Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.25.159

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

Summary: Perfect purification is faith leading through law and prophets to the gospel, and propitiation is obedient purity until the soul's release; whether the seven are periods or heavens and the eighth the fixed sphere, the knower must rise above becoming and sin.

Greek text · Stählin 2:318–319

τέλειος δʼ, οἶμαι, καθαρισμὸς ἡ διὰ νόμου καὶ προφητῶν εἰς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον πίστις· ἱλασμὸς δὲ ἡ διʼ ὑπακοῆς πάσης ἁγνεία σὺν καὶ τῇ ἀποθέσει τῶν κοσμικῶν εἰς τὴν ἐκ τῆς ἀπολύσεως τῆς ψυχῆς εὐχάριστον τοῦ σκήνους ἀπόδοσιν. εἴτʼ οὖν ὁ χρόνος εἴη ὁ διὰ τῶν ἑπτὰ περιόδων τῶν ἀριθμουμένων εἰς τὴν ἀκροτάτην ἀνάπαυσιν ἀποκαθιστὰς εἴτε ἑπτὰ οὐρανοί, οὕς τινες ἀριθμοῦσι κατʼ ἐπανάβασιν, εἴτε καὶ ἡ ἀπλανὴς χώρα ἡ πλησιάζουσα τῷ νοητῷ κόσμῳ ὀγδοὰς λέγοιτο, πλὴν ἐξαναδῦναι γενέσεώς τε καὶ ἁμαρτίας χρῆναι λέγει τὸν γνωστικόν. ἐπὶ γοῦν ταῖς ἑπτὰ ἡμέραις τὰ ἱερεῖα ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτιῶν θύεται, ἔτι γὰρ τροπῆς εὐλάβεια καὶ τῆς ἑβδόμης ἅπτεται περιφορᾶς.

English · Claude translation

Perfect purification, I think, is faith through the law and the prophets into the gospel; and propitiation is purity through all obedience, together with laying aside worldly things, up to the thankful surrender of the tent at the release of the soul. Whether, then, it is time which, through the seven numbered periods, restores to the highest rest, or seven heavens, which some count by ascent, or whether the fixed region, which borders on the intelligible world, is called the eighth, he says that the one who knows must rise out of becoming and sin. At any rate, after the seven days the victims are sacrificed for sins; for there is still caution about change, and it touches the seventh cycle.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:318–319 · 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
Eschatology, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusion is 2 Cor 5:1, 4 (“tent”).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.25.159 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/25/159/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.25.159 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/25/159/).

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