Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 2.20.115

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

Summary: If the soul is saved by nature, as Valentinus holds, why is it not cared for from the start? If it must repent, salvation comes from obedient change, not nature; fleshly desires cloud the soul like marsh mists.

Greek text · Stählin 2:175

Τίς οὖν ἡ αἰτία τοῦ μὴ προνοεῖσθαι ἐξ ἀρχῆς τὴν τοιαύτην ψυχήν, εἰπάτωσαν ἡμῖν. ἤτοι γὰρ οὐκ ἔστιν ἀξία (καὶ πῶς ὥσπερ ἐκ μετανοίας ἡ πρόνοια πρόσεισιν αὐτῇ); ἢ φύσις σῳζομένη, ὡς αὐτὸς βούλεται, τυγχάνει καὶ ἀνάγκη ταύτην ἐξ ἀρχῆς διὰ συγγένειαν προνοουμένην μηδεμίαν παρείσδυσιν τοῖς ἀκαθάρτοις παρέχειν πνεύμασιν, ἐκτὸς εἰ μὴ βιασθείη καὶ ἀσθενὴς ἐλεγχθείη. ἐὰν γὰρ δῷ μετανοήσασαν αὐτὴν ἑλέσθαι τὰ κρείττω, τοῦτʼ ἐκεῖνος ἄκων ἐρεῖ, ὅπερ ἡ παρʼ ἡμῖν ἀλήθεια δογματίζει, ἐκ μεταβολῆς πειθηνίου, ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἐκ φύσεως γίγνεσθαι τὴν σωτηρίαν. ὥσπερ γὰρ αἱ ἀναθυμιάσεις αἵ τε γῆθεν αἵ τε ἀπὸ τελμάτων εἰς ὁμίχλας συνίστανται καὶ νεφελώδεις συστροφάς, οὕτως αἱ τῶν σαρκικῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν ἀναδόσεις καχεξίαν προστρίβονται ψυχῇ, κατασκεδαννύουσαι τὰ εἴδωλα τῆς ἡδονῆς ἐπίπροσθε τῆς ψυχῆς.

English · Claude translation

Let them tell us, then, what is the reason why such a soul is not cared for from the beginning. Either it is not worthy (and then how does providence come to it as if from repentance?), or it is a nature that is saved, as he would have it, and then, being cared for from the beginning because of its kinship, it necessarily gives no entry to the unclean spirits, unless it were forced and shown to be weak. For if he grants that it repented and chose the better things, he will unwillingly say what the truth among us teaches: that salvation comes from an obedient change, not from nature. For as exhalations from the earth and from marshes gather into mists and cloudy masses, so the vapors of fleshly desires bring an ill condition on the soul, spreading the images of pleasure before the soul.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:175 · 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.
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • Clement argues against the Valentinian doctrine that the spiritual are “saved by nature.”

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.20.115 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/20/115/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.20.115 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/20/115/).

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