Incorruption, mutual debt, and agreed continence (1 Cor 6–7)
someone destroys of the Spirit; but toward the Father, when I destroy the temple of God. In addition, then, however many sins we commit—even if we commit murders—yet if we remain uncorrupted and have not tasted the corruption that belongs to intercourse, we are not said to have been corrupted by having murdered. But since both incorruption and corruption concern the nature that is without taste of sexual pleasure—for we say “the virgin was corrupted,” and again “the young man is uncorrupted,” or “he was corrupted”—every sin that a person commits is outside the body (1 Corinthians 6:18). Since therefore a ransom was given for you, the blood of Christ, and he took you from the authority of the devil, glorify God in your body, that your body may become worthy of blessedness as of those who have loved incorruption, as also the apostle says: the grace of God be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption (Ephesians 6:24).
Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman. But because of the cases of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband give to the wife her due, and likewise also the wife to the husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does (1 Corinthians 7:1–4).
People who sin, speaking generally, sin in two ways: by falling short of the commandments or by going beyond them. For when we do not live from knowledge and, not knowing the measures of righteousness, we slip, and sometimes by overshooting the rule in the fancy of doing something better we fall away from what is set before us. The proper weight, then—which is neither large nor small but commensurate—is to know how one ought to live. You have been bound with a wife: you make one large weight; you do not care for the wife but say: I am able to practice continence and live more purely. But see that your wife is being destroyed, unable to bear your purity, for whom Christ died. Something of this sort happened in Corinth, and there was disorder in the households of the brothers, husbands in one place and wives in another trying to practice continence and rising up against one another. So those in Corinth wrote a letter to the apostle about this, and to that letter the apostle writes back what has been written above. He neither stretched the word about chastity so as to abolish the word about marriage, nor, preferring marriage, abolished the word about virginity, as a good steward; but throughout the whole discourse he somehow keeps his wish and exhorts to purity; and having conceded condescension, he again exhorts to practice chastity; and having exhorted to practice chastity, he again brings them to the need to condescend to the weakness of the weaker. He began not from the lesser things—for that would not have been fitting—but from the more perfect matters, saying: Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman—as if: I praise you for having wished to live chastely, those who withdrew from mixture with the wife; but reckon not only your own interest but also the wife’s. For love does not seek its own (1 Corinthians 13:5). Therefore because of the cases of sexual immorality let each have his own wife, and each her own husband. Not because of his own fornication should the stronger keep his own wife, but lest somehow the wife fornicate because of the husband’s continence, and the husband because of the wife’s. For it is more choiceworthy that the two be saved while found in the works of marriage than that on the pretext of the one the other fall from the hope that is in Christ. For how will he also be saved who is liable for the death of the wife? The husband’s solemnity is not pure, then, when the exercise does not arise from the wife’s agreement for both to have leisure for prayers according to God.
Let the husband give to the wife her due, and likewise also the wife to the husband. He made provision also for
Greek
