Miscellanies 2.16.74 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 2:152

ὁ θεὸς δὲ οὐδεμίαν ἔχει πρὸς ἡμᾶς φυσικὴν σχέσιν, ὡς οἱ τῶν αἱρέσεων κτίσται θέλουσιν, (οὔτʼ εἰ ἐκ μὴ ὄντων ποιοίη οὔτʼ εἰ ἐξ ὕλης δημιουργοίη, ἐπεὶ τὸ μὲν οὐδʼ ὅλως ὄν, ἣ δὲ κατὰ πάντα ἑτέρα τυγχάνει τοῦ θεοῦ) εἰ μή τις μέρος αὐτοῦ καὶ ὁμοουσίους ἡμᾶς τῷ τολμήσει λέγειν· καὶ οὐκ οἶδʼ ὅπως ἀνέξεταί τις ἐπαΐων τούτου θεὸν ἐγνωκώς, ἀπιδὼν εἰς τὸν βίον τὸν ἡμέτερον, ἐν ὅσοις φυρόμεθα κακοῖς. εἴη γὰρ ἂν οὕτως, ὃ μηδʼ εἰπεῖν θέμις, μερικῶς ἁμαρτάνων ὁ θεός, εἴ γε τὰ μέρη τοῦ ὅλου μέρη καὶ συμπληρωτικὰ τοῦ ὅλου, εἰ δὲ μὴ συμπληρωτικά, οὐδὲ μέρη εἴη ἄν. ἀλλὰ γὰρ φύσει πλούσιος ὢν ὁ θεὸς ἐν ἐλέῳ διὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ ἀγαθότητα κήδεται ἡμῶν μήτε μορίων ὄντων αὐτοῦ μήτε φύσει τέκνων.

English · Claude translation

But God has no natural relationship to us, as the founders of the heresies would have it (neither if he made us from what does not exist, nor if he fashioned us from matter, since the one does not exist at all, and the other is in every way different from God), unless someone will dare to say that we are a part of him and of the same substance with him. And I do not know how anyone who has known God will bear to hear this, when he looks at our life and at the evils in which we are mixed up. For in that case God would, which it is not lawful even to say, sin in part, if indeed the parts of the whole are parts and complete the whole; and if they do not complete it, they would not be parts either. But God, being by nature “rich in mercy,” cares for us through his goodness, though we are neither parts of him nor his children by nature.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:152 · 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

Eph 2:4 · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

The quotation is Eph 2:4. Clement rejects the Valentinian view that the spiritual are of the same substance (ὁμοούσιοι) as God. The digital text reads τῷ where a word such as θεῷ may be missing.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (accent: grave on ὢν; stray period in the digital text; wrong accent on the relative ἣ): ἥ δὲ κατὰ πάντα ἑτέρα → ἣ δὲ κατὰ πάντα ἑτέρα; συμπληρωτικά. οὐδὲ μέρη → συμπληρωτικά, οὐδὲ μέρη; φύσει πλούσιος ὤν ὁ θεὸς → φύσει πλούσιος ὢν ὁ θεὸς.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.16.74 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/16/74/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.16.74 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/16/74/).