Miscellanies 5.14.113 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 2:402–403

Ὁ μὲν Σοφοκλῆς, ὥς φησιν Ἑκαταῖος ὁ τὰς ἱστορίας συνταξάμενος ἐν τῷ Κατʼ Ἄβραμον καὶ τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους, ἄντικρυς ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς ἐκβοᾷ· εἷς ταῖς ἀληθείαισιν, εἷς ἐστιν θεός, ὃς οὐρανόν τε ἔτευξε καὶ γαῖαν μακρὴν πόντου τε χαροπὸν οἶδμα καὶ ἀνέμων βίαν. θνητοὶ δὲ πολλοὶ καρδίαν πλανώμενοι, ἱδρυσάμεσθα πημάτων παραψυχὴν θεῶν ἀγάλματα ἐκ λίθων, ἢ χαλκέων ἢ χρυσοτεύκτων ἢ ἐλεφαντίνων τύπους· θυσίας τε τούτοις καὶ κακὰς πανηγύρεις στέφοντες, οὕτως εὐσεβεῖν νομίζομεν.

English · Claude translation

Sophocles, as Hecataeus, who composed the histories, says in his work On Abraham and the Egyptians, cries out plainly on the stage: “One in truth, one is God, who made the heaven and the long earth, and the sea's gleaming swell, and the might of the winds. But we many mortals, straying in heart, set up as a comfort for our woes images of gods of stone, or figures of bronze, or wrought of gold, or of ivory; and crowning these with sacrifices and evil festivals, we think that so we are pious.”

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:402–403 · 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

Exod 20:11 · echo, low confidence

Notes

Translation notes

These lines are not by Sophocles; they are a Jewish composition in his name, transmitted with a work falsely ascribed to Hecataeus of Abdera (“Pseudo-Hecataeus”). Compare Gen 1:1 and Exod 20:11 for the creation language.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.113 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/113/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.113 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/113/).