Saturday, October 22, 2011

Towards the Original Sixth Chapter of Clement of Alexandria's First Letter to the Corinthians (= the Letter to the Alexandrians)

1 Corinthians Chapter 6


Dare any of you, having a matter against the other, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?

Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?  And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?

3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!


4 Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church?


5 I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?


6 But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!


7 The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why do ye not rather suffer wrong?  Why are ye not rather defrauded? 

8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and these your brothers.

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Make no mistake. The sexually immoral, worshipper of idols, adulterers, passive perverts, homosexuals,

10 those who pursue profit, robbers, drunkards, people who use abusive language, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God

11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

12 All things are lawful for me; not everything is expedientAll things are lawful to me, yet I will not be brought under the power of any.

13 You say, Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both. Now this spiritual body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.

15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Nor, is it meet to make the members of Christ the members of an harlot; nor must the temple of God be made the temple of base affections

16 Or do you not realize that anyone who attaches himself to a prostitute becomes physically one with her?  For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”

17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

18 Flee from sexual immorality.  Every other sin is outside the body. Sexual promiscuity is a sin against one’s own body

19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

Relevant Patristic References


1 cor 6:1 - Clement Stromata 7 84 § 3 (p.60, l.14) BP1; 7 84 § 6 (p.60, l.24) BP1

1 Cor 6.1, 2 - For in the first Epistle to the Corinthians the divine apostle says: “
τολμᾷ τις ὑμῶν πρᾶγμα ἔχων πρὸς τὸν ἕτερον κρίνεσθαι ἐπὶ τῶν ἀδίκων καὶ οὐχὶ ἐπὶ 

τῶν ἁγίων; ἢ οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι ἅγιοι τὸν κόσμον κρινοῦσι; καὶ τὰ ἑξῆ.  The section being very long, we shall exhibit the meaning of the apostle’s utterance by employing such of the apostolic expressions as are most pertinent, and in the briefest language, and in a sort of cursory way, interpreting the discourse in which he describes the perfection of the Gnostic. For he does not merely instance the Gnostic as characterized by suffering wrong rather than do wrong; but he teaches that he is not mindful of injuries, and does not allow him even to pray against the man who has done him wrong. For he knows that the Lord expressly enjoined “to pray for enemies.” To say, then, that the man who has been injured goes to law before the unrighteous, is nothing else than to say that he shows a wish to retaliate, and a desire to injure the second in return, which is also to do wrong likewise himself. And his saying, that he wishes “some to go to law before the saints,” points out those who ask by prayer that those who have done wrong should suffer retaliation for their injustice, and intimates that the second are better than the former; but they are not yet obedient, εὐπειθεῖς here substituted by Sylburgius for ἀπειθσῖς. May not the true reading be ἀπαθείς, as the topic is ἀπαθεια? if they do not, having become entirely free of resentment, pray even for their enemies. It is well, then, for them to receive right dispositions from repentance, which results in faith. For if the truth seems to get enemies who entertain bad feeling, yet it is not hostile to any one. “For God makes His sun to shine on the just and on the unjust,”36493649 Matt. v. 45. and sent the Lord Himself to the just and the unjust. And he that earnestly strives to be assimilated to God, in the exercise of great absence of resentment, forgives seventy times seven times, as it were all his life through, and in all his course in this world (that being indicated by the enumeration of sevens) shows clemency to each and any one; if any during the whole time of his life in the flesh do the Gnostic wrong. For he not only deems it right that the good man should resign his property alone to others, being of the number of those who have done him wrong; but also wishes that the righteous man should ask of those judges forgiveness for the offences of those who have done him wrong. And with reason, if indeed it is only in that which is external and concerns the body, though it go to the extent of death even, that those who attempt to wrong him take advantage of him; none of which truly belong to the Gnostic. And how shall one “judge” the apostate “angels,” who has become himself an apostate from that forgetfulness of injuries, which is according to the Gospel? “Why do ye not rather suffer wrong?” he says; “why are ye not rather defrauded? Yea, ye do wrong and defraud,”36503650 1 Cor. vi. 7, 8. manifestly by praying against those who transgress in ignorance, and deprive of the philanthropy and goodness of God, as far as in you lies, those against whom you pray, “and these your brethren,”—not meaning those in the faith only, but also the proselytes.[Clement Stromata 7.14] 


1 cor 6.1 - chiding them likewise because "brethren" were not "judged at the bar of the saints: " [Tertullian Modesty]

