Miscellanies 1.25.166
Summary: Plato made contemplation the goal of both statesman and law-abiding citizen; law is true opinion that finds what truly is, as God is “He who is”; some call it right reason commanding and forbidding.
Greek text · Stählin 2:103–104
ἔτι τὸ μὲν νομικὸν πρὸς γενέσεως εἶναι, τὸ πολιτικὸν δὲ πρὸς φιλίας καὶ ὁμονοίας ὁ Πλάτων ὠφεληθείς, τοῖς μὲν Νόμοις τὸν φιλόσοφον τὸν ἐν τῇ Ἐπινομίδι συνέταξεν, τὸν τὴν διέξοδον πάσης γενέσεως τῆς διὰ τῶν πλανωμένων εἰδότα, φιλόσοφον δὲ ἄλλον τὸν Τίμαιον, ὄντα ἀστρονομικὸν καὶ θεωρητικὸν τῆς ἐκείνων φορᾶς συμπαθείας τε καὶ κοινωνίας τῆς πρὸς ἄλληλα, ἑπομένως τῇ Πολιτείᾳ συνάπτει, ἔπειτα. τέλος γὰρ οἶμαι τοῦ τε πολιτικοῦ τοῦ τε κατὰ νόμον βιοῦντος ἡ θεωρία· ἀναγκαῖον γοῦν τὸ πολιτεύεσθαι ὀρθῶς, ἄριστον δὲ τὸ φιλοσοφεῖν. ὁ γὰρ νοῦν ἔχων πάντα τὰ αὑτοῦ εἰς γνῶσιν συντείνας βιώσειεν ἄν, κατευθύνας μὲν τὸν βίον ἔργοις ἀγαθοῖς, ἀτιμάσας δὲ τὰ ἐναντία τά τε πρὸς ἀλήθειαν συλλαμβανόμενα μεθέπων μαθήματα. νόμος δέ ἐστιν οὐ τὰ νομιζόμενα (οὐδὲ γὰρ τὰ ὁρώμενα ὅρασις) οὐδὲ δόξα πᾶσα (οὐ γὰρ καὶ ἡ πονηρά), ἀλλὰ νόμος ἐστὶ χρηστὴ δόξα, χρηστὴ δὲ ἡ ἀληθής, ἀληθὴς δὲ ἡ τὸ ὂν εὑρίσκουσα καὶ τούτου τυγχάνουσα· ὁ ὢν δὲ ἐξαπέσταλκέν με, φησὶν ὁ Μωυσῆς. ᾗ τινες ἀκολούθως δηλονότι τῇ χρηστῇ δόξῃ λόγον ὀρθὸν τὸν νόμον ἔφασαν, προστακτικὸν μὲν ὧν ποιητέον, ἀπαγορευτικὸν δὲ ὧν οὐ ποιητέον.
English · Claude translation
Further, Plato, having benefited from the teaching that the legal concerns generation and statesmanship concerns friendship and concord, joined to the Laws the philosopher of the Epinomis, who knows the course of all generation through the planets; and another philosopher, Timaeus, an astronomer and contemplator of their motion and of their sympathy and communion with one another, he joins in sequence to the Republic. For the end, I think, both of the statesman and of the one who lives by law is contemplation. To live as a citizen rightly is necessary, but to philosophize is best. For the one who has sense would live directing all his efforts to knowledge, guiding his life by good works, despising their opposites, and pursuing the studies that help toward truth. And law is not what is customary (for what is seen is not sight), nor every opinion (for not the evil one), but law is good opinion, and good opinion is true opinion, and true opinion is that which finds what is and attains it: “He who is has sent me,” says Moses. Consistently with this good opinion some have said that law is right reason, commanding what must be done and forbidding what must not be done.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is Exod 3:14. The definition of law is Stoic (and Plato, Minos 314c–315a).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (misspelling in the digital text): ἔπειτα. τίλος γὰρ → ἔπειτα. τέλος γὰρ.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.25.166 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/25/166/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.25.166 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/25/166/).
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