Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 5.14.122

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

Summary: Tragic and Orphic verses speak of the world's destruction and restoration, and Empedocles of the blessed life with the immortals; no one is too great or too small to escape justice.

Greek text · Stählin 2:408–409

καὶ μετʼ ὀλίγα αὖθις ἐπιφέρει· ἐπὰν δὲ ἐκλίπῃ τὸ πᾶν, φροῦδος μὲν ἔσται κυμάτων ἅπας βυθός, γῆ δὲ ἑδράνων ἔρημος, οὐδʼ ἀὴρ ἔτι πτερωτὰ φῦλα βαστάσει πυρουμένη, κἄπειτα σώσει πάντα ἃ πρόσθεν ἀπώλεσεν. τὰ ὅμοια τούτοις κἀν τοῖς Ὀρφικοῖς εὑρήσομεν ὧδέ πως γεγραμμένα· πάντας γὰρ κρύψας καὶ αὖθις φάος ἐς πολυγηθὲς ἐξ ἱερῆς κραδίης ἀνενέγκατο, μέρμερα ῥέζων. ἢν δὲ ὁσίως καὶ δικαίως διαβιώσωμεν, μακάριοι μὲν ἐνταῦθα, μακαριώτεροι δὲ μετὰ τὴν ἐνθένδε ἀπαλλαγήν, οὐ χρόνῳ τινὶ τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν ἔχοντες, ἀλλὰ ἐν αἰῶνι ἀναπαύεσθαι δυνάμενοι, ἀθανάτοις ἄλλοισιν ὁμέστιοι, ἔν τε τραπέζαις ἐόντες ἀνδρείων ἀχέων ἀπόκληροι, ἀτειρεῖς, ἡ φιλόσοφος Ἐμπεδοκλέους λέγει ποιητική. οὐχ οὕτω τις μέγας ἔσται καὶ καθʼ Ἕλληνας ὡς ὑπερέχειν τὴν δίκην, οὐδὲ σμικρὸς ὡς λαθεῖν.

English · Claude translation

And a little later he adds again: “And when the whole universe fails, the whole depth of the waves will be gone, and the earth empty of dwellings; nor will the air, set on fire, bear the winged tribes any longer; and then it will save all that it destroyed before.” We shall find things like these in the Orphic writings too, written thus: “For having hidden all, he brought them up again into the joyful light from his holy heart, doing mighty deeds.” And if we live holily and justly, we are blessed here, and more blessed after our departure from here, not having happiness for a time, but able to rest in eternity, “sharing hearth with the other immortals, at table with them, free from human woes, unwearied,” as the philosophic poetry of Empedocles says. No one, even according to the Greeks, will be so great as to be above justice, nor so small as to escape its notice.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:408–409 · 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.
Extrabiblical texts
  • Orpheus (attributed), Orph. frag. (Orpheus (attributed), Orphic poems (fragments)) · quotation, high confidence
  • Empedocles, fragment 147 (Empedocles (fragments)) · quotation, high confidence
  • Plato, Leg. 10.905a (Plato (works)) · allusion, medium confidence
Topics
Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are the same tragic poet (probably a Jewish composition, as in 5.14.121), an Orphic fragment, and Empedocles, fragment 147 (Diels–Kranz). The last sentence recalls Plato, Laws 10.905a.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.122 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/122/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.122 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/122/).

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