; but the other is the one who shares with no one, and vainly stores up treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy it (concerning whom it is written:

'he who gathers wages has gathered them into a bag full of holes') — of this man's land, the Lord says in the Gospel, that it yielded abundantly; and then, wishing to store up the fruits, and intending to build larger barns, he said to himself, in the form of a soliloquy:

'You have many goods laid up for many years; eat, drink, be merry;'

'You fool,' he said, 'this very night your soul will be required of you;'

'then the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' Now, human self-control — I mean that of the Greek philosophers — professes to struggle against desire and not to serve it in one's deeds; but ours consists in not desiring at all — not that one should endure while still desiring, but that one should be continent even from the very act of desiring.

But it is not possible to obtain this self-control by any other means than the grace of God.

For this reason he said, 'Ask, and it shall be given you.'

This grace Moses too received, though clothed with a needy body, so that for forty days he neither hungered nor thirsted.

But just as it is better to be healthy than, being sick, to discourse about health, so it is better to be light itself than to speak about light; and continence according to the truth is better than that taught by the philosophers.

For where there is light, there is no darkness;

but where desire sits enthroned, though it remains alone, even if it is quiet in its bodily activity, it still holds intercourse in memory with what is not present.

Let this, then, be our general principle: regarding marriage, food, and everything else, to do nothing according to desire, but to will only those things that are necessary.

For we are not children of desire, but of will.

And even the man who has married for the purpose of begetting children must practice self-control, so as not even to desire his own wife, whom he ought to love, begetting children with a grave and temperate will.

For we have not learned to make provision for the flesh unto its desires, but to walk becomingly, as in the daytime, in Christ and in the bright conduct of the Lord's day — not in revelry and drunkenness, not in licentious beds and debauchery, not in strife and jealousy.

But indeed it is fitting to view self-control not with respect to one single kind of thing alone — that is, sexual matters — but also with respect to all the other things which our soul, living in luxury, desires, not content with what is necessary, but busying itself curiously with extravagance.

Continence is to despise money, luxury, and possessions; to look down with high disdain upon spectacle; to master one's mouth; to rule over evil reasonings.

Indeed, even certain angels, having become incontinent, having been overcome by desire, have fallen down here from heaven.

But Valentinus, in his letter to Agathopus, says that Jesus, having endured all things, was continent in this:

'Jesus exercised divinity; he ate and drank in his own particular manner, not giving back the food he ate,'

'so that the food was not even corrupted within him, since he himself was not subject to corruption.'

We, then, embrace continence on account of our love toward the Lord and on account of the good itself, sanctifying the temple of the Spirit;

for it is good, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, to make oneself a eunuch to every desire, and to cleanse the conscience from dead works, so as to serve the living God.

But others, out of hatred toward the flesh, desiring — ungratefully — to be rid of marital union and of partaking in fitting foods, being both ignorant and godless, practice continence without reason, just as most of the other nations do.

The Brahmins, at any rate, neither eat anything that has life nor drink wine;

but some of them take food each day, as we do, while others of them do so every three days, as Alexander Polyhistor says in his Indica;

and they despise death, and count life as nothing;

for they believe in reincarnation, and they worship as gods Heracles and Pan.

But those of the Indians called the 'Semnoi' live naked their whole life;

these practice truth, and foretell future things, and they venerate a certain pyramid, beneath which they believe the bones of some god lie.

Neither the gymnosophists nor those called the Semnoi have relations with women;

for they regard this as contrary to nature and unlawful, for which reason they keep themselves chaste; and the Semnai women likewise remain virgins.

and they appear to observe the heavenly bodies, and through the interpretation of these signs to foretell certain future things.

Since those who introduce moral indifference, straining a few scriptures, imagine that these support their self-indulgence -- among them this one: 'For sin shall not have dominion over you';

'for you are not under law but under grace' (and certain other such texts, which it is not fitting to recall in connection with such matters;

for I am not fitting out a pirate ship) -- come then, let us in a few words cut short their undertaking.

For the noble apostle himself, adding on to the saying just quoted, at once clears himself of the charge;

'What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!'