πνεύματος φθείρῃ τις· εἰς τὸν πατέρα δέ, ὅτε τὸν ναὸν τοῦ θεοῦ φθείρω. Πρὸς τούτοις οὖν ὅσα ἂν ἁμάρτωμεν, κἂν φόνους ποιήσωμεν, ἄφθοροι δὲ ὦμεν, φθορᾶς μὴ γευσάμενοι τῆς κατὰ τὴν συνουσίαν, οὐ λεγόμεθα ἐφθάρθαι ἐκ τοῦ πεφονευ κέναι. ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ καὶ ἡ ἀφθαρσία καὶ ἡ φθορὰ περὶ τὴν φύσιν τὴν ἄγευστον συνουσίας τῆς περὶ τὰ ἀφροδίσια ἐστίν–Ἐφθάρη γὰρ ἡ παρθένος, λέγομεν· καὶ πάλιν Ἄφθορος ὁ νεανίσκος, ἢ ἐφθάρη–πᾶν ἁμάρτημα ὃ ἐὰν ποιήσῃ ἄνθρωπος ἐκτὸς τοῦ σώματός ἐστιν. ἐπειδὴ οὖν ἐδόθη λύτρον ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν τὸ αἷμα τοῦ χριστοῦ καὶ ἔλαβεν ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ διαβόλου, δοξάσατε τὸν θεὸν ἐν τῷ σώματι ὑμῶν, ἵνα γένηται τὸ σῶμα ὑμῶν ἄξιον μακαριότητος ὡς ἀγαπησάντων τὴν ἀφθαρσίαν, ὡς καὶ ὁ ἀπόστολος λέγει ἡ χάρι τοῦ θεοῦ μετὰ πάντων τῶν ἀγαπώντων τὸν κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰη οῦν Χρι τὸν ἐν ἀφθαρ ίᾳ. 33 vii 1–4 [Περὶ δὲ ὧν ἐγράψατέ μοι, καλὸν ἀνθρώπῳ γυναικὸς μὴ ἅπτεσθαι· διὰ δὲ τὰς πορνείας ἕκαστος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γυναῖκα ἐχέτω, καὶ ἑκάστη τὸν ἴδιον ἄνδρα ἐχέτω. τῇ γυναικὶ ὁ ἀνὴρ τὴν ὀφειλὴν ἀποδιδότω, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ἡ γυνὴ τῷ ἀνδρί. ἡ γυνὴ τοῦ ἰδίου σώματος οὐκ ἐξουσιάζει ἀλλ' ὁ ἀνήρ· ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ὁ ἀνὴρ τοῦ ἰδίου σώματος οὐκ ἐξουσιάζει ἀλλ' ἡ γυνή.] [Ὠριγένους] Οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἁμαρτάνοντες γενικῷ λόγῳ δixῶς ἁμαρτάνουσιν, ὑποβαίνοντες τὰς ἐντολὰς ἢ ὑπερβαίνοντες. ὅταν γὰρ μὴ ἀπὸ ἐπιστήμης πολιτευώμεθα μηδὲ γινώσκοντες τὰ μέτρα τῆς δικαιοσύνης σφαλλόμεθα, καὶ ἔσθ' ὅτε ὑπερ βαίνοντες τὸν κανόνα φαντασίᾳ τοῦ ποιεῖν τι κρεῖττον ἐκπίπτομεν τοῦ προκειμένου. τάθμιον οὖν ἐστιν, ὃ οὔτε μέγα ἐστὶν οὔτε μικρὸν ἀλλὰ σύμμετρον, τὸ εἰδέναι πῶς δεῖ βιοῦν. ∆έδε αι μετὰ γυναικός· ἓν στάθμιον μέγα ποιεῖς, οὐ φροντίζεις τῆς γυναικὸς ἀλλὰ λέγεις Ἐγὼ δύναμαι ἐγκρα τεύεσθαι καὶ ζῆν καθαρώτερον· ἀλλ' ὅρα ὅτι ἡ γυνή σου ἀπόλλυται, οὐ δυναμένη φέρειν τὴν καθαρότητά σου, δι' ἣν Χρι τὸ ἀπέθανεν. Τοιοῦτόν τι γέγονεν ἐν Κορίνθῳ, καὶ ἦν ἀκαταστασία ἐν ταῖς οἰκίαις τῶν ἀδελφῶν, πῆ μὲν ἀνδρῶν πῆ δὲ γυναικῶν ἐγκρατεύεσθαι πειρωμένων καὶ ἀλλή λων κατεξανισταμένων. ἔγραψαν οὖν περὶ τούτου ἐπιστολὴν οἱ ἐν Κορίνθῳ τῷ ἀποστόλῳ, καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἐπιστόλην ταύτην ἀντιγράφει ὁ ἀπόστολος τὰ προγεγραμμένα· καὶ οὔτε ἐπέτεινεν τὸν περὶ ἁγνείας λόγον καὶ ἀνεῖλεν τὸν περὶ γάμου, οὔτε τὸν περὶ γάμου προκρίνας ἀνεῖλεν τὸν περὶ παρθενίας, ὡς καλὸ οἰκονόμο , ἀλλὰ τηρεῖ δι' ὅλου τοῦ λόγου τὸ βούλημα αὐτοῦ τινα τρόπον καὶ προτρέπεται καθαρεύειν· καὶ συγχωρήσας συγκαταβαίνειν, προτρέ πεται πάλιν ἀσκεῖν τὴν ἁγνείαν· καὶ προτρεψάμενος ἀσκεῖν τὴν ἁγνείαν, πάλιν φέρει ἐπὶ τὸ δεῖν τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ συγκαταβαίνειν τῶν ἀσθενεστέρων. ἤρξατο δὲ οὐκ ἀπὸ τῶν ὑποδεεστέρων, οὐ γὰρ ἔπρεπεν, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τῶν τελειοτέρων πρα γμάτων, λέγων Περὶ δὲ ὧν ἐγράψατέ μοι, καλὸν ἀνθρώπῳ γυναικὸς μὴ ἅπτεσθαι· οἷον· Ἐπαινῶ ὑμᾶς ὅσον ἐπὶ τῷ ἠθεληκέναι ἁγνεύειν τοὺς ἀποστάντας τῆς μίξεως τῆς πρὸς τὴν γυναῖκα, ἀλλὰ λογίσασθε μὴ τὸ ἑαυτῶν μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ τῆς γυναικός· Ἡ γὰρ ἀγάπη οὐ ζητεῖ τὰ ἑαυτῆ · διὰ γοῦν τὰς πορνείας ἕκαστος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γυναῖκα ἐχέτω, καὶ ἑκάστη τὸν ἴδιον ἄνδρα. οὐ διὰ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ πορνείαν ὁ ἰσχυρότερος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γυναῖκα ἐχέτω, ἀλλὰ μή πως πορνεύσῃ τῇ ἐγκρατείᾳ <τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἡ γυνὴ καὶ τῇ ἐγκρατείᾳ> τῆς γυναικὸς ὁ ἀνήρ. αἱρετώτερον γὰρ τοὺς δύο σωθῆναι εὑρισκομένους ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις τοῦ γάμου ἢ τῇ προφάσει τοῦ ἑνὸς τὸν ἕτερον ἐκπεσεῖν τῆς ἐλπίδος τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ· πῶς γὰρ καὶ σωθήσεται ἔνοχος ὢν τῷ θανάτῳ τῆς γυναικός; οὐκ ἔστιν οὖν καθαρὰ ἡ σεμνότης τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ὅτε μὴ ἐκ συμφωνίας τῆς γυναικὸς γίνηται ἡ ἄσκησις ἀμφοτέροις ὑπὲρ τοῦ χολά αι ταῖς κατὰ θεὸν εὐχαῖς. [vii 3] Τῇ γυναικὶ ὁ ἀνὴρ τὴν ὀφειλὴν ἀποδιδότω, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ἡ γυνὴ τῷ ἀνδρί. προενοήσατο καὶ τοῦ
About this text
Origen of Alexandria, Fragmenta ex commentariis in epistulam i ad Corinthios (Greek).
Catalogue & scope
Khazarzar scan
Witnesses
- Copy-text PG 14 (Khazarzar) (Greek)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.