1 Cor 6.1 - Didascalia apostolorum 11 (p.110, l.8) BP2

1 Cor 6.1 -  Clementine Homily 10 § 1 (p.13, l.6) BP2 3 67 § 3 (p.81, l.9) BP2

1 Cor 6.1 - Tertullian On Modesty 2 § 9 (p.1285, l.37) BP1

1 cor 6.2 - If a man does not keep himself from covetousness, he shall be defiled by idolatry, and shall be judged as one of the heathen. But who of us are ignorant of the judgment of the Lord ? "Do we not know that the saints shall judge the world ?" as Paul teaches. [Polycarp, Philippians 11]

1 cor 6,2 - and are sharers in His kingdom, and partakers with Him in His judgment, [Dionysius fragments]

1 cor 6.3 - But when the comparison is challenged with an angel, I am compelled to maintain that the head over all things is the stronger of the two, to whom the angels are ministers, Hebrews 1:14 who is destined to be the judge ofangels, 1 Corinthians 6:3 if he shall stand fast in the law of God— an obedience which he refused at first. [Tertullian Against Marcion 2,9]

1 Cor 6.3 Clement Stromata 7 85 § 4 (p.61, l.13) BP1

1 Cor 6.3 Tertullian Against Marcion 2 9 § 7 (p.485, l.14) BP1

1 Cor 6.3 Tertullian Modesty 14 § 8 (p.1307, l.32) BP1

1 Cor 6.1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 11 - 13 - And how shall one “judge” the apostate “angels,” who has become himself an apostate from that forgetfulness of injuries, which is according to the Gospel? “Why do ye not rather suffer wrong?” he says; “why are ye not rather defrauded? Yea, ye do wrong and defraud,” 3650 manifestly by praying against those who transgress in ignorance, and deprive of the philanthropy and goodness of God, as far as in you lies, those against whom you pray, “and these your brethren,”—not meaning those in the faith only, but also the proselytes. For whether he who now is hostile shall afterwards believe, we know not as yet. From which the conclusion follows clearly, if all are not yet brethren to us, they ought to be regarded in that light. And now it is only the man of knowledge who recognises all men to be the work of one God, and invested with one image in one nature, although some may be more turbid than others; and in the creatures he recognises the operation, by which again he adores the will of God. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” 3651 He acts unrighteously who retaliates, whether by deed or word, or by the conception of a wish, which, after the training of the Law, the Gospel rejects. “And such were some of you”—such manifestly as those still are whom you do not forgive; “but ye are washed,” 3652 not simply as the rest, but with knowledge; ye have cast off the passions of the soul, in order to become assimilated, as far as possible, to the goodness of God’s providence by long-suffering, and by forgiveness “towards the just and the unjust,” casting on them the gleam of benignity in word and deeds, as the sun. The Gnostic will achieve this either by greatness of mind, or by imitation of what is better. And that is a third cause. “Forgive, and it shall be forgiven you;” the commandment, as it were, compelling to salvation through superabundance of goodness. “But ye are sanctified.” For he who has come to this state is in a condition to be holy, falling into none of the passions in any way, but as it were already disembodied and already grown holy without 3653 this earth. “Wherefore,” he says, “ye are justified in the name of the Lord.” Ye are made, so to speak, by Him to be righteous as He is, and are blended as far as possible with the Holy Spirit. For “are not all things lawful to me? yet I will not be brought under the power of any,” 3654 so as to do, or think, or speak aught contrary to the Gospel. “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, which God shall destroy,” 3655 —that is, such as think and live as if they were made for eating, and do not eat that they may live as a consequence, and apply to knowledge as the primary end. And does he not say that these are, as it were, the fleshy parts of the holy body? [Strom 7.13]

1 Cor 6.4 Only Origen

1 Cor 6.5 Clementine Homily 10 § 1 (p.13, l.6) BP2 and Origen

1 Cor 6.6 Only Origen

1 Cor 6.7, 8 Clement Stromata  7 84 § 5 (p.60, l.20) BP1 7 85 § 5 (p.61, l.14) BP1

1 Cor 6.8 Clementine Homily 3 67 § 3 (p.81, l.9) BP2

1 cor 6.9 - and "neither fornicators, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, shall inherit the kingdom of God," [Polycarp Philippians ]

1 cor 6.9 - Those that corrupt families shall not inherit the kingdom of God. [Ignatius Ephesians]

1 cor 6.9 - And that we must live soberly and righteously, he [shows when he] says again, "Be not deceived: neither adulterers, nor effeminate persons, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor fornicators, nor revilers, nor drunkards, nor thieves, can inherit the kingdom of God." [Ignatius to the Tarsians]

1 cor 6,9 - and the apostle says, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, not effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." [Irenaeus AH 4]

1 cor 6.9 - And these ye indeed have been; but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." [Irenaeus 5]

