Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 1.8.40

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

Summary: Paul calls the sophists' love of disputes a sickness; Euripides agrees; the sound word is Christ, the truth; false teachers are wolves in sheep's clothing who prey on the simple.

Greek text · Stählin 2:26–27

εἰκότως τοίνυν ὁ γενναῖος ἀπόστολος, ἐκφαυλίζων τὰς περιττὰς ταύτας τῶν λέξεων τέχνας, εἴ τις μὴ προσέρχεται ὑγιαίνουσι λόγοις φησί, διδασκαλίᾳ δέ τινι τετύφωται μηδὲν ἐπιστάμενος, ἀλλὰ νοσῶν περὶ ζητήσεις καὶ λογομαχίας, ἐξ ὧν γίνεται ἔρις, φθόνος, βλασφημία, ὑπόνοιαι πονηραί, διαπαρατριβαὶ διεφθαρμένων ἀνθρώπων τὸν νοῦν καὶ ἀπεστερημένων τῆς ἀληθείας. ὁρᾷς ὅπως πρὸς αὐτοὺς κεκίνηται, νόσον ὀνομάζων τὴν λογικὴν τέχνην αὐτῶν, ἐφʼ ᾗ σεμνύνονται οἷς φίλη ἡ στωμύλος αὕτη κακοτεχνία, εἴτε Ἕλληνες εἶεν εἴτε καὶ βάρβαροι σοφισταί. παγκάλως οὖν ὁ τραγικὸς Εὐριπίδης ἐν ταῖς Φοινίσσαις λέγει· ὁ δὲ ἄδικος λόγος νοσῶν ἐν αὑτῷ φαρμάκων δεῖται σοφῶν. ὑγιαίνων μὲν γὰρ ὁ σωτήριος εἴρηται λόγος αὐτὸς ὢν ἀλήθεια. καὶ τὸ ὑγιαῖνον αἰεὶ ἀθάνατον μένει, ἡ δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὑγιεινοῦ τε καὶ θείου διάκρισις ἀθεότης τε καὶ πάθος θανατηφόρον. λύκοι οὗτοι ἅρπαγες προβάτων κῳδίοις ἐγκεκρυμμένοι, ἀνδραποδισταί τε καὶ ψυχαγωγοὶ εὔγλωσσοι, κλέπτοντες μὲν ἀφανῶς, διελεγχόμενοι δὲ λῃσταί, αἱρεῖν ἀγωνιζόμενοι καὶ δόλῳ καὶ βίᾳ ἡμᾶς δὴ τοὺς ἀπερίττους, ὡς ἂν εἰπεῖν ἀδυνατωτέρους.

English · Claude translation

Fittingly, then, the noble apostle, disparaging these superfluous verbal arts, says: “If anyone does not come to sound words, but is puffed up with some teaching, knowing nothing, but sick about questions and disputes about words, from which come strife, envy, slander, evil suspicions, constant friction among people corrupted in mind and deprived of the truth.” You see how he is moved against them, calling their logical art, on which they pride themselves, a sickness; they who love this babbling evil art, whether they are Greek or barbarian sophists. Very finely, then, does the tragic poet Euripides say in the Phoenician Women: “The unjust word, being sick in itself, needs wise remedies.” For the saving word is called “sound,” being itself truth. And what is sound remains always immortal; but separation from what is healthy and divine is godlessness and a deadly disease. These are ravening wolves hidden in sheepskins, slave-dealers and smooth-tongued seducers of souls, stealing secretly but, when exposed, robbers, striving to catch by deceit and force us who are simple, so to speak, and less capable.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:26–27 · 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
Extrabiblical texts
  • Euripides, Phoenician Women 471–472 (Euripides (plays and fragments)) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are 1 Tim 6:3–5 and Euripides, Phoenician Women 471–472; the allusion is Matt 7:15.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (misreading in the digital text (δόλῳ); stray period in the digital text): ὑπόνοιαι πονηραί. διαπαρατριβαὶ → ὑπόνοιαι πονηραί, διαπαρατριβαὶ; καὶ σόλῳ καὶ βίᾳ → καὶ δόλῳ καὶ βίᾳ.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.8.40 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/8/40/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.8.40 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/8/40/).

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