Introduction: Clement on Women
Clement of Alexandria - polymath, philosopher, biblical exegete, and apologist for Christianity - was a pioneer in interpreting the Bible in light of Greek learning. Readers of his most important work of theology and exegesis, the Stromateis or Miscellanies, are faced with a great variety of information, with quotations from Proverbs and Paul following on the heels of maxims of Plato or snippets from Homer and Euripides, a great mass of information that resists being brought into a neat system.
Texts that relate to women are no exception; the variety of the material makes it difficult to generalize. Best known are passages in which Clement uses feminine imagery to speak of God, as when he says:Consider the mysteries of love, and then you will behold the bosom of the Father, which the only-begotten God alone declared (John 1:18). God is himself love, and for love's sake he became visible to us. And while that which is ineffable in him is Father, in his sympathy with us he became Mother. In his love the Father became feminine (E0pku6p), a supreme proof of which is the Son he begot from himself; the fruit born of love is also love. (Who is the Rich Man Who will be Saved? 37.1-2)[1206]
Also of interest are passages in Clement's Paidagogos, in which he gives detailed directions about how Christian women should behave, telling them for example that they must not belch like men or go barefoot, and that they should veil their faces.[1207] This essay considers a different part of the picture. It will focus on four chapters in the fourth book of the Stromateis 8 and 19-21, in which Clement discusses the nature and life of women. I am particularly interested in chapter 8, which contains a pointed saying that reads in the Ante-Nicene Fathers translation: “Women should philosophize the same as men” (Strom. 4.8.62.4).[1208] [1209] This dictum is the centerpiece of a complicated discussion of virtue in women, in which Clement uses Platonic and Stoic teaching, quotes Euripides, the Odyssey, and Greek folklore, and makes use of several texts from Scripture. In attempting to clarify the chapter’s argument, I shall consider four main questions: (1) Why does Clement bring up this topic, and how does it relate to the more general themes of Stromateis, book 4? (2) What does he mean by the verb φιλοσοφεω? (3) On what philosophical sources does he draw? (4) What biblical texts are important for Clement’s discussion, and how does this chapter read as a work of biblical interpretation? B.