Miscellanies 2.15.64
Summary: Desire ruins many in tragedy and comedy; a mishap is an unexpected sin, a sin an involuntary wrong, and a wrong is voluntary vice; for believers sin has no dominion, since by Christ's wound we are healed.
Greek text · Stählin 2:147–148
τούτους μὲν οὖν ὁ θυμός, μυρίους δὲ ἄλλους ἡ ἐπιθυμία τραγῳδεῖ, τὴν Φαίδραν, τὴν Ἄνθειαν, τὴν Ἐριφύλην, ἣ χρυσὸν φίλου ἀνδρὸς ἐδέξατο τιμήεντα. τὸν γὰρ κωμικὸν ἐκεῖνον Θρασωνίδην ἄλλη σκηνὴ παιδισκάριόν με φησὶν εὐτελὲς καταδεδούλωκεν. Ἀτύχημα μὲν οὖν παράλογός ἐστιν ἁμαρτία, ἡ δὲ ἁμαρτία ἀκούσιος ἀδικία, ἀδικία δὲ ἑκούσιος κακία. ἔστιν οὖν ἡ μὲν ἁμαρτία ἐμὸν ἀκούσιον. διὸ καί φησιν· ἁμαρτία γὰρ ὑμῶν οὐ κυριεύσει· οὐ γάρ ἐστε ὑπὸ νόμον, ἀλλʼ ὑπὸ χάριν, τοῖς ἤδη πεπιστευκόσι λέγων, ὅτι τῷ μώλωπι αὐτοῦ ἡμεῖς ἰάθημεν. ἀτυχία δέ ἐστιν ἄλλου εἰς ἐμὲ πρᾶξις ἀκούσιος, ἡ δὲ ἀδικία μόνη εὑρίσκεται ἑκούσιος εἴτε ἐμὴ εἴτε ἄλλου.
English · Claude translation
Anger, then, makes tragedy of these, and desire of countless others: Phaedra, Anthea, Eriphyle, “who accepted precious gold for her dear husband.” And another stage has that comic Thrasonides saying, “A cheap little slave girl has enslaved me.” A mishap, then, is an unexpected sin; a sin is an involuntary wrong; and a wrong is voluntary vice. Sin, then, is my own involuntary act. That is why he says, “For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace,” speaking to those who have already believed, that “by his wound we were healed.” A mishap is another's involuntary act against me; but a wrong alone is found to be voluntary, whether mine or another's.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Homer, Odyssey 11.327, Menander, The Hated Man (fragment), Rom 6:14, and Isa 53:5 (1 Pet 2:24).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (misreading in the digital text (καί); wrong accent on the relative ἣ): τὴν Ἐριφύλην, ἥ χρυσὸν → τὴν Ἐριφύλην, ἣ χρυσὸν; διὸ δαί φησιν → διὸ καί φησιν.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.15.64 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/15/64/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.15.64 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/15/64/).
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