Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 2.4.13

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

Summary: Hebrews lists many heroes of faith; truth is known through sense, mind, knowledge, and opinion; faith passes beyond opinion to truth; first principles cannot be demonstrated.

Greek text · Stählin 2:119

τί οὖν ἔτι τὰ τῆς πίστεως ἐκ τῆς παρʼ ἡμῖν ἱστορίας ἀναλεγόμενος παρατίθεμαι μαρτύρια; ἐπιλείψει γάρ με διηγούμενον ὁ χρόνος περὶ Γεδεών, Βαράκ, Σαμψών, Ἰεφθάε Δαβίδ τε καὶ Σαμουὴλ καὶ τῶν προφητῶν καὶ τὰ τούτοις ἑπόμενα. τεσσάρων δὲ ὄντων ἐν οἷς τὸ ἀληθές, αἰσθήσεως, νοῦ, ἐπιστήμης, ὑπολήψεως, φύσει μὲν πρῶτος ὁ νοῦς, ἡμῖν δὲ καὶ πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἡ αἴσθησις, ἐκ δὲ αἰσθήσεως καὶ τοῦ νοῦ ἡ τῆς ἐπιστήμης συνίσταται οὐσία, κοινὸν δὲ νοῦ τε καὶ αἰσθήσεως τὸ ἐναργές. ἀλλʼ ἡ μὲν αἴσθησις ἐπιβάθρα τῆς ἐπιστήμης, ἡ πίστις δὲ διὰ τῶν αἰσθητῶν ὁδεύσασα ἀπολείπει τὴν ὑπόληψιν, πρὸς δὲ τὰ ἀψευδῆ σπεύδει καὶ εἰς τὴν ἀλήθειαν καταμένει. εἰ δέ τις λέγοι τὴν ἐπιστήμην ἀποδεικτικὴν εἶναι μετὰ λόγου, ἀκουσάτω ὅτι καὶ αἱ ἀρχαὶ ἀναπόδεικτοι· οὔτε γὰρ τέχνῃ οὔτε μὴν φρονήσει γνωσταί. ἣ μὲν γὰρ περὶ τὰ ἐνδεχόμενά ἐστιν ἄλλως ἔχειν, ἣ δὲ ποιητικὴ μόνον, οὐχὶ δὲ καὶ θεωρητική.

English · Claude translation

Why, then, should I go on collecting and setting out the testimonies to faith from our history? For “time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David and Samuel and the prophets,” and what follows. There being four things in which truth lies, sense, mind, knowledge, and opinion, mind is first by nature, but sense is first for us and in relation to us; from sense and mind the essence of knowledge is composed; and what is evident is common to mind and sense. But sense is the stepping stone to knowledge; and faith, having traveled through sensible things, leaves opinion behind, hastens to what is free from falsehood, and remains in the truth. If someone says that knowledge is demonstrative with reason, let him hear that first principles are indemonstrable; for they are known neither by art nor by prudence; for prudence concerns what can be otherwise, and art is only productive, not also contemplative.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:119 · 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
Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotation is Heb 11:32. The epistemology follows Aristotle, Posterior Analytics 2.19 and Nicomachean Ethics 6.3–6.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.4.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/4/13/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.4.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/4/13/).

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