Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 5.14.91

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

Summary: Punishment after death implies that the soul is immortal; Plato knew of rivers of fire and Tartarus, which Scripture calls Gehenna, and of guardian spirits, as Scripture speaks of the angels of the little ones.

Greek text · Stählin 2:386

ἕπεται δὲ τούτοις τὴν ψυχὴν εἶναι ἀθάνατον. τὸ γὰρ κολαζόμενον ἢ παιδευόμενον ἐν αἰσθήσει ὂν ζῇ, κἂν πάσχειν λέγηται. τί δʼ; οὐκ οἶδεν ὁ Πλάτων καὶ πυρὸς ποταμοὺς καὶ τῆς γῆς τὸ βάθος, τὴν πρὸς τῶν βαρβάρων Γέενναν καλουμένην Τάρταρον ποιητικῶς ὀνομάζων, Κωκυτόν τε καὶ Ἀχέροντα καὶ Πυριφλεγέθοντα καὶ τοιαῦτά τινα εἰς τὴν παίδευσιν σωφρονίζοντα παρεισάγων κολαστήρια; τῶν μικρῶν δὲ κατὰ τὴν γραφὴν καὶ ἐλαχίστων τοὺς ἀγγέλους τοὺς ὁρῶντας τὸν θεόν, πρὸς δὲ καὶ τὴν εἰς ἡμᾶς διʼ ἀγγέλων τῶν ἐφεστώτων ἥκουσαν ἐπισκοπὴν ἐμφαίνων οὐκ ὀκνεῖ γράφειν· ἐπειδὴ πάσας τὰς ψυχὰς τοὺς βίους ᾑρῆσθαι, ὥσπερ ἔλαχον, ἐν τάξει προσιέναι πρὸς τὴν Λάχεσιν, κείνην δὲ ἑκάστῳ, ὃν εἵλετο δαίμονα, τοῦτον φύλακα συμπέμπειν τοῦ βίου καὶ ἀποπληρωτὴν τῶν αἱρεθέντων. τάχα δὲ καὶ τῷ Σωκράτει τὸ δαιμόνιον τοιοῦτό τι ᾐνίσσετο.

English · Claude translation

From these things it follows that the soul is immortal. For what is punished or corrected, being in a state of perception, lives, even if it is said to suffer. What then? Does not Plato know of rivers of fire and of the depth of the earth, calling poetically Tartarus what the barbarians call Gehenna, and bringing in Cocytus and Acheron and Pyriphlegethon and other such places of punishment that correct and bring people to their senses? And pointing to the angels of the little and least ones, according to the Scripture, who behold God, and also to the oversight that reaches us through the angels set over us, he does not hesitate to write: “When all the souls had chosen their lives, in the order of their lots they went up to Lachesis; and she sent with each the daemon he had chosen, as guardian of his life and fulfiller of what had been chosen.” Perhaps Socrates' daemon too hinted at something of this kind.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:386 · 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
  • Plato, Phaed. 111c–114c (Plato (works)) · allusion, high confidence
  • Plato, Resp. