Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 1.3.23

Clement of Alexandria · Miscellanies · ca. 198–203 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: Solon mocked those who follow the fox's tracks; Christ, who had nowhere to lay his head among the foxes, rests only on the believer, and catches the wise in their craftiness.

Greek text · Stählin 2:15

παγκάλως ὁ Ἀθηναῖος ἀποτείνεται καὶ γράφει Σόλων· εἰς γὰρ γλῶσσαν ὁρᾶτε καὶ εἰς ἔπη αἱμύλου ἀνδρός· ὑμῶν δὲ εἷς μὲν ἕκαστος ἀλώπεκος ἴχνεσι βαίνει, σύμπασιν δὲ ὑμῖν χαῦνος ἔνεστι νόος. τοῦτό που αἰνίσσεται ἡ σωτήριος ἐκείνη φωνή· αἱ ἀλώπεκες φωλεοὺς ἔχουσιν, ὁ δὲ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἔχει ποῦ τὴν κεφαλὴν κλίνῃ· μόνῳ γάρ, οἶμαι, τῷ πιστεύοντι, διακεκριμένῳ τέλεον τῶν ἄλλων τῶν πρὸς τῆς γραφῆς θηρίων εἰρημένων, ἐπαναπαύεται τὸ κεφάλαιον τῶν ὄντων. ὁ χρηστὸς καὶ ἥμερος λόγος. ὁ δρασσόμενος τοὺς σοφοὺς ἐν τῇ πανουργίᾳ αὐτῶν· κύριος γὰρ μόνος γινώσκει τοὺς διαλογισμοὺς τῶν σοφῶν, ὅτι εἰσὶ μάταιοι, σοφοὺς δή που τοὺς σοφιστὰς τοὺς περὶ τὰς λέξεις καὶ τὰς τέχνας περιττοὺς καλούσης τῆς γραφῆς.

English · Claude translation

Very finely does Solon the Athenian inveigh against them and write: “For you look to the tongue and the words of a wily man; each one of you walks in the tracks of a fox, but in all of you together there is an empty mind.” This, I think, is what that saving word hints at: “The foxes have holes, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” For only on the believer, I think, who is completely distinguished from the others called beasts by Scripture, does the Head of all things rest: the kind and gentle Word, “who catches the wise in their craftiness.” “For the Lord alone knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are futile,” Scripture calling “wise” the sophists who are excessive about words and arts.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:15 · 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.
Scripture
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Solon, fragment 11 (West), Matt 8:20 (Luke 9:58), and 1 Cor 3:19–20 (Job 5:13; Ps 94:11).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.3.23 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/3/23/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.3.23 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/3/23/).

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