Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 5.1.13

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

Summary: Love is learned through hearing, as children are taught to kiss relatives held by the ears; God is love, known to those who love; we must become pure and childlike, as the Epidaurus inscription and Christ teach, entering God's temple founded on faith, hope, and love.

Greek text · Stählin 2:334–335

οὔκουν εἰκῇ τοῖς παιδίοις παρακελευόμεθα τῶν ὤτων λαμβανομένοις φιλεῖν τοὺς προσήκοντας, τοῦτο δήπου αἰνιττόμενοι διʼ ἀκοῆς ἐγγίγνεσθαι τῆς ἀγάπης τὴν συναίσθησιν, ἀγάπη δὲ ὁ θεὸς ὁ τοῖς ἀγαπῶσι γνωστός, ὡς πιστὸς ὁ θεὸς ὁ τοῖς πιστοῖς παραδιδόμενος διὰ τῆς μαθήσεως. καὶ χρὴ ἐξοικειοῦσθαι ἡμᾶς αὐτῷ διʼ ἀγάπης τῆς θείας, ἵνα δὴ τὸ ὅμοιον τῷ ὁμοίῳ θεωρῶμεν, κατακούοντες τοῦ λόγου τῆς ἀληθείας ἀδόλως καὶ καθαρῶς δίκην τῶν πειθομένων ἡμῖν παίδων. καὶ τοῦτο ἦν ὃ ᾐνίξατο ὅστις ἄρα ἦν ἐκεῖνος ὁ ἐπιγράψας τῇ εἰσόδῳ τοῦ ἐν Ἐπιδαύρῳ νεώ· ἁγνὸν χρὴ νηοῖο θυώδεος ἐντὸς ἰόντα ἔμμεναι· ἁγνείη δʼ ἐστὶ φρονεῖν ὅσια. κἂν μὴ γένησθε ὡς τὰ παιδία ταῦτα, οὐκ εἰσελεύσεσθε, φησίν, εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν· ἐνταῦθα γὰρ ὁ νεὼς τοῦ θεοῦ, τρισὶν ἡδρασμένος θεμελίοις, πίστει, ἐλπίδι, ἀγάπῃ, φαίνεται.

English · Claude translation

Not without reason, then, do we bid children, taken by the ears, to kiss their relatives, hinting, no doubt, that the perception of love comes through hearing; and God is love, known to those who love, as God is faithful, handed down to the faithful through learning. And we must make ourselves his own through divine love, so that we may behold like by like, listening to the word of truth guilelessly and purely, like children obedient to us. And this is what was hinted by whoever it was that inscribed at the entrance of the temple in Epidaurus: “Pure must he be who goes within the fragrant temple; and purity is to think holy things.” “And unless you become like these children, you will not enter,” he says, “into the kingdom of heaven.” For there the temple of God appears, established on three foundations, faith, hope, and love.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:334–335 · 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
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations and allusions are 1 John 4:8, 1 Cor 1:9, the Epidaurus inscription, Matt 18:3, and 1 Cor 13:13.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.1.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/1/13/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.1.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/1/13/).

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