Miscellanies 5.1.3
Summary: Faith grows like a mustard seed; if, as Basilides and Valentinus hold, the elect know God and are saved by nature, the commandments and even Christ's coming would be superfluous; if his coming was necessary, salvation is by learning and good works, not nature.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Greek text · Stählin 2:327–328
ὅθεν αἰσθόμενοι τοῦ μεγαλείου τῆς δυνάμεως ἠξίουν προστιθέναι αὐτοῖς πίστιν τὴν ὡς κόκκον σινάπεως ἐπιδάκνουσαν ὠφελίμως τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ αὔξουσαν μεγαλωστί, ὡς ἐπαναπαύεσθαι αὐτῇ τοὺς περὶ τῶν μεταρσίων λόγους. εἰ γὰρ φύσει τις τὸν θεὸν ἐπίσταται, ὡς Βασιλείδης οἴεται, τὴν νόησιν τὴν ἐξαίρετον πίστιν ἅμα καὶ βασιλείαν καὶ καλῶν κτίσιν, † οὐσίας ἀξίαν τοῦ ποιήσαντος πλησίον ὑπάρχειν αὐτήν, ἑρμηνεύων, οὐσίαν, ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἐξουσίαν, καὶ φύσιν καὶ ὑπόστασιν, κτίσεως ἀνυπερθέτου κάλλος ἀδιόριστον, οὐχὶ δὲ ψυχῆς αὐτεξουσίου λογικὴν συγκατάθεσιν λέγει τὴν πίστιν. παρέλκουσι τοίνυν αἱ ἐντολαὶ αἵ τε κατὰ τὴν παλαιὰν αἵ τε κατὰ τὴν νέαν διαθήκην, φύσει σῳζομένου, ὡς Οὐαλεντῖνος βούλεται, τινὸς καὶ φύσει πιστοῦ καὶ ἐκλεκτοῦ ὄντος, ὡς Βασιλείδης νομίζει. ἦν δʼ ἂν καὶ δίχα τῆς τοῦ σωτῆρος παρουσίας χρόνῳ ποτὲ ἀναλάμψαι δύνασθαι τὴν φύσιν. εἰ δὲ ἀναγκαίαν τὴν ἐπιδημίαν τοῦ κυρίου φήσαιεν, οἴχεται αὐτοῖς τὰ τῆς φύσεως ἰδιώματα, μαθήσει καὶ καθάρσει καὶ τῇ τῶν ἔργων εὐποιίᾳ, ἀλλʼ οὐ φύσει σῳζομένης τῆς ἐκλογῆς.
English · Claude translation
That is why, perceiving the greatness of its power, they asked that faith be added to them, faith like a grain of mustard seed that bites the soul beneficially and grows mightily in it, so that the words about heavenly things may rest on it. For if someone knows God by nature, as Basilides thinks, … calling the excellent intellection faith and kingship, and creation of good things, … a substance worthy of the maker, near to him, interpreting it as substance, not authority, and nature and reality, an indefinable beauty of an unsurpassable creation; he does not call faith the rational assent of a soul with free will. So the commandments, both of the old and the new covenant, are superfluous, if someone is saved by nature, as Valentinus would have it, and is faithful and elect by nature, as Basilides thinks. Nature could then shine forth in time even without the Savior's coming. But if they say that the Lord's coming was necessary, the peculiarities of nature are gone for them, the elect being saved by learning, purification, and good works, not by nature.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusions are Luke 17:5–6. The account of Basilides is corrupt in the Greek (dagger) and partly obscure.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.1.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/1/3/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.1.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/1/3/).
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