1 Cor 6.9 Clement Instructor 3 81 § 1 (p.280, l.34) BP1

1 Cor 6.9  Clement Stromata 3 109 § 2 (p.246, l.23) BP1 7 86 § 3 (p.61, l.27) BP1

1 cor 6.9 - “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” But not to-morrow in truth, but already, are these dead to God; burying their dead,17261726 Matt. viii. 22. that is, sinking themselves down to death. The apostle very firmly assails them. “Be not deceived; neither adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers,” and whatever else he adds to these, “shall inherit the kingdom of God." [Clement Instructor 3.11]

1 cor 6.9 - 11 "So to the pure, everything is pure," he says. "To the tainted minds of the faithless, nothing is pure; they are tainted in reason and conscience."456 (2) As to illegitimate pleasure he says, "Make no mistake. The sexually immoral, worshipper of idols, adulterers, passive perverts, homosexuals, those who pursue profit, robbers, drunkards, people who use abusive language, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God." We used to be such, but "have passed through the purifying waters." 457 But they purify themselves for this licentiousness. Their baptism is out of responsible self-control into sexual immorality. Their philosophy is the gratification of their pleasures and passions. They teach a change from self-discipline to indiscipline. The hope they offer is the titillation of their genitals. [Clement Stromata 3.18]

1 Cor 6.9, 10 - Acts of Thomas 1 WRIGHT W., Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, 2, London 1871, 146-298. (p.156, l.6 - >) BP2

1 Cor 6.9 Tertullian Modesty 16 § 4 (p.1312, l.14) BP1 19 § 25 (p.1323, l.113) BP1

1 Cor 6.9  Epiphanius Panarion 64 52 § 3 (p.482, l.3 - *<) BP4 64 58 § 6 (p.492, l.19 - *< )) BP4

1 Cor 6.10 - Clement Stromata 3 81 § 1 (p.280, l.34) BP1

1 cor 6,10 - all others-when affirming that "adulterers, and fornicators, and effeminates, and co-habitors with males, will not attain the kingdom of God," he premised, "Do not err" [Tertullian On Modesty]  19 § 25 (p.1323, l.113) BP1

1 Cor 6.11 Clement Stromata 3 109 § 2 (p.246, l.23) BP1 7 86 § 4 (p.61, l.30) BP1 7 86 § 7 (p.62, l.7) BP1 7 87 § 1 (p.62, l.10) BP1

1 Cor 6.11 Adamantius Dialogues (p.222, l.9 - <) BP2

1 cor 6.11 - And, “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk honestly as children of the light, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in anger and jealousy. And such were some of you; but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified in the name of our Lord.”4407 If then it were not in our power to do or not to do these things, what reason had the apostle, and much more the Lord Himself, to give us counsel to do some things, and to abstain from others? But because man is possessed of free will from the beginning, and God is possessed of free will, in whose likeness man was created, advice is always given to him to keep fast the good, which thing is done by means of obedience to God. [Irenaeus 4.37.4]

1 cor 6.11 - (The heretics whom we have referred to) deny that nature is susceptible of any change, 1656 in order that they may be able to establish and settle their threefold theory, or “trinity,” in all its characteristics as to the several natures, because “a good tree cannot produce evil fruit, nor a corrupt tree good fruit; and nobody gathers figs of thorns, nor grapes of brambles.” 1657 If so, then “God will not be able any longer to raise up from the stones children unto Abraham; nor to make a generation of vipers bring forth fruits of repentance.” 1658 And if so, the apostle too was in error when he said in his epistle, “Ye were at one time darkness, (but now are ye light in the Lord:)” 1659 and, “We also were by nature children of wrath;” 1660 and, “Such were some of you, but ye are washed.” 1661 The statements, however, of holy Scripture will never be discordant with truth. A corrupt tree will never yield good fruit, unless the better nature be grafted into it; nor will a good tree produce evil fruit, except by the same process of cultivation. Stones also will become children of Abraham, if educated in Abraham’s faith; and a generation of vipers will bring forth the fruits of penitence, if they reject the poison of their malignant nature. This will be the power of the grace of God, more potent indeed than nature, exercising its sway over the faculty that underlies itself within us—even the freedom of our will, which is described as αὐτεξούσιος (of independent authority); and inasmuch as this faculty is itself also natural and mutable, in whatsoever direction it turns, it inclines of its own nature. Now, that there does exist within us naturally this independent authority (τὸ αὐτεξούσιον ), we have already shown in opposition both to Marcion 1662 and to Hermogenes. 1663 If, then, the natural condition has to be submitted to a definition, it must be determined to be twofold—there being the category of the born and the unborn, the made and not-made. [Tertullian On the Soul 21]

