Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 1.4.26

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

Summary: God gives understanding to those who prepare themselves; craftsmen excel in bodily senses, and poets, rhetoricians, dialecticians, and philosophers in a mental perception strengthened by practice.

Greek text · Stählin 2:16–17

ἔπειτα ἐπιφέρει καθολικὸν δὴ λόγον· καὶ παντὶ τῷ συνετῷ καρδίᾳ δέδωκα σύνεσιν, τουτέστιν τῷ οἵῳ τε ἐπιδέξασθαι πόνῳ καὶ συνασκήσει. πάλιν τε αὖ διαρρήδην ἐξ ὀνόματος κυρίου γέγραπται· καὶ σὺ λάλησον πᾶσι τοῖς σοφοῖς τῇ διανοίᾳ, οὓς ἐνέπλησα πνεῦμα αἰσθήσεως· ἔχουσι μέν τι οἰκεῖον φύσεως ἰδίωμα οἱ σοφοὶ τῇ διανοίᾳ, λαμβάνουσι δὲ πνεῦμα αἰσθήσεως παρὰ τῆς κυριωτάτης σοφίας διττόν, ἐπιτηδείους σφᾶς αὐτοὺς παραστήσαντες. οἱ μὲν γὰρ τὰς βαναύσους μετιόντες τέχνας τοῦ περὶ τὰς αἰσθήσεις ἀπολαύουσι περιττοῦ, ἀκοῆς μὲν ὁ κοινῶς λεγόμενος μουσικός, ἁφῆς δὲ ὁ πλαστικός, καὶ φωνῆς ὁ ᾠδικός, ὀσφρήσεως ὁ μυρεψικός, ὄψεως ὁ τῶν ἐν ταῖς σφραγῖσιν ἐντυπωμάτων τορευτικός. οἱ δὲ ἀμφὶ τὴν παιδείαν διατρίβοντες τὴν συναίσθησιν χορηγοῦνται, καθʼ ἣν τῶν μέτρων οἱ ποιηταὶ καὶ τῆς λέξεως οἱ σοφισταὶ καὶ τῶν συλλογισμῶν οἱ διαλεκτικοὶ καὶ οἱ φιλόσοφοι τῆς κατʼ αὐτοὺς θεωρίας ἀντιλαμβάνονται. εὑρετικὸν γὰρ καὶ ἐπινοητικὸν ἡ συναίσθησις ἐπιβάλλειν πιθανῶς ἀναπείθουσα, συναύξει δὲ τὴν ἐπιβολὴν ἡ εἰς ἐπιστήμην συνάσκησις.

English · Claude translation

Then he adds a general statement: “And to everyone understanding in heart I have given understanding,” that is, to the one able to receive it through labor and exercise. And again it is written expressly in the name of the Lord: “And you, speak to all who are wise in mind, whom I have filled with the spirit of perception.” Those wise in mind have some proper natural quality, and, when they have made themselves fit, they receive from the supreme wisdom a twofold spirit of perception. For those who pursue the mechanical arts enjoy a surplus in the senses: the one commonly called a musician in hearing, the modeler in touch, the singer in voice, the perfumer in smell, the engraver of images on seals in sight. And those occupied with education are supplied with a shared perception, by which the poets grasp meters, the sophists style, the dialecticians syllogisms, and the philosophers their own kind of contemplation. For perception is inventive and creative, persuasively urging one to apply oneself; and exercise toward knowledge increases the application.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:16–17 · 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
Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Exod 31:6 and Exod 28:3.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (stray period and wrong accent on the relative οὓς): τῇ διανοίᾳ. οὕς ἐνέπλησα → τῇ διανοίᾳ, οὓς ἐνέπλησα.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.4.26 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/4/26/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.4.26 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/4/26/).

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