Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.5.22

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

Summary: Health and means are for the body, and the body for the soul; pleasure is not the good, since some pleasures are bad; knowledge, which chooses among pleasures and pains, is the good.

Greek text · Stählin 2:257–258

τούτων οὖν ἀνθεκτέον οὐ διʼ αὐτά, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ σῶμα, ἡ δὲ τοῦ σώματος ἐπιμέλεια διὰ τὴν ψυχὴν γίνεται, ἐφʼ ἣν ἡ ἀναφορά. ἐν ταύτῃ γὰρ μαθεῖν ἀνάγκη τὸν γνωστικῶς πολιτευόμενον τὰ προσήκοντα, ἐπεὶ τό γε μὴ εἶναι τὴν ἡδονὴν ἀγαθὸν ὡμολόγηται ἐκ τοῦ κακὰς εἶναί τινας ἡδονάς. τούτῳ τῷ λόγῳ ἀναφαίνεται τὸ ἀγαθὸν κακὸν καὶ τὸ κακὸν ἀγαθόν. ἔπειτα δὲ εἴ τινας μὲν αἱρούμεθα τῶν ἡδονῶν, τινὰς δὲ φεύγομεν, οὐ πᾶσα ἡδονὴ ἀγαθόν. ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀλγηδόνων ὁ αὐτὸς λόγος, ὧν τὰς μὲν ὑπομένομεν, τὰς δὲ φεύγομεν, ἡ δὲ αἵρεσις καὶ φυγὴ κατʼ ἐπιστήμην γίνεται· ὥστε τὴν ἐπιστήμην εἶναι τὸ ἀγαθόν, οὐ τὴν ἡδονήν, διʼ ἣν ἔστιν ὅτε καὶ τὴν ποιὰν ἡδονὴν αἱρησόμεθα.

English · Claude translation

These things, then, must be held to not for their own sake but for the body's; and the care of the body comes about for the sake of the soul, to which it refers. For in it the one who lives in the way of knowledge must learn what is fitting; since that pleasure is not the good is agreed from the fact that some pleasures are bad. On this account the good would appear bad and the bad good. Then, if we choose some pleasures and flee others, not every pleasure is good. Likewise the same account holds for pains, some of which we endure and others we flee; and choice and avoidance come about by knowledge; so that knowledge is the good, not pleasure, for the sake of which we will sometimes choose a certain kind of pleasure.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:257–258 · 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, Gorgias 499b–500a (Plato (works)) · allusion, medium confidence
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The argument follows Plato, Gorgias 499b–500a.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.5.22 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/5/22/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.5.22 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/5/22/).

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