Thus, in a divinely inspired and prophetic manner, he immediately demolishes their sophistical art of pleasure.

They do not understand, it seems, that we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive back through the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad, that each may recover what he did through the body.

So that 'if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,' no longer given to sin;

'the old things have passed away'; we have washed off the old life;

'behold, new things have come to be': purity out of fornication, self-control out of incontinence, righteousness out of unrighteousness.

'For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? Having therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.'

But those who set themselves against the creation of God under the guise of a fair-sounding continence also cite those sayings addressed to Salome which we mentioned earlier;

it is found, I think, in the Gospel according to the Egyptians.

For they say that the Savior himself said:

'I have come to destroy the works of the female' -- the female meaning desire, and the works meaning birth and decay.

What then would they say? Has this ordering of things been abolished? They would not say so;

for the world remains under the same order of administration.

But the Lord did not lie;

for indeed he did destroy the works of desire -- love of money, love of strife, love of glory, madness for women, pederasty, gluttony, dissoluteness, and things like these;

and the begetting of these is the corruption of the soul, since indeed we become dead through our transgressions;

and this was that 'female' incontinence.

But birth and decay within creation must necessarily go on foremost until the complete separation and restoration of the elect is accomplished, on whose account the substances mingled with the world are assigned according to their proper kinship.

When the Word had indicated this, Salome says:

'Until when shall men die?' Now scripture calls 'man' in two senses: both the visible man and the soul, and again, both the one who is saved and the one who is not.

And sin is called the death of the soul.

Therefore the Lord also answers with careful precision:

'As long as women bear children' -- that is, as long as the desires are at work.

'Therefore, just as sin entered into the world through one man, and through sin death, and so death passed to all men, in that all sinned;'

'and death reigned from Adam until Moses,' says the apostle;

By natural necessity of the divine order, death follows upon birth; and just as soul and body come together, so their dissolution likewise follows.

And if birth exists for the sake of learning and of coming to knowledge, then dissolution exists for the sake of restoration;

And just as woman is thought to be the cause of death because she bears children, so also, for that very same reason, she will be called the author of life.

For instance, she who first began the transgression was named 'Life' [Eve]; and because she is the cause of succession, she becomes equally the mother both of those who are born to sin and of those who are born to righteousness, alike of the just as of the unjust, since each of us either renders himself righteous or, on the contrary, renders himself disobedient.

Hence I, for my part, do not think that the apostle abhors life in the flesh, seeing that he says:

'but with all boldness, as always, so also now, Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.'

'For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.'

'But if to live in the flesh -- this to me is fruit of my labor; and I do not know what I shall choose.'

'I am hard pressed between the two, having the desire to depart and to be with Christ, for that is far better;'

'but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.'

For through these words, I think, he clearly showed that departure from the body is the perfecting of love toward God, while presence in the flesh is a grace-filled endurance for the sake of those who need to be saved.

But why do these people, who follow anything rather than the true evangelical rule, not also cite what follows in the sayings addressed to Salome? For when she said, 'Then I have done well in not bearing children,' as though begetting children were not rightly to be accepted, the Lord answers, saying:

'Eat every plant, but do not eat the one that has bitterness.'

For by this he further indicates both that continence and marriage lie in our own power, and are not a matter of necessity through some prohibitive commandment, thereby also clarifying that marriage in some way cooperates with creation.

Let no one, then, regard marriage entered into according to reason as a sin, unless he supposes the rearing of children to be a bitter thing -- for to many, on the contrary, childlessness is most grievous; nor, if the begetting of children should seem bitter to someone, distracting him from divine things through necessary cares, and if he cannot easily bear the solitary life, let him therefore desire not to marry -- since what is pleasing, joined with self-control, is harmless, and each of us has his own choice regarding the begetting of children.

But I observe how, on the pretext of marriage, some, having abstained from it not in accordance with holy knowledge, have slipped into misanthropy, and love has perished among them; while others, entangled and indulging in pleasure under a compliant reading of the law, have, as the prophet says, become like the beasts.