Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 5.14.123

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

Summary: The Orphic poem bids the reader look to the divine Word and the immortal king, and says God was known only to one Chaldean, whom Clement takes to be Abraham or his son.

Greek text · Stählin 2:409–410

ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς Ὀρφεὺς καὶ ταῦτα λέγει· εἰς δὲ λόγον θεῖον βλέψας τούτῳ προσέδρευε, ἰθύνων κραδίης νοερὸν κύτος· εὖ δʼ ἐπίβαινε ἀτραπιτοῦ, μοῦνον δʼ ἐσόρα κόσμοιο ἄνακτα ἀθάνατον. αὖθίς τε περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ, ἀόρατον αὐτὸν λέγων, μόνῳ γνωσθῆναι ἑνί τινί φησι τὸ γένος Χαλδαίῳ, εἴτε τὸν Ἀβραὰμ λέγων τοῦτον εἴτε καὶ τὸν υἱὸν τὸν αὐτοῦ, διὰ τούτων· εἰ μὴ μουνογενής τις ἀπορρὼξ φύλου ἄνωθεν Χαλδαίων· ἴδρις γὰρ ἔην ἄστροιο πορείης, καὶ σφαίρης κίνημʼ ἀμφὶ χθόνα θʼ ὡς περιτέλλει κυκλοτερὲς ἐν ἴσῳ τε κατὰ σφέτερον κνώδακα, πνεύματα δʼ ἡνιοχεῖ περί τʼ ἠέρα καὶ περὶ χεῦμα.

English · Claude translation

And the same Orpheus also says this: “Looking to the divine Word, attend closely to it, directing the intelligent vessel of your heart; walk well upon the path, and look only to the immortal king of the world.” And again, about God, saying that he is invisible, he says that he was known only to one, a Chaldean by race, meaning either Abraham or his son, in these words: “except a certain only-begotten one, an offshoot of the race of the Chaldeans from of old; for he was skilled in the course of the star, and how the motion of the sphere goes round the earth in a circle, evenly, on its own axis; and he guides the winds around the air and the stream of water.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:409–410 · 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
Extrabiblical texts
  • Orpheus (attributed), Orph. frag. (Orpheus (attributed), Orphic poems (fragments)) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are from the Orphic “Testament” (a Jewish reworking of Orphic verse). Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldeans (Gen 11:31; 15:7).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.123 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/123/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.123 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/123/).

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