Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 3.11.77

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

Summary: Paul attributes his evil deeds to indwelling sin, from which the law of the Spirit sets him free through the Son; the body, dead through sin, becomes a temple when the Spirit who raised Jesus dwells in it.

Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.

Greek text · Stählin 2:230

ἑπομένως δʼ ἐπήγαγεν· εἰ δὲ ὃ οὐ θέλω, τοῦτο ἐγὼ ποιῶ, οὐκέτι ἐγὼ κατεργάζομαι αὐτό, ἀλλʼ ἡ οἰκοῦσα ἐν ἐμοὶ ἁμαρτία, ἥτις ἀντιστρατευομένη τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τοῦ νοός μου, φησίν, αἰχμαλωτίζει με ἐν τῷ νόμῳ τῆς ἁμαρτίας τῷ ὄντι ἐν τοῖς μέλεσί μου. ταλαίπωρος ἐγὼ ἄνθρωπος· τίς με ῥύσεται ἐκ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ θανάτου τούτου; πάλιν τε αὖ (κάμνει γὰρ οὐδʼ ὁπωστιοῦν ὠφελῶν) οὐκ ὀκνεῖ ἐπιλέγειν· ὁ γὰρ νόμος τοῦ πνεύματος ἠλευθέρωσέν με ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου τῆς ἁμαρτίας καὶ τοῦ θανάτου, ἐπεὶ διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ ὁ θεὸς κατέκρινεν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἐν τῇ σαρκί, ἵνα τὸ δικαίωμα τοῦ νόμου πληρωθῇ ἐν ἡμῖν τοῖς μὴ κατὰ σάρκα περιπατοῦσιν, ἀλλὰ κατὰ πνεῦμα. πρὸς τούτοις ἔτι ἐπισαφηνίζων τὰ προειρημένα ἐπιβοᾷ· τὸ μὲν σῶμα νεκρὸν διʼ ἁμαρτίαν δηλῶν ὡς ὅτι μὴ νεώς, τάφος δʼ ἐστὶν ἔτι τῆς ψυχῆς· ὁπηνίκα γὰρ ἁγιασθῇ τῷ θεῷ, τὸ πνεῦμα, ἐποίσει. τοῦ ἐγείραντος ἐκ νεκρῶν Ἰησοῦν οἰκεῖ ἐν ὑμῖν, ὃς ζωοποιήσει καὶ τὰ θνητὰ σώματα ὑμῶν διὰ τοῦ ἐνοικοῦντος αὐτοῦ πνεύματος ἐν ὑμῖν.

English · Claude translation

Consistently he added: “But if I do what I do not wish, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me,” which, “waging war against the law of God and of my mind,” he says, “takes me captive in the law of sin that is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” And again (for he never tires of helping) he does not hesitate to add: “For the law of the Spirit has set me free from the law of sin and death,” since through the Son “God condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Besides this, making clearer what he had said, he cries out: “The body is dead because of sin,” showing that it is not yet a temple, but still a tomb of the soul; for when it is sanctified to God, “the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, who will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:230 · 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; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.
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, Heresy, Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Rom 7:20, 23–24; 8:2–4, 10–11. The text between “tomb of the soul” and “of the one who raised” is slightly corrupt.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.11.77 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/11/77/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.11.77 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/11/77/).

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