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Stromata
Clement of Alexandria, ANF 2
Book 3, He then does violence to Paul, making him hold that birth originated from deceit…
He then does violence to Paul, making him hold that birth originated from deceit because he says: “I am afraid lest, as the serpent deceived Eve, your thoughts should be corrupted from the simplicity which is towards Christ.”1 But the Lord, as all agree, came to that which was astray,2 but it had not strayed from above into earthly birth (for birth is created and the creation of the Almighty who would never bring the soul down from what is good to what is bad). The Saviour came to men who were astray in their thoughts, to us whose minds were corrupted as a result of our disobeying the commandments because we were lovers of pleasure, and perhaps also because the first man of our race did not bide his time, desired the favour of marriage before the proper hour, and fell into sin by not waiting for the time of God’s will;3 “for every one who looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her.”4
It was the same Lord who at that time also condemned the desire which preceded marriage. When, therefore, the apostle says, “Put on the new man which is created after God,”5 he speaks to us who were formed as we are by the will of the Almighty. In speaking of the old man and the new he is not referring to birth and rebirth respectively, but to manner of life, the one being disobedient, the other obedient. The “coats of skins” in Cassian’s view are bodies.6 That both he and those who teach the same as he does are wrong here we will show later when we undertake an explanation of the birth of man after the necessary preliminary discussion. He further says: “The subjects of earthly kings both beget and are born, ‘but our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour.’”7 That this remark also is right we recognize, since we ought to behave as strangers and pilgrims, if married as though we were not married, if possessing wealth as though we did not possess it, if procreating children as giving birth to mortals, as those who are ready to abandon their property, as men who would even live without a wife if need be, as people who are not passionately attached to the created world, but use it with all gratitude and with a sense of exaltation beyond it.
Notes
- II Cor. 11:3.
- Matt. 18:11.
- Cf. Strom., III, 81.
- Matt. 5:28.
- Eph. 4:24.
- Gen. 3:21, Among the gnostics this interpretation of the coats of skins is common; it was also attributed to Origen, who certainly regarded it as a possible interpretation but does not definitely declare himself. Cf. my note on Origen, contra Celsum, IV, 40. Philo understood them in this sense (Leg. Alleg., III, 69; de Post. Caini, 137) and also Porphyry (de Abst., I, 31, probably following Numenius).
- Phil. 3:20.