Miscellanies 5.12.78
Summary: Plato said the Maker of all cannot be declared to all, having learned from Moses, who entered the thick darkness where God was; Orpheus too says that no mortal sees God, for a cloud surrounds him.
Greek text · Stählin 2:377–378
Τὸν γὰρ πατέρα καὶ ποιητὴν τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς εὑρεῖν τε ἔργον καὶ εὑρόντα εἰς πάντας ἐξειπεῖν ἀδύνατον. ῥητὸν γὰρ οὐδαμῶς ἐστιν ὡς τἄλλα μαθήματα, ὁ φιλαλήθης λέγει Πλάτων. ἀκήκοεν γὰρ εὖ μάλα ὡς ὁ πάνσοφος Μωυσῆς εἰς τὸ ὄρος ἀνιὼν (διὰ τὴν ἁγίαν θεωρίαν ἐπὶ τὴν κορυφὴν τῶν νοητῶν) ἀναγκαίως διαστέλλεται μὴ τὸν πάντα λαὸν συναναβαίνειν ἑαυτῷ· καὶ ὅταν λέγῃ ἡ γραφὴ εἰσῆλθεν δὲ Μωυσῆς εἰς τὸν γνόφον οὗ ἦν ὁ θεός, τοῦτο δηλοῖ τοῖς συνιέναι δυναμένοις, ὡς ὁ θεὸς ἀόρατός ἐστι καὶ ἄρρητος, γνόφος δὲ ὡς ἀληθῶς ἡ τῶν πολλῶν ἀπιστία τε καὶ ἄγνοια τῇ αὐγῇ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐπίπροσθε φέρεται. Ὀρφεύς τε αὖ ὁ θεολόγος ἐντεῦθεν ὠφελημένος εἰπών· εἷς ἔστʼ, αὐτοτελής, ἑνὸς ἔκγονα πάντα τέτυκται (ἢ πέφυκεν, γράφεται γὰρ καὶ οὕτως), ἐπιφέρει· οὐδέ τις αὐτὸν εἰσοράᾳ θνητῶν, αὐτὸς δέ γε πάντας ὁρᾶται. σαφέστερον δὲ ἐπιλέγει· αὐτὸν δʼ οὐχ ὁρόω· περὶ γὰρ νέφος ἐστήρικται. πᾶσιν γὰρ θνητοῖς θνηταὶ κόραι εἰσὶν ἐν ὄσσοις μικραί, ἐπεὶ σάρκες τε καὶ ὀστέα ἐμπεφυῖα ἐμπεφύασιν.
English · Claude translation
“For to find the Father and Maker of this universe is a task, and, having found him, to declare him to all is impossible. For it can in no way be put into words like other lessons,” says the truth-loving Plato. For he had heard very well how the all-wise Moses, going up the mountain (for holy contemplation, to the summit of the intelligible), necessarily gives orders that the whole people should not go up with him. And when the Scripture says, “And Moses entered into the thick darkness where God was,” this shows to those who can understand that God is invisible and ineffable, and that the unbelief and ignorance of the many is truly a thick darkness set before the radiance of the truth. And again Orpheus the theologian, having profited from this, says: “He is one, complete in himself; all things have been made as offspring of the one” (or “are born,” for it is written this way too), and he adds: “Nor does any mortal behold him, but he beholds all.” And more clearly he says further: “But him I do not see; for a cloud is fixed around him. For all mortals have mortal pupils in their eyes, small, since flesh and bones have grown in them.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Plato, Timaeus 28c and Seventh Letter 341c, Exod 20:21, and verses of the Orphic “Testament” (the last line is awkward in the Greek, with the verb repeated). The order that the people not go up with Moses is Exod 19:12 (compare Exod 24:2).
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.12.78 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/12/78/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.12.78 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/12/78/).
Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)
Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text