Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 2.18.85

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

Summary: The law's humanity shows in paying the poor the same day, forbidding creditors to seize pledges by force, and leaving gleanings and uncut corners for the poor.

Greek text · Stählin 2:157–158

Ἆρʼ οὐ δοκεῖ σοι φιλανθρωπίας εἶναι τὸ παράγγελμα τοῦτο ὥσπερ κἀκεῖνο, μισθὸν πένητος αὐθημερὸν ἀποδιδόναι; ἀνυπερθέτως δεῖν διδάσκει ἐκτίνειν τὸν ἐπὶ ταῖς ὑπηρεσίαις μισθόν· παραλύεται γάρ, οἶμαι, ἡ προθυμία τοῦ πένητος ἀτροφήσαντος πρὸς τοὐπιόν. ἔτι, φησί, δανειστὴς μὴ ἐπιστῇ χρεώστου οἰκίᾳ, ἐνέχυρον μετὰ βίας ληψόμενος, ἀλλʼ ὃ μὲν ἔξω προφέρειν κελευέτω, ὃ δὲ ἔχων μὴ ἀναδυέσθω. ἔν τε τῷ ἀμήτῳ τὰ ἀποπίπτοντα τῶν δραγμάτων ἀναιρεῖσθαι κωλύει τοὺς κτήτορας, καθάπερ κἀν τῷ θερισμῷ ὑπολείπεσθαί τι παραινεῖ ἄτμητον, διὰ τούτου εὖ μάλα τοὺς μὲν κτήτορας εἰς κοινωνίαν καὶ μεγαλοφροσύνην συνασκῶν ἐκ τοῦ προϊέναι τι τῶν ἰδίων τοῖς δεομένοις, τοῖς πένησι δὲ ἀφορμὴν πορίζων τροφῶν.

English · Claude translation

Does not this precept seem to you to belong to philanthropy, as does that one, to pay the poor man his wages the same day? It teaches that the wage for services must be paid without delay; for, I think, the poor man's eagerness is weakened when he goes without food for the next day. Again, it says, let the creditor not enter the debtor's house to take a pledge by force, but let him tell him to bring it out, and let the one who has it not hold back. And in harvest it forbids the owners to pick up what falls from the sheaves, as in reaping too it exhorts them to leave something uncut; by this training the owners very well in sharing and generosity, by giving up something of their own to those in need, and providing the poor with a means of food.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:157–158 · 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
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions are Deut 24:14–15, 24:10–11, 24:19, and Lev 19:9 (23:22).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.18.85 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/18/85/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.18.85 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/18/85/).

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