On Marriage and Virginity

Introduction

Athanasius addresses this letter to his respected friend the elder Amun of Nitria. In their generation there were teachers causing laymen to doubt whether it was lawful to marry. Here Athanasius teaches both respect for the life of virginity and common sense regarding the more common and wholly blessed life of husbands and wives in the world.

Letter of St Athanasius to Amun

Everything God has made is beautiful and pure, for the Word of God has created nothing useless or unclean. As the Apostle says, “We are a sweet savor of Christ in them that are being saved.”2 Corinthians 2:15. Yet the devil’s attacks are many and subtle. He tries to trouble those who are simple in mind and to hinder the ordinary spiritual practices of the brethren by secretly planting among them thoughts about uncleanness and defilement. Therefore, by the grace of the Savior, let us briefly expose this deception of the evil one and strengthen the minds of the simple. For “to the pure all things are pure,” while to the unclean both their conscience and everything else is defiled.Titus 1:15.

I am also amazed at the devil’s cunning. Though he himself is corruption and wickedness, he presents certain thoughts under the appearance of purity. Yet his purpose is not to test us but to trap us. As I said before, he wants to distract ascetics from their customary and beneficial meditation and to give the impression that he has overcome them. So he stirs up useless and troublesome thoughts: empty questions and trivial concerns that ought simply to be dismissed.

Moreover, if we believe, as the divine Scriptures teach, that man is the work of God’s hands,Isaiah 64:8. how could anything inherently defiled come from the work of a pure Creator? And if, as the Acts of the Apostles says, “we are God’s offspring”Acts 17:28. then there is nothing unclean in our nature itself.

We become defiled only when we commit sin, which is truly unclean. But when some bodily discharge occurs apart from our will, there is no sin in it. Like other natural bodily functions, it happens simply through the necessity of nature.

But there are some whose only pleasure is to contradict what is rightly said, or rather to object even to what God Himself has made. They even misuse the words of the Gospel, quoting, “Not that which goes in defiles a man, but that which comes out.”Matthew 15:11. So we must expose the irrationality of their argument, for I can hardly call it a serious question. To begin with, like unstable people, they twist the Scriptures through their own ignorance.2 Peter 3:16.

The meaning of the Lord’s words is this. Certain people, much like those of our own day, were troubled by questions concerning food. To remove their ignorance, or perhaps to expose their hypocrisy, the Lord declared that what enters a man does not defile him, but what comes out of him. He then explains precisely where these things come from: the heart. For from the heart, as He teaches, proceed the evil treasures of impure thoughts and other sins.Luke 6:45. The Apostle teaches the same thing more briefly when he says, “Food does not commend us to God.”1 Corinthians 8:8

In the same way, we may reasonably say that no natural bodily secretion will bring us before God for judgment. Even physicians, if we must appeal to outsiders in order to put these people to shame, can confirm this. They tell us that the animal body has certain necessary passages through which it expels what is superfluous from its various parts, for example the head which produces hair and secretions, and that which the bowels discharge, and the natural emission of the reproductive organs.

What sin, then, is there in any of this, most beloved elder of God, if the Master who created the body Himself fashioned these organs and gave them their natural functions and passages?

But perhaps our opponents will object: “If each organ was fashioned by the Creator, then there can be no sin in making use of it.” We should answer by asking what they mean by “use.” Do they mean the lawful use permitted by God when He said, “Increase and multiply, and replenish the earth,”Genesis 1:28. and approved by the Apostle when he wrote, “Marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled”?Hebrews 13:4. Or do they mean an unlawful use, practiced secretly and adulterously?

In many areas of life, the morality of an action depends upon the circumstances. Killing, for example, is ordinarily forbidden, yet in war the destruction of the enemy may be regarded as lawful and even praiseworthy. Those who distinguish themselves in battle are honored, and monuments are erected to commemorate their deeds. Thus, an action may be unlawful in one circumstance while lawful and permitted in another.

The same principle applies to sexual relations. Blessed is the man who enters marriage lawfully in his youth and naturally brings forth children. But if he uses his bodily powers in a licentious way, then the judgment mentioned by the Apostle awaits him, for “whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”Ibid.

In these matters there are two paths of life. One is the more ordinary and moderate path, namely marriage. The other is the angelic and unsurpassed path of virginity. Whoever chooses marriage is not to be condemned, though he does not receive the same gifts as one who embraces virginity. He too bears fruit and receives his reward, the thirtyfold fruit.Matthew 13:8. But if a man embraces the holy and heavenly path of virginity, even though it is more difficult and demanding, yet it has more wonderful gifts, for this life brings forth the perfect fruit, the hundredfold.

Thus the impure and malicious objections of these people were answered long ago by the divine Scriptures themselves.

Therefore, Father, strengthen the flock entrusted to you. Exhort them from the writings of the Apostles, guide them by the words of the Gospel, and counsel them from the Psalms, saying, “Quicken me according to Your word.”Psalm 118:25 lxx. By “Your word” we are taught to serve Him with a pure heart. Knowing this, the Prophet says, as though interpreting himself, “Create in me a clean heart, O God,”Psalm 50:10 lxx. so that impure thoughts may not trouble me.

David again says, “Establish me with Your free Spirit,”Psalm 50:12 lxx. so that even when disturbing thoughts arise, the strong power that comes from You may support and establish me.

Give them this and similar advice, saying to those who are slow to accept the truth, “I will teach transgressors Your ways.”Psalm 50:13 lxx Then, trusting in the Lord that they may be persuaded to abandon such errors, add, “and sinners shall be converted unto You.”Ibid.

May those who raise malicious questions cease from such futile labor. May those who are troubled by doubts in their simplicity be strengthened by His “free Spirit.”Psalm 50:12 lxx And may all of you who know the truth with certainty preserve it unbroken and unshaken in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom be glory and power to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.