1 Cor 6.11 Tertullian On Modesty 16 § 5 (p.1312, l.16) BP1

1 cor 6.11 - No doubt, if any one is unwilling to follow the Gospel itself, it is in his power [to reject it], but it is not expedient. For it is in man's power to disobey God, and to forfeit what is good; but [such conduct] brings no small amount of injury and mischief. And on this account Paul says, All things are lawful to me, but all things are not expedient; 1 Corinthians 6:12 referring both to the liberty of man, in which respect all things are lawful, God exercising no compulsion in regard to him; and [by the expression] not expedient pointing out that we should not use our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness, 1 Peter 2:16 for this is not expedient. And again he says, Speak every man truth with his neighbour. Ephesians 4:25 And, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor scurrility, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. Ephesians 4:29 And, For you were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord; walk honestly as children of the light, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in anger andjealousy. And such were some of you; but you have been washed, but you have been sanctified in the name of our Lord. 1 Corinthians 6:11 If then it were not in our power to do or not to do these things, what reason had the apostle, and much more the Lord Himself, to give us counsel to do some things, and to abstain from others? But because man is possessed of free willfrom the beginning, and God is possessed of free will, in whose likeness man was created, advice is always given to him to keep fast the good, which thing is done by means of obedience toGod. [Irenaeus 4.37.4]

1 Cor 6.12 -  2 14 § 3 (p.163, l.30) BP1 2 120 § 2 (p.229, l.8) BP1

1 cor 6.12 - The Apostle says, "Everything is legitimate for me; not everything is expedient." 145 If everything is legitimate, that obviously includes self-discipline. [Clement Stromata 3.5] 3 40 § 5 (p.214, l.19) BP1

1 Cor 6.12 Commodianus Instructiones 2 § 12 (p.51, l.6 - >) BP2

1 Cor 6.12 Tertullian Against Marcion 5 7 § 4 (p.682, l.14) BP1

1 Cor 6.12 - Tertulllian Monogamy 3 § 3 (p.1231, l.18) BP1 11 § 6 (p.1245, l.43) BP1

1 cor 6.13, 14 - Whence also he says, that this handiwork is the temple of God, thus declaring: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man, therefore, will defile the temple of God, him will God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] you are. 1 Corinthians 3:16 Here he manifestly declares the body to be thetemple in which the Spirit dwells. As also the Lord speaks in reference to Himself, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He spoke this, however, it is said, of the templeof His body. John 2:19-21 And not only does he (the apostle) acknowledge our bodies to be a temple, but even the temple of Christ, saying thus to the Corinthians, Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? 1 Corinthians 3:17 He speaks these things, not in reference to some other spiritual man; for a being of such a nature could have nothing to do with an harlot: but he declares our body, that is, the flesh which continues in sanctity and purity, to bethe members of Christ; but that when it becomes one with an harlot, it becomes the members of an harlot. And for this reason he said, If any man defile the temple of God, him will Goddestroy. How then is it not the utmost blasphemy to allege, that the temple of God, in which the Spirit of the Father dwells, and the members of Christ, do not partake of salvation, but are reduced to perdition? Also, that our bodies are raised not from their own substance, but by the power of God, he says to the Corinthians, Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. But God has both raised up the Lord, and shall raise us up by His own power. 1 Corinthians 6:13-14 [Irenaeus AH 5.6.2]

1 cor 6.13 - But again in summer, the body, having its pores more open, affords greater facility for diaphoretic action in the case of the food, and the milk is least abundant, since neither is the blood full, nor is the whole nutriment retained. If, then, the digestion of the food results in the production of blood, and the blood becomes milk, then blood is a preparation for milk, as blood is for a human being, and the grape for the vine. With milk, then, the Lord's nutriment, we are nursed directly we are born; and as soon as we are regenerated, we are honoured by receiving the good news of the hope of rest, even the Jerusalem above, in which it is written that milk and honey fall in showers, receiving through what is material the pledge of the sacred food. "For meats are done away with," as the apostle himself says; but this nourishment on milk leads to the heavens, rearing up citizens of heaven, and members of the angelic choirs. And since the Word is the gushing fountain of life, and has been called a river of olive oil, Paul, using appropriate figurative language, and calling Him milk, adds: "I have given you to drink;" for we drink in the word, the nutriment of the truth. In truth, also liquid food is called drink; and the same thing may somehow be both meat and drink, according to the different aspects in which it is considered, just as cheese is the solidification of milk or milk solidified; for I am not concerned here to make a nice selection of an expression, only to say that one substance supplies both articles of food. Besides, for children at the breast, milk alone suffices; it serves both for meat and drink. "I," says the Lord, "have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me." You see another kind of food which, similarly with milk, represents figuratively the will of God. Besides, also, the completion of His own passion He called catachrestically "a cup," when He alone had to drink and drain it. Thus to Christ the fulfilling of His Father's will was food; and to us infants, who drink the milk of the word of the heavens, Christ Himself is food. Hence seeking is called sucking; for to those babes that seek the Word, the Father's breasts of love supply milk. [Clement Instructor 1.6]  1 45 § 2 (p.117, l.2) BP1

