Miscellanies 3.4.39 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 2:213–214

καὶ μή τι πρὸς τούτους ὁ ἀπόστολος ἐν τῇ πρὸς Ῥωμαίους ἐπιστολῇ ἀποτεινόμενος γράφει· καὶ μὴ καθὼς βλασφημούμεθα καὶ καθώς φασί τινες ἡμᾶς λέγειν, ὅτι ποιήσωμεν τὰ κακά, ἵνα ἔλθῃ τὰ ἀγαθά; ὧν τὸ κρῖμα ἔνδικόν ἐστιν. οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ κατὰ τὴν ἀνάγνωσιν φωνῆς τόνῳ διαστρέφοντες τὰς γραφὰς πρὸς τὰς ἰδίας ἡδονάς, καί τινων προσῳδιῶν καὶ στιγμῶν μεταθέσει τὰ παραγγελθέντα σωφρόνως τε καὶ συμφερόντως βιαζόμενοι πρὸς ἡδυπαθείας τὰς ἑαυτῶν. οἱ παροξύνοντες τὸν θεὸν τοῖς λόγοις ὑμῶν· ὁ Μαλαχίας φησί, καὶ εἴπατε· ἐν τίνι παρωξύναμεν αὐτόν; ἐν τῷ λέγειν ὑμᾶς· πᾶς ὁ ποιῶν πονηρὸν ἀγαθὸς ἐνώπιον κυρίου, καὶ ἐν αὐτοῖς αὐτὸς ηὐδόκησεν· καί· ποῦ ἐστιν ὁ θεὸς τῆς δικαιοσύνης;

English · Claude translation

And is not the apostle aiming at these when he writes in the letter to the Romans: “And not, as we are slandered and as some say that we say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’? Their condemnation is just.” These are the ones who, in reading, twist the Scriptures by the tone of voice toward their own pleasures, and by changing certain accents and punctuation force what was commanded wisely and usefully to their own self-indulgence. “You who have provoked God with your words,” says Malachi, “and you said, ‘How have we provoked him?’ In your saying, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he has taken pleasure in them’; and, ‘Where is the God of justice?’”

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:213–214 · 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

Rom 3:8 · quotation, high confidence
Mal 2:17 · quotation, high confidence
2 Pet 3:16 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Heresy, Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

The quotations are Rom 3:8 and Mal 2:17. Clement's remark on accents and punctuation reflects the reading of unaccented, unpunctuated manuscripts.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (accent: grave on πρὸς): βιαζόμενοι πρός ἡδυπαθείας → βιαζόμενοι πρὸς ἡδυπαθείας.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.4.39 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/4/39/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.4.39 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/4/39/).