Miscellanies 1.28.176 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 2:108–109

Ἡ μὲν οὖν κατὰ Μωυσέα φιλοσοφία τετραχῇ τέμνεται, εἴς τε τὸ ἱστορικὸν καὶ τὸ κυρίως λεγόμενον νομοθετικόν, ἅπερ ἂν εἴη τῆς ἠθικῆς πραγματείας ἴδια, τὸ τρίτον δὲ εἰς τὸ ἱερουργικόν, ὅ ἐστιν ἤδη τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας· καὶ τέταρτον ἐπὶ πᾶσι τὸ θεολογικὸν εἶδος, ἡ ἐποπτεία, ἣν φησιν ὁ Πλάτων τῶν μεγάλων ὄντως εἶναι μυστηρίων, Ἀριστοτέλης δὲ τὸ εἶδος τοῦτο μετὰ τὰ φυσικὰ καλεῖ. καὶ ἥ γε κατὰ Πλάτωνα διαλεκτική, ὥς φησιν ἐν τῷ Πολιτικῷ, τῆς τῶν ὄντων δηλώσεως εὑρετική τίς ἐστιν ἐπιστήμη, κτητὴ δὲ αὕτη τῷ σώφρονι οὐχ ἕνεκα τοῦ λέγειν τε καὶ πράττειν τι τῶν πρὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ὥσπερ οἱ νῦν διαλεκτικοὶ περὶ τὰ σοφιστικὰ ἀσχολούμενοι ποιοῦσιν, ἀλλὰ τοῦ τῷ θεῷ κεχαρισμένα μὲν λέγειν δύνασθαι, κεχαρισμένα δὲ πράττειν, τὸ πᾶν εἰς δύναμιν.

English · Claude translation

The philosophy according to Moses, then, is divided into four parts: the historical and the properly legislative, which would belong to ethics; the third, the priestly, which already belongs to natural contemplation; and fourth, above all, the theological kind, the vision, which Plato says belongs to the truly great mysteries, and which Aristotle calls metaphysics. And dialectic according to Plato, as he says in the Statesman, is a knowledge that discovers the explanation of the things that are; and it is to be acquired by the self-controlled not for speaking and doing any of the things that concern human beings, as the present dialecticians do, busy with sophistries, but in order to be able to say what is pleasing to God and to do what is pleasing, everything as far as possible.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:108–109 · Otto Stählin, ed., Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 2, Stromata Buch I–VI, GCS 15 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1906); vol. 3, Stromata Buch VII und VIII, GCS 17 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909) · Greek text: Otto Stählin, Clemens Alexandrinus 2–3 (GCS 15, 17, 1906–1909), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Stählin, GCS 15, 17. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Stählin (1906–1909); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Book 3 is left partly untranslated (in Latin) there.

Extrabiblical texts

Plato, Phaedrus 273e; Symposium 210a (Plato (works)) · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

The four parts correspond to ethics, physics, and theology (“epoptic,” the highest vision). Plato, Phaedrus 273e.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (wrong accent on the relative ἣν): ἡ ἐποπτεία, ἥν φησιν → ἡ ἐποπτεία, ἣν φησιν.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.28.176 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/28/176/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.28.176 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/28/176/).