1 cor 6.13 - “Desire not,” says the Scripture, “rich men’s dainties;”1302 for they belong to a false and base life. They partake of luxurious dishes, which a little after go to the dunghill. But we who seek the heavenly bread must rule the belly, which is beneath heaven, and much more the things which are agreeable to it, which “God shall destroy,”1303 says the apostle, justly execrating gluttonous desires. For “meats are for the belly,”1304 for on them depends this truly carnal and destructive life; whence1305 some, speaking with unbridled tongue, dare to apply the name agape,1306 to pitiful suppers, redolent of savour and sauces. Dishonouring the good and saving work of the Word, the consecrated agape, with pots and pouring of sauce; and by drink and delicacies and smoke desecrating that name, they are deceived in their idea, having expected that the promise of God might be bought with suppers. Gatherings for the sake of mirth, and such entertainments as are called by ourselves, we name rightly suppers, dinners, and banquets, after the example of the Lord. But such entertainments the Lord has not called agapæ. He says accordingly somewhere, “When thou art called to a wedding, recline not on the highest couch; but when thou art called, fall into the lowest place;”1307 and elsewhere, “When thou makest a dinner or a supper;” and again, “But when thou makest an entertainment, call the poor,”1308 for whose sake chiefly a supper ought to be made. And further, “A certain man made a great supper, and called many.”1309 But I perceive whence the specious appellation of suppers flowed: “from the gullets and furious love for suppers”—according to the comic poet. For, in truth, “to many, many things are on account of the supper.” [Clement Instructor 2.1] 2 4 § 2 (p.156, l.9) BP1

1 Cor 6.13 - Clement Stromata 2 5 § 4 (p.157, l.13) BP1

1 cor 6.13 - So it is not just our spirit which ought to be consecrated. It is our character, our life, our body. What is the sense of the Apostle Paul’s words that the wife is consecrated by her husband, and the husband by his wife? 170 (2) What was it that the Lord said to those who questioned him about divorce, asking whether it was permissible to get rid of one’s wife on the authority of Moses? He said, "Moses wrote this with an eye to your hardheartedness. But have you not read what God said to the first-formed male: ‘You two shall come into one single flesh’? So, anyone who disposes of his wife except by reason of sexual immorality is making an adulteress of her." 171 (3) But "after the resurrection," he says, "they do not marry and are not given in marriage." 172 Yes, and this is what is said about the stomach and food: "Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will put an end to both." 173 He is rebuking those who think to live like boars or goats, to stop them eating and copulating without any sense of respect. [Clement Stromata 3.6]  3 47 § 3 (p.218, l.5) BP1

1 cor 6.13 - down to "The body is not for sexual promiscuity but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." [Clement Stromata 3.18] 3 107 § 3 (p.246, l.1)

1 Cor 6.13 - Clement Stromata 7 87 § 2 (p.62, l.12) BP1 7 87 § 4 (p.62, l.21) BP1

1 cor 6.13 - 20 - Why does (the apostle) clothe us and Christ with symbols of the Creator’s solemn rites, unless they had relation to ourselves? When, again, he warns us against fornication, he reveals the resurrection of the flesh. “The body,” says he, “is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body,”5490 just as the temple is for God, and God for the temple. A temple will therefore pass away5491with its god, and its god with the temple. You see, then, how that “He who raised up the Lord will also raise us up.”5492In the body will He raise us, because the body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And suitably does he add the question: “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?”5493 What has the heretic to say? That these members of Christ will not rise again, for they are no longer our own? “For,” he says, “ye are bought with a price.”54945494 1 Cor. vi. 20. A price! surely none at all was paid, since Christ was a phantom, nor had He any corporeal substance which He could pay for our bodies! But, in truth, Christ had wherewithal to redeem us; and since He has redeemed, at a great price, these bodies of ours, against which fornication must not be committed (because they are now members of Christ, and not our own), surely He will secure, on His own account, the safety of those whom He made His own at so much cost! Now, how shall we glorify, how shall we exalt, God in our body,5495 which is doomed to perish? We must now encounter the subject of marriage, which Marcion, more continent5496 than the apostle, prohibits. For the apostle, although preferring the grace of continence,5497 yet permits the contraction of marriage and the enjoyment of it,5498 and advises the continuance therein rather than the dissolution thereof. [Tertullian Against Marcion 5 7 § 4 (p.682, l.15) BP1 ]

1 Cor 6.13 Tertullian Modesty 16 § 6 (p.1312, l.21) BP1

1 Cor 6.13 Epiphanius Panarion  47 2 § 7 (p.218, l.3 - <) BP4 64 52 § 7 (p.482, l.17 - *< )) BP4 64 53 § 5 (p.484, l.1 - *<) BP4; 66 69 § 4 (p.109, l.31 - <) BP4

