Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 3.5.44

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

Summary: Knowledge is tested by conduct, as a tree by its fruit; true knowledge is a divine light from obedience; true freedom is release from pleasure through Christ, and whoever claims to know God but disobeys is a liar.

Greek text · Stählin 2:216

τὰ γὰρ τῆς πολιτείας ἐλέγχει σαφῶς τοὺς ἐγνωκότας τὰς ἐντολάς, ἐπεὶ οἷος ὁ λόγος τοῖος ὁ βίος· ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν καρπῶν τὸ δένδρον, οὐκ ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνθῶν καὶ πετάλων, γνωρίζεται. ἡ γνῶσις οὖν ἐκ τοῦ καρποῦ καὶ τῆς πολιτείας, οὐκ ἐκ τοῦ λόγου καὶ τοῦ ἄνθους· οὐ γὰρ λόγον ψιλὸν εἶναι τὴν γνῶσίν φαμεν, ἀλλά τινα ἐπιστήμην θείαν καὶ φῶς ἐκεῖνο τὸ ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ ἐγγενόμενον ἐκ τῆς κατὰ τὰς ἐντολὰς ὑπακοῆς τὸ πάντα κατάδηλα ποιοῦν τὰ τε ἐν γενέσει αὐτόν τε τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἑαυτόν τε γινώσκειν παρασκευάζον καὶ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπήβολον καθίστασθαι διδάσκον. ὃ γὰρ ὀφθαλμὸς ἐν σώματι, τοῦτο ἐν τῷ νῷ ἡ γνῶσις. μηδὲ λεγόντων ἐλευθερίαν τὴν ὑπὸ ἡδονῆς δουλείαν, καθαπερεὶ τὴν χολὴν γλυκεῖαν· ἡμεῖς γὰρ ἐλευθερίαν μεμαθήκαμεν ἣν ὁ κύριος ἡμᾶς ἐλευθεροῖ μόνος, ἀπολύων τῶν ἡδονῶν τε καὶ τῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν καὶ τῶν ἄλλων παθῶν. ὁ λέγων, ἔγνωκα τὸν κύριον, καὶ τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ μὴ τηρῶν ψεύστης ἐστίν, καὶ ἐν τούτῳ ἡ ἀλήθεια οὐκ ἔστιν, Ἰωάννης λέγει.

English · Claude translation

For conduct clearly tests those who have known the commandments, since as the word is, so is the life. And the tree is known from its fruits, not from its flowers and leaves. Knowledge, then, comes from the fruit and from conduct, not from talk and flower. For we do not say that knowledge is bare talk, but a divine understanding and that light which arises in the soul from obedience to the commandments, making all things plain, both what is in creation and man himself, preparing one to know oneself and teaching one to become a partaker of God. For what the eye is in the body, knowledge is in the mind. And let them not call slavery to pleasure freedom, as though they called bile sweet. For we have learned that freedom is that with which the Lord alone frees us, releasing us from pleasures and desires and the other passions. “The one who says, ‘I have known the Lord,’ and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,” says John.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:216 · 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
Ethics, Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations and allusions are Matt 12:33 (Luke 6:44), Matt 6:22, John 8:36, and 1 John 2:4.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (wrong accent on the relative ὃ): ὅ γὰρ ὀφθαλμὸς ἐν σώματι → ὃ γὰρ ὀφθαλμὸς ἐν σώματι.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.5.44 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/5/44/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.5.44 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/5/44/).

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