Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.16.103

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

Summary: The saints of old are perfected with us, a cloud of witnesses encouraging us to run looking to Jesus; there is one salvation in Christ for them and us; Moses chose Christ's reproach; Wisdom says the martyrs, though they seem to die, are at peace.

Greek text · Stählin 2:293–294

ἐπιφέρει γοῦν· περὶ ἡμῶν κρεῖττόν τι προειδομένου τοῦ θεοῦ, ἀγαθὸς γὰρ ἦν, ἵνα μὴ χωρὶς ἡμῶν τελειωθῶσι. τοιγαροῦν καὶ ἡμεῖς, τοσοῦτον ἔχοντες περικείμενον ἡμῖν νέφος ἅγιον καὶ διειδὲς μαρτύρων, ὄγκον ἀποθέμενοι πάντα καὶ τὴν εὐπερίστατον ἁμαρτίαν, διʼ ὑπομονῆς τρέχωμεν τὸν προκείμενον ἡμῖν ἀγῶνα, ἀφορῶντες εἰς τὸν τῆς πίστεως ἀρχηγὸν καὶ τελειωτὴν Ἰησοῦν. ὅτι μὲν οὖν μίαν σωτηρίαν λέγει ἐν Χριστῷ τῶν δικαίων καὶ ἡμῶν, σαφῶς μὲν εἴρηκεν πρότερον, οὐδὲν δὲ ἧττον καὶ περὶ Μωυσέως λέγων ἐπιφέρει· μείζονα πλοῦτον ἡγησάμενος τῶν Αἰγύπτου θησαυρῶν τὸν ὀνειδισμὸν τοῦ Χριστοῦ· ἀπέβλεπε γὰρ εἰς τὴν μισθαποδοσίαν· πίστει κατέλιπεν Αἴγυπτον, μὴ φοβηθεὶς τὸν θυμὸν τοῦ βασιλέως· τὸν γὰρ ἀόρατον ὡς ὁρῶν ἐκαρτέρησεν. ἡ θεία σοφία περὶ τῶν μαρτύρων λέγει· ἔδοξαν ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς ἀφρόνων τεθνάναι καὶ ἐλογίσθη κάκωσις ἡ ἔξοδος αὐτῶν καὶ ἡ ἀφʼ ἡμῶν πορεία σύντριμμα· οἳ δέ εἰσιν ἐν εἰρήνῃ. καὶ γὰρ ἐν ὄψει ἀνθρώπων ἐὰν κολασθῶσιν, ἡ ἐλπὶς αὐτῶν ἀθανασίας πλήρης.

English · Claude translation

He adds, at any rate: “God having foreseen something better concerning us (for he was good), so that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Therefore we too, having so great a holy and transparent cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, let us run with endurance the contest set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of the faith.” That he speaks of one salvation in Christ, of the righteous and of us, he has said clearly before; and no less, speaking about Moses, he adds: “considering the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the anger of the king; for he endured as seeing the one who is invisible.” The divine Wisdom says about the martyrs: “They seemed in the eyes of the foolish to have died, and their departure was reckoned an affliction, and their going from us a ruin; but they are in peace. For even if in the sight of men they are punished, their hope is full of immortality.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:293–294 · 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
Extrabiblical texts
  • Wis 3:2–4 (Wisdom of Solomon) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Martyrdom

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Heb 11:40; 12:1–2, Heb 11:26–27, and Wis 3:2–4.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.16.103 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/16/103/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.16.103 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/16/103/).

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