1 Cor 6.14 Acts of Paul B 10 § 5 (p.302, l.7) BP1

1 Cor 6.14 Tertullian Against Marcion 5 7 § 4 (p.682, l.18) BP1

1 cor 6. 14 - But He who raised Him up from the dead will raise up us also, if we do His will, and walk in His commandments, and love what He loved, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness, covetousness, love of money, evil speaking, falsewitness; "not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing," or blow for blow, or cursing for cursing, but being mindful of what the Lord said in His teaching: "Judge not, that ye be not judged; forgive, and it shall be forgiven unto you; be merciful, that ye may obtain mercy; with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again; and once more, "Blessed are the poor, and those that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God." [Polycarp Philippians 2]

1 cor 6.14 - In the same manner, therefore, as Christ did rise in the substance of flesh, and pointed out to His disciples the mark of the nails and the opening in His side (now these are the tokens of that flesh which rose from the dead), so shall He also, it is said, raise us up by His own power.1 Corinthians 6:14 And again to the Romans he says, But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesusfrom the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies. [Irenaeus AH 5.7.1]

1 cor 6.14 - Recognise, too, in what follows, Paul (in the character of) an immoveable column of discipline and its rules: “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: God maketh a full end both of the one and of the others; but the body (is) not for fornication, but for God:”867 for “Let Us make man,” said God, “(conformable) to Our image and likeness.” “And God made man; (conformable) to the image and likeness of God made He him.”868 “The Lord for the body:” yes; for “the Word was made flesh.”869 “Moreover, God both raised up the Lord, and will raise up us through His own power;”870 on account, to wit, of the union of our body with Him. And accordingly, “Know ye not your bodies (to be) members of Christ?” because Christ, too, is God’s temple. “Overturn this temple, and I will in three days’ space resuscitate it.”871 “Taking away the members of Christ, shall I make (them) members of an harlot? Know ye not, that whoever is agglutinated to an harlot is made one body? (for the two shall be (made) into one flesh): but whoever is agglutinated to the Lord is one spirit? Flee fornication.”872 If revocable by pardon, in what sense am I to flee it, to turn adulterer anew? I shall gain nothing if I do flee it: I shall be “one body,” to which by communion I shall be agglutinated. “Every sin which a human being may have committed is extraneous to the body; but whoever fornicateth, sinneth against his own body.”873 873 1 Cor. vi. 18. And, for fear you should fly to that statement for a licence to fornication, on the ground that you will be sinning against a thing which is yours, not the Lord’s, he takes you away from yourself, and awards you, according to his previous disposition, to Christ: “And ye are not your own;” immediately opposing (thereto), “for bought ye are with a price”—the blood, to wit, of the Lord:874 “glorify and extol the Lord in your body.”875 875 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20, not exactly. See whether he who gives this injunction be likely to have pardoned one who has disgraced the Lord, and who has cast Him down from (the empire of) his body, and this indeed through incest. If you wish to imbibe to the utmost all knowledge of the apostle, in order to understand with what an axe of censorship he lops, and eradicates, and extirpates, every forest of lusts, for fear of permitting aught to regain strength and sprout again; behold him desiring souls to keep a fast from the legitimate fruit of nature—the apple, I mean, of marriage [Tertullian on Modesty 16 § 7 (p.1312, l.26) BP1]

6.14 - and again, “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us;”2051 2051 1 Cor. v. 7. and once more, “God hath both raised up the Lord, and will raise up us together with Him by His own power?”2052 And there are many other passages of a similar import; as, for example, this which follows: “How say some among you,2053 that there is no resurrection of the dead? [Acts Archelaus 49]

1 cor 6.14 - Thus in the Philebus, Plato, who had been the disciple of the barbarian philosophy, mystically called those Atheists who destroy and pollute, as far as in them lies, the Deity dwelling in them— that is, the Logos— by association with their vices. Those, therefore, who are consecrated to God must never live mortally (θνητῶς). Nor, as Paul says, is it meet to make the members of Christ the members of an harlot; nor must the temple of God be made the temple of base affections.1 Corinthians 6:15 Remember the four and twenty thousand that were rejected for fornication. But the experiences of those who have committed fornication, as I have already said, are types which correct our lusts. Moreover, the Pædagogue warns us most distinctly: Go not after your lusts, andabstain from your appetites; Sirach 18:30 for wine and women will remove the wise; and he that cleaves to harlots will become more daring. Corruption and the worm shall inherit him, and he shall be held up as public example to greater shame. And again— for he wearies not of doinggood— He who averts his eyes from pleasure crowns his life. [Clement Instructor 1.10]

