53(1) In one of his letters Paul
has no hesitation in addressing his “yokefellow.” He did not take her around
with him for the convenience of his ministry. (2) He says in one of his
letters, “Do we not have the authority to take around a wife from the Church,
like the other apostles?” (3) But the apostles in conformity with their
ministry concentrated on undistracted preaching, and took their wives around as
Christian sisters rather than spouses, to be their fellow-ministers in relation
to housewives, through whom the Lord’s teaching penetrated into the women’s
quarters without scandal. (4) We know the dispositions made over women deacons
by the admirable Paul in his second letter to Timothy. Furthermore, this same
writer said strongly that “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and
drinking”—or abstinence from wine or meat—“but of righteousness, peace, and joy
in the Holy Spirit.” (5) Which of them goes around like Elijah wearing a
sheepskin and a leather belt? Which of them wears no shoes and nothing but a
piece of sackcloth like Isaiah? Or with nothing on but a linen apron, like
Jeremiah? Which of them will imitate John’s Gnostic way of life? The blessed
prophets lived like that and still gave thanks to the creator. (Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 3.6.53,
in Stromateis, Books One to Three [trans. John Ferguson; The Fathers of
the Church 85; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press,
1991], 289 = Migne, PG 8:1156-57)