Miscellanies 4.1.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Clement plans to treat the philosophers' first principles, then prophecy and the authority of Scripture, showing against the heresies one God proclaimed by law, prophets, and gospel.

Greek text · Stählin 2:249

ἐπὶ τούτοις ὕστερον πληρωθείσης ὡς ἔνι μάλιστα τῆς κατὰ τὰ προκείμενα ἡμῖν ὑποτυπώσεως τὰ περὶ ἀρχῶν φυσιολογηθέντα τοῖς τε Ἕλλησι τοῖς τε ἄλλοις βαρβάροις, ὅσων ἧκον εἰς ἡμᾶς αἱ δόξαι, ἐξιστορητέον καὶ πρὸς τὰ κυριώτατα τῶν τοῖς φιλοσόφοις ἐπινενοημένων ἐγχειρητέον. οἷς ἑπόμενον ἂν εἴη μετὰ τὴν ἐπιδρομὴν τῆς θεολογίας τὰ περὶ προφητείας παραδεδομένα διαλαβεῖν, ὡς καὶ τὰς γραφὰς αἷς πεπιστεύκαμεν κυρίας οὔσας ἐξ αὐθεντείας παντοκρατορικῆς ἐπιδείξαντας προϊέναι διʼ αὐτῶν εἱρμῷ δύνασθαι καὶ ἁπάσαις ἐντεῦθεν ταῖς αἱρέσεσιν ἕνα δεικνύναι θεὸν καὶ κύριον παντοκράτορα τὸν διὰ νόμου καὶ προφητῶν, πρὸς δὲ καὶ τοῦ μακαρίου εὐαγγελίου γνησίως κεκηρυγμένον. πολλαὶ δὲ ἡμᾶς αἱ πρὸς τοὺς ἑτεροδόξους ἀντιρρήσεις ἐκδέχονται πειρωμένους τά τε ὑπʼ αὐτῶν προκομιζόμενα ἐγγράφως διαλύεσθαι πείθειν τε αὐτοὺς καὶ ἄκοντας, διʼ αὐτῶν ἐλέγχοντας τῶν γραφῶν.

English · Claude translation

After these, later, when the outline of our subjects has been completed as far as possible, we must relate what the Greeks and the other barbarians, as far as their opinions have reached us, taught in natural philosophy about first principles, and take on the chief things devised by the philosophers. Following these it would be fitting, after the survey of theology, to treat what has been handed down about prophecy, so that, showing that the Scriptures we have believed are authoritative through the Almighty's own authority, we may be able to proceed through them in order, and from there show to all the heresies one God and Lord Almighty, genuinely proclaimed through the law and the prophets, and also through the blessed gospel. Many refutations of the heterodox await us, as we try to dissolve in writing what they put forward and to persuade them even against their will, convicting them from the Scriptures themselves.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:249 · 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.

Topics

Scripture and canon, Heresy

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.1.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/1/2/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.1.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/1/2/).