1 cor 6.14 - In very deed 4817 His teaching is not contrary to Moses, whose precept He partially 4818 defends, I will not 4819 say confirms. If, however, you deny that divorce is in any way permitted by Christ, how is it that you on your side 4820 destroy marriage, not uniting man and woman, nor admitting to the sacrament of baptism and of the eucharist those who have been united in marriage anywhere else, 4821 unless they should agree together to repudiate the fruit of their marriage, and so the very Creator Himself? Well, then, what is a husband to do in your sect, 4822 if his wife commit adultery? Shall he keep her? But your own apostle, you know, 4823 does not permit “the members of Christ to be joined to a harlot.” 4824 Divorce, therefore, when justly deserved, 4825 has even in Christ a defender. So that Moses for the future must be considered as being confirmed by Him, since he prohibits divorce in the same sense as Christ does, if any unchastity should occur in the wife. [Tertullian Against Marcion 4.34]

1 Cor 6.15 Odes of Solomon 17 § 15 (p.290, l.22) BP1

1 cor 6.15 - Moreover, we shall elsewhere take occasion to remark, that no reproaches can fairly be cast upon the flesh, without tending also to thecastigation of the soul, which compels the flesh to do its bidding. However, let me meanwhile add that in the same passage Paul carries about in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus;Galatians 6:17 he also forbids our body to be profaned, as being the temple of God;1 Corinthians 3:16 he makes our bodies the members of Christ; 1 Corinthians 6:15 and he exhorts us to exalt and glorify God in our body. If, therefore, the humiliations of the flesh thrust off itsresurrection, why shall not its high prerogatives rather avail to bring it about?— since it better suits the character of God to restore to salvation what for a while He rejected, than to surrender to perdition what He once approved. [On the Resurrection of the Flesh 10]

1 Cor 6.15 Irenaeus Fragments HARVEY W.W., S. Irenaei... libros quinque adversus haereses, 2, Cantabrigiae 1857, 456 ; 480 ; 488-489 ; 491 ; 492 ; 496 ; 507 ; 509 ; 510 (p.507, l.4) BP1

1 Cor 6.15 φησιν ὁ Παῦλος, οὐ χρὴ πόρνης ποιεῖν μέλη τὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μέλη οὐδὲ μὴν νεὼν τῶν παθῶν τῶν αἰσχρῶν τὸν νεὼν τοῦ θεοῦ ποιη τέον Clement Instructor 2 101 § 1 (p.217, l.25) BP1

1 cor 6.16 - his is why the Apostle makes the lofty statement, "I wrote in my letter that you should have nothing to do with profligate living" down to "The body is not for sexual promiscuity but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." 449 (4) To make sure that he is not identifying marriage with fornication he adds, "Or do you not realize that anyone who attaches himself to a prostitute becomes physically one with her?" 450 Will anyone call a virgin before marriage a prostitute? (5) "Do not deprive one another," he says, "except temporarily by mutual agreement." [Clement Stromata 3.18]

1 Cor 6.16 - Adamantius Dialogues (p.222, l.30 - < )) BP2

1 Cor 6.16 Epiphanius Panarion  42 11 § 8 (p.121, l.13 - *<) BP4 42 12 § 3 (p.161, l.27 - *<) BP4 64 53 § 2 (p.483, l.11 - *<) BP4; 66 86 § 4 (p.129, l.20 - < /) BP4

1 Cor 6.17 - Clement Stromata 7 88 § 3 (p.62, l.28) BP1

1 Cor 6.17 - Tertullian Anima 41 § 4 (p.844, l.26) BP1

1 Cor 6.17 - Epiphanius Panarion  66 86 § 4 (p.129, l.20 - < /) BP4 66 86 § 5 (p.129, l.24 - <) BP4 66 86 § 8 (p.129, l.32 - )) BP4

1 cor 6.18 - But just as "the unmarried woman is looking after the Lord’s business in seeking to be holy in body and spirit, 357so the married woman cares in the Lord for her husband’s business and the Lord’s business in seeking to be holy in body and spirit. Both are holy in the Lord, one as a wife, the other as a virgin. (4) But the Apostle fittingly pronounces humiliating opposition at full pitch to those who incline to second marriage. He is quick to say, "Every other sin. is outside the body. Sexual promiscuity is a sin against one’s own body." [Clement Stromata 3.12]  3 88 § 4 (p.237, l.6) BP1

