Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 2.5.21

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

Summary: Moses was wise, king, and lawgiver, but Christ surpasses all: he is the true beauty and light, the king hailed by children, rich enough to scorn the devil's offers, the high priest after Melchizedek, and the lawgiver who spoke through the prophets.

Greek text · Stählin 2:123–124

ἦν δʼ οὖν ὁ μὲν Μωυσῆς σοφός, βασιλεύς, νομοθέτης· ὁ σωτὴρ δὲ ἡμῶν ὑπερβάλλει πᾶσαν ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν· καλὸς μὲν ὡς ἀγαπᾶσθαι μόνος πρὸς ἡμῶν τὸ καλὸν τὸ ἀληθινὸν ἐπιποθούντων, ἦν γὰρ τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν, βασιλεὺς δὲ καὶ ὑπὸ παίδων ἀπείρων ἔτι καὶ ὑπὸ Ἰουδαίων ἀπιστούντων καὶ ἀγνοούντων ἀναγορευόμενος καὶ πρὸς αὐτῶν προφητῶν ἀνακηρυττόμενος δείκνυται· πλούσιος δὲ εἰς τοσοῦτον, ὡς πᾶσαν τὴν καὶ τὸ ὑπὲρ γῆς καὶ ὑπʼ αὐτὴν χρυσίον ὑπερηφάνησεν σὺν καὶ δόξῃ πάσῃ διδόμενα αὐτῷ πρὸς τοῦ ἀντικειμένου. τί δεῖ λέγειν, ὡς μόνος ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς ὁ μόνος ἐπιστήμων τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ θεραπείας βασιλεὺς εἰρήνης Μελχισεδέκ, ὁ πάντων ἱκανώτατος ἀφηγεῖσθαι τοῦ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένους; νομοθέτης δὲ ὡς ἂν διδοὺς τὸν νόμον ἐν τῷ στόματι τῶν προφητῶν τά τε πρακτέα καὶ μὴ σαφέστατα ἐντελλόμενός τε καὶ διδάσκων.

English · Claude translation

Moses, then, was wise, king, and lawgiver; but our Savior surpasses all human nature. He is beautiful, so as alone to be loved by us who long for the true beauty, for he was the true light; he is shown to be king, proclaimed both by children still innocent and by unbelieving and ignorant Jews, and heralded by the prophets themselves; so rich that he despised all the gold above and below the earth, together with all the glory offered him by the adversary. What need is there to say that he alone is the high priest, alone knowing the worship of God, Melchizedek, king of peace, the most fit of all to lead the human race? He is the lawgiver, giving the law in the mouth of the prophets, commanding and teaching most clearly what must and must not be done.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:123–124 · 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
Christology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions are John 1:9, Matt 21:9, 15–16, Matt 4:8–10, Heb 7:1–3, and Ps 110:4.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (misreading in the digital text (καλὸν)): τὸ κατὸν τὸ ἀληθινὸν → τὸ καλὸν τὸ ἀληθινὸν.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.5.21 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/5/21/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.5.21 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/5/21/).

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