Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.4.18

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

Summary: Plato too taught care of the body for the soul's harmony; life and health are the path to knowledge, and the good life lived in the body leads to eternity.

Greek text · Stählin 2:256

διʼ ὃ ἐν τῷ τρίτῳ τῆς Πολιτείας ὁ Πλάτων εἶπεν, ὃν μάλιστα ἐπιβοῶνται μάρτυρα τὴν γένεσιν κακίζοντες, ἐπιμελεῖσθαι σώματος δεῖν ψυχῆς ἕνεκα ἁρμονίας, διʼ οὗ βιοῦν τέ ἐστι καὶ ὀρθῶς βιοῦν καταγγέλλοντα τῆς ἀληθείας τὸ κήρυγμα· διὰ γὰρ τοῦ ζῆν καὶ τῆς ὑγείας ὁδεύοντες ἐκμανθάνομεν τὴν γνῶσιν. ᾧ δὲ οὐδὲ τὸ τυχὸν προσελθεῖν ἔστιν εἰς ὕψος ἄνευ τοῦ ἐν τοῖς ἀναγκαίοις εἶναι καὶ διʼ αὐτῶν πάντα ποιεῖν τὰ πρὸς τὴν γνῶσιν συντείνοντα, τὸ εὖ ζῆν τούτῳ πῶς οὐχ αἱρετέον; ἐν γοῦν τῷ ζῆν τὸ εὖ ζῆν κατορθοῦται, καὶ εἰς ἕξιν ἀιδιότητος παραπέμπεται ὁ διὰ σώματος μελετήσας εὐζωίαν.

English · Claude translation

That is why Plato, whom they most call on as witness when they condemn birth, said in the third book of the Republic that one must care for the body for the sake of the soul's harmony, through which one can live and live rightly, proclaiming the preaching of the truth. For by the way of life and health we learn knowledge. And for one who cannot reach the height at all without being in necessary things and doing through them everything that contributes to knowledge, how is living well not to be chosen? In living, at any rate, living well is achieved; and the one who has practiced the good life through the body is sent on to a state of eternity.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:256 · 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.
Extrabiblical texts
  • Plato, Republic 3.410c (Plato (works)) · allusion, high confidence
Topics
Ethics, Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusion is Plato, Republic 3.410c.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.4.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/4/18/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.4.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/4/18/).

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