Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Now that these things have been shown, come, let us set out how many scriptures oppose these sophists of the heresies, disclosing the canon of the self-control observed according to reason. And whoever understands, choosing out for each of the heresies the scripture that suitably confronts it, will use it in due season for the overthrow of those who set up doctrines contrary to the commandments. From of old, then, the law, as we have said before, said in advance, "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife," anticipating the very voice of the Lord which, according to the new covenant, speaks in its own person, saying: "You have heard the law commanding, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say, 'You shall not covet.'" For that the law wished men to use their wedded wives with self-control, and only for the begetting of children, is clear from the fact that it forbade the unmarried man to have intercourse at once with a captive woman, but if he had conceived desire for her, permitted him to mourn thirty days, she having shorn even her hair; and if even so the desire did not wither away, then he might beget children by her, the impulse that mastered him having been tested over the appointed span of time as to whether it tended toward a reasonable longing.
Hence you could not show, according to the scripture, any of the elders approaching a woman who was with child, but afterward, after both the pregnancy and the suckling of the child that had been born, you would find the women again known by their husbands. At once you will find this very aim kept also by the father of Moses, who let three years pass after the birth of Aaron before begetting Moses. Again, the tribe of Levi too, keeping this law of nature from God, entered the land that had been foretold with a smaller number than the other tribes; for a people does not easily grow into a multitude when the men who have taken up marriage according to the laws sow their seed but wait not only for the pregnancy but also for the suckling.
Hence fittingly Moses too, leading the Jews on by degrees into self-control, having had them abstain in succession for three days from the pleasure of intercourse, then commanded them to hearken to the divine words. We, then, are temples of God, as the prophet said: "I will dwell in them and walk about in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people," if we conduct our citizenship according to the commandments, whether each of us individually or the church as a whole. "Therefore go out from among them and set yourselves apart," says the Lord, "and lay hold of nothing impure; and I will welcome you in, and I will become a father to you, and you will become sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty." It is not, as some say, from those who have married, but from the nations still living in fornication, and further, from the aforesaid heresies, that he prophetically bids us be separated as unclean and godless.
Hence Paul too, addressing himself to men like those just mentioned, says: "Having these promises, then, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God; for I am jealous over you with a jealousy of God, for I have betrothed you to one husband, to offer you to Christ as a pure virgin." The church, possessing one bridegroom, does not marry another; but each of us individually has the right, according to the law, to marry whomever he wishes — I mean the first marriage. "But I fear lest, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts should be corrupted from the simplicity that is toward Christ" — the apostle has spoken with great caution and in the manner of a teacher.
Hence too the admirable Peter says: "Beloved, I urge you, as sojourners and strangers, to abstain from fleshly desires, which war against the soul, keeping your conduct good among the Gentiles, because such is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free, and not as having freedom for a covering of malice, but as servants of God." And likewise Paul too writes in the Epistle to the Romans: "We who died to sin, how shall we still live in it? For our former self was nailed to the cross together with him, so that the sinful body might be brought to nothing — even to the point that you present not your members as weapons of unrighteousness to sin."
And indeed, having come to this point, I think I ought not to leave unremarked that the apostle preaches the same God through the law, the prophets, and the gospel; for the "you shall not covet" that is written in the gospel he applies to the law in the Epistle to the Romans, knowing that it is one and the same Father who preached through the law and the prophets and who was proclaimed as good news through him. For he says: "What shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not; but I did not know sin except through the law; for I would not have known desire, unless the law had said, 'You shall not covet.'" And should the opponents among those of heterodox opinion suppose that Paul, in what follows, spoke against the Creator when he says, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh" — let them read also what precedes and what follows. For he had said before: "but sin that dwells in me," on account of which it was consistent for him to say that nothing good dwells in my flesh.
Consistently, then, he went on to add: "For if what I do not wish, this I do, it is no longer I who work it, but sin that dwells in me, which, warring against the law of God and of my mind, he says, takes me captive under the law of sin that is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" And again — for he does not tire, in whatever way, of doing good — he does not hesitate to add: "For the law of the Spirit has set me free from the law of sin and of death, since through the Son God condemned sin in the flesh, that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." In addition to these, further clarifying what he had said, he cries out: declaring the body dead because of sin, as being no longer a temple but still a tomb of the soul; for whenever the spirit shall be sanctified to God, he will apply it. "of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who will give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit dwelling in you."
Again, then, rebuking those who love pleasure, he adds those words: "For the mind of the flesh is death, because those who live according to the flesh mind the things of the flesh, and the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God; for it will not submit itself to God's law. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God" — not, as some hold as doctrine, but as we have already said. Then, to distinguish these from the church, he says: "But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. But if Christ is in you, the body is indeed lifeless on account of sin, while the Spirit is life on account of righteousness. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you are about to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." And against the nobility and the freedom shamefully introduced by those of heterodox opinion who boast in licentiousness, he adds, saying: "For you did not receive again a spirit of slavery unto fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, in which we cry, 'Abba, Father'" — that is, we received it for this, that we might know him to whom we pray, the Father in very truth, the sole Father of all that exists, who trains us for salvation as a father, and threatens fear...
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