1 Cor 6.18 Clement Stromata 7 88 § 1 (p.62, l.24) BP1

1 Cor 6.18 Tertullian Monogamy 9 § 6 (p.1242, l.40) BP1

1 Cor 6.18 Tertullian Modesty 16 § 8 (p.1312, l.30) BP1 16 § 9 (p.1313, l.37) BP1

1 Cor 6.18 Epiphanius Panarion 64 53 § 3 (p.483, l.15 - *<) BP4

1 Cor 6.19 Sextus Sentences § 35 (p.16, l.4) BP1

1 Cor 6.19 Tatian Orations § 15 (p.16, l.22) BP1

1 Cor 6.19 - This beauty of the soul becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit, when it acquires a disposition in the whole of life corresponding to the Gospel. Clement Stromata 7 64 § 7 (p.46, l.21) BP1

1 Cor 6.19 - Cohortatio de perseuerantia (p.223, l.3) BP1

1 Cor 6.19 - Acts of Thomas 1  (p.155, l.25 - /) BP2 (p.221, l.22 - /) BP2 (p.222, l.17 - /) BP2 (p.226, l.23 - /) BP2 (p.226, l.30 - )) BP2 (p.289, l.6 - /) BP2

1 Cor 6.19 - Tertullian Against Marcion 1 12 § 5 (p.24, l.19 - <) BP2

1 Cor 6.19 - Tertullian Anima 53 § 5 (p.860, l.46) BP1

1 Cor 6.19 - Tertullian On Modesty 6 § 17 (p.1291, l.71) BP1 16 § 10 (p.1313, l.41) BP1 19 § 25 (p.1323, l.114) BP1 20 § 1 (p.1323, l.132) BP1

1 cor 6.19 - There is nothing which is hid from God, but our very secrets are near to Him. Let us therefore do all things as those who have Him dwelling in us, that we may be His temples, and He may be in us as our God, which indeed He is, and will manifest Himself before our faces. Wherefore we justly love Him. [Ignatius Ephesians 15]

1 cor 6.19 - as the temples of God [Ignatius Philadelphians]

1 cor 6.19 - In this way let us approach a brother or a sister who is sick, and visit them in a way that is right, without guile, and without covetousness, and without noise, and without talkativeness, and without such behaviour as is alien from the fear ofGod, and without haughtiness, but with the meek and lowly spirit of Christ. Let them, therefore, withfasting and with prayer make their adjurations, and not with the elegant and well-arranged and fitly-ordered words of learning, but as men who have received the gift of healing from God, confidently, to the glory of God. By your fastings and prayers and perpetual watching, together with your other goodworks, mortify the works of the flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit. He who acts thus is a temple of the Holy Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 6:19 Let this man cast out demons, and God will help him. For it isgood that a man help those that are sick. [First Epistle of Clement on Virginity 1 12 § 5 (p.24, l.19 - <) BP2]

1 Cor 6.19 - Epiphanius Epiphanius 64 53 § 5 (p.483, l.21 - *< )) BP4

1 Cor 6.20 Irenaeus Fragments (p.507, l.4) BP1

1 Cor 6.20 Acts of Thomas 1 § 3 (p.103, l.4 - >) BP2

1 cor 6.20 - He uses these words most manifestly in reference to the flesh; for the soul is not mortal, neither is the spirit. Now, what is mortal shall be swallowed up of life, when the flesh is dead no longer, but remains living and incorruptible, hymning the praises of God, who has perfected us for this very thing. In order, therefore, that we may be perfected for this, aptly does he say to theCorinthians, Glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:20 Now God is He who gives rise to immortality. [Irenaeus AH 5.13.3]

1 Cor 6.20 Tertullian Against Marcion  5 7 § 4 (p.682, l.14) BP1 5 7 § 4 (p.683, l.22) BP1

1 cor 6.20 - So, again, when he is ascribing certainpraiseworthy actions to the flesh, he says, Therefore glorify and exalt God in your body,1 Corinthians 6:20 — being certain that such efforts are actuated by the soul; but still he ascribes them to the flesh, because it is to it that he also promises the recompense. Besides, neither rebuke, (on the one hand), would have been suitable to it, if free from blame; nor, (on the other hand), would exhortation, if it were incapable of glory. Indeed, both rebuke and exhortation would be alike idle towards the flesh, if it were an improper object for that recompence which is certainly received in theresurrection. [Tertullian On the REsurrection of the Flesh 16] 10 § 4 (p.933, l.18) BP1 16 § 14 (p.940, l.54) BP1

1 Cor 6.20 - Tertullian Monogamy 11 § 6 (p.1245, l.43) BP1

1 Cor 6.20 - Tertullian Modesty 6 § 18 (p.1291, l.74) BP1 16 § 10 (p.1313, l.41) BP1

1 Cor 6.20 Epiphanius Panarion 64 52 § 7 (p.482, l.17 - *< )) BP4; 66 79 § 3 (p.120, l.22 - <) BP4



Email stephan.h.huller@gmail.com with comments or questions.


 
Stephan Huller's Observations by Stephan Huller
is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.