Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.26.170

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

Summary: Scripture proclaims that God hears the righteous and does no wrong, refuting the heresies that make God responsible for evil; God asks Israel to fear, love, and serve him, and we have the power to choose salvation.

Greek text · Stählin 2:323–324

γέγραπται δὲ κἀν ταῖς Βασιλείαις ἡ κρίσις καὶ ἡ ἀπόφασις τοῦ κυρίου ὧδε ἔχουσα· δικαίων εἰσακούει ὁ θεός, ἀσεβεῖς δὲ οὐ σῴζει, παρὰ τὸ μὴ βούλεσθαι εἰδέναι αὐτοὺς τὸν θεόν· ἄτοπα γὰρ οὐ συντελέσει ὁ παντοκράτωρ. τί πρὸς ταύτην ἔτι φθέγγονται τὴν φωνὴν αἱ αἱρέσεις, ἀγαθὸν θεὸν τὸν παντοκράτορα κηρυττούσης τῆς γραφῆς καὶ ἀναίτιον κακίας τε καὶ ἀδικίας, εἴ γε ἡ μὲν ἄγνοια διὰ τὸ μὴ γινώσκειν φύεται, ὁ θεὸς δὲ οὐδὲν ἄτοπον ποιεῖ; οὗτος γάρ ἐστι, φησίν, ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν καὶ οὐκ ἔστι πλὴν αὐτοῦ σῴζων· οὐδὲ γάρ ἐστιν ἀδικία παρὰ τῷ θεῷ κατὰ τὸν ἀπόστολον. σαφῶς δὲ ἔτι ὁ προφήτης τὴν βουλὴν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὴν προκοπὴν τὴν γνωστικὴν διὰ τούτων διδάσκει· καὶ νῦν, Ἰσραήλ, τί κύριος ὁ θεός σου αἰτεῖται παρὰ σοῦ, ἀλλʼ ἢ φοβεῖσθαι κύριον τὸν θεόν σου καὶ πορεύεσθαι ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀγαπᾶν αὐτὸν καὶ λατρεύειν αὐτῷ μόνῳ; τοῦτο αἰτεῖται παρὰ σοῦ, τοῦ τὴν ἐξουσίαν ἔχοντος ἑλέσθαι τὴν σωτηρίαν.

English · Claude translation

And in the Kingdoms the judgment and sentence of the Lord is written thus: “God hears the righteous, but does not save the ungodly,” because they do not wish to know God; “for the Almighty will not do what is wrong.” What do the heresies still say against this saying, when Scripture proclaims the Almighty to be a good God and not responsible for vice and injustice, if ignorance arises from not knowing, and God does nothing wrong? “For this is our God,” it says, “and there is no savior besides him.” “For there is no injustice with God,” according to the apostle. And the prophet teaches still more clearly the will of God and the progress of knowledge in these words: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, but to fear the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, love him, and serve him alone?” This he asks of you, who have the power to choose salvation.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:323–324 · 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
Heresy, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are an unidentified passage said to be in Kingdoms (compare Job 34:12; 36:6), Isa 45:21 (a free form), Rom 9:14, and Deut 10:12.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (accent: grave on βουλὴν): τὴν βουλήν τοῦ θεοῦ → τὴν βουλὴν τοῦ θεοῦ.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.26.170 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/26/170/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.26.170 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/26/170/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage