For in other matters also which go to make up life, we shall find differences according to circumstances. For example, it is not right to kill, yet i… - Athanasius of Alexandria
" "For in other matters also which go to make up life, we shall find differences according to circumstances. For example, it is not right to kill, yet in war it is lawful and praiseworthy to destroy the enemy; accordingly not only are they who have distinguished themselves in the field held worthy of great honours, but monuments are put up proclaiming their achievements. So that the same act is at one time and under some circumstances unlawful, while under others, and at the right time, it is lawful and permissible. The same reasoning applies to the relation of the sexes. He is blessed who, being freely yoked in his youth, naturally begets children. But if he uses nature licentiously, the punishment of which the Apostle writes shall await whoremongers and adulterers.
For there are two ways in life, as touching these matters. The one the more moderate and ordinary, I mean marriage; the other angelic and unsurpassed, namely virginity. Now if a man choose the way of the world, namely marriage, he is not indeed to blame; yet he will not receive such great gifts as the other. For he will receive, since he too brings forth fruit, namely thirtyfold. But if a man embrace the holy and unearthly way, even though, as compared with the former, it be rugged and hard to accomplish, yet it has the more wonderful gifts: for it grows the perfect fruit, namely an hundredfold. So then their unclean and evil objections had their proper solution long since given in the divine Scriptures.
English
Collect this quote
About Athanasius of Alexandria
Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 297 – 373) was the twentieth bishop of Alexandria. He who was a Christian theologian, a Church Father, a Doctor of the Church for Roman Catholics, the chief defender of Trinitarianism against Arianism, and a noted Egyptian leader of the fourth century.
Biography information from Wikiquote
Also Known As
Native Name:
Ἀθανάσιος
Alternative Names:
Athanasius Alexandrinus
•
Sint Atanaze d’ Alegzandreye
•
Saint Athanasius
•
Athanasius
•
Athanasios of Alexandria
•
Athanasius I of Alexandria
•
Athanasius the Great
•
Athanasius the Confessor
•
Athanasius the Apostolic
•
Athanasius Contra Mundum
•
Athanasias
Related quotes. More quotes will automatically load as you scroll down, or you can use the load more buttons.
Additional quotes by Athanasius of Alexandria
He, the Life of all, our Lord and Saviour, did not arrange the manner of his own death lest He should seem to be afraid of some other kind. No. He accepted and bore upon the cross a death inflicted by others, and those other His special enemies, a death which to them was supremely terrible and by no means to be faced; and He did this in order that, by destroying even this death, He might Himself be believed to be the Life, and the power of death be recognised as finally annulled. A marvellous and mighty paradox has thus occurred, for the death which they thought to inflict on Him as dishonour and disgrace has become the glorious monument to death's defeat.
Works in ChatGPT, Claude, or Any AI
Add semantic quote search to your AI assistant via MCP. One command setup.
Thus, taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to the corruption of death, He surrendered His body to death instead of all, and offered it to the Father. This He did out of sheer love for us, so that in His death all might die, and the law of death thereby be abolished because, having fulfilled in His body that for which it was appointed, it was thereafter voided of its power for men. This He did that He might turn again to incorruption men who had turned back to corruption, and make them alive through death by the appropriation of His body and by the grace of His resurrection. Thus He would make death to disappear from them as utterly as straw from fire.
Loading...