Miscellanies 5.14.108
Summary: Plato's description of the righteous man who is scourged and impaled nearly prophesies Christ's passion; Antisthenes, Xenophon, and the Sibyl agree with the prophets that God cannot be pictured or seen.
Greek text · Stählin 2:398–399
ἀλλὰ καὶ αἱ Σόλωνος ἐλεγεῖαι σφόδρα τὴν ἑβδομάδα ἐκθειάζουσιν. Τί δʼ; οὐχὶ παραπλήσια τῇ λεγούσῃ γραφῇ ἄρωμεν ἀφʼ ἡμῶν τὸν δίκαιον, ὅτι δύσχρηστος ἡμῖν ἐστιν ὁ Πλάτων μονονουχὶ προφητεύων τὴν σωτήριον οἰκονομίαν ἐν τῷ δευτέρῳ τῆς Πολιτείας ὧδέ φησιν· οὕτω δὲ διακείμενος ὁ δίκαιος μαστιγωθήσεται, στρεβλώσεται, δεθήσεται, ἐκκοπήσεται τὼ ὀφθαλμώ, τελευτῶν πάντα κακὰ παθὼν ἀνασκινδυλευθήσεται. ὅ τε Σωκρατικὸς Ἀντισθένης, παραφράζων τὴν προφητικὴν ἐκείνην φωνὴν τίνι με ὡμοιώσατε; λέγει κύριος, θεὸν οὐδενὶ ἐοικέναι φησί· διόπερ αὐτὸν οὐδεὶς ἐκμαθεῖν ἐξ εἰκόνος δύναται. τὰ δʼ ὅμοια καὶ Ξενοφῶν ὁ Ἀθηναῖος κατὰ λέξιν λέγει· ὁ γοῦν πάντα σείων καὶ ἀτρεμίζων ὡς μὲν μέγας τις καὶ δυνατός, φανερός· ὁποῖος δʼ ἐστὶν μορφήν, ἀφανής· οὐδὲ μὴν ὁ παμφαὴς δοκῶν εἶναι ἥλιος οὐδʼ οὗτος ἔοικεν ὁρᾶν αὑτὸν ἐπιτρέπειν, ἀλλʼ ἤν τις ἀναιδῶς αὐτὸν θεάσηται, τὴν ὄψιν ἀφαιρεῖται. τίς γὰρ σὰρξ δύναται τὸν ἐπουράνιον καὶ ἀληθῆ ὀφθαλμοῖσιν ἰδεῖν θεὸν ἄμβροτον, ὃς πόλον οἰκεῖ; ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ ἀκτίνων κατεναντίον ἠελίοιο ἄνθρωποι στῆναι δυνατοί, θνητοὶ γεγαῶτες, προεῖπεν ἡ Σίβυλλα.
English · Claude translation
And the elegies of Solon too greatly exalt the number seven. What then? Is not Plato, all but prophesying the saving dispensation, saying something very like the Scripture that says, “Let us take away the righteous one from among us, for he is troublesome to us,” when he speaks thus in the second book of the Republic: “Being so disposed, the righteous man will be scourged, racked, bound, will have his eyes put out, and finally, after suffering every evil, will be impaled”? And Antisthenes the Socratic, paraphrasing that prophetic saying, “To whom have you likened me? says the Lord,” says that God is like no one; therefore no one can come to know him from an image. And Xenophon the Athenian says similar things word for word: “At any rate he who shakes all things and keeps them still is manifest as someone great and mighty; but what he is like in form is unseen. Nor does the sun, which seems all-bright, allow itself to be seen; but if anyone gazes at it shamelessly, it takes away his sight.” “For what flesh can see with eyes the heavenly and true God, the immortal, who dwells in the heavens? Not even against the rays of the sun can men stand, born mortal as they are,” the Sibyl foretold.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The references are Solon, fragment 27 (West), Wis 2:12 (compare Isa 3:10 LXX), Plato, Republic 2.361e–362a, Isa 40:18 (compare Isa 46:5), Antisthenes (fragment; source unidentified), Xenophon, Memorabilia 4.3.13–14, and the Sibylline Oracles, fragment 1.10–13. “Impaled” renders ἀνασκινδυλευθήσεται, which Christian readers took of the cross.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (final sigma inside a word in the digital text): ὀφθαλμοῖςιν → ὀφθαλμοῖσιν.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.108 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/108/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.108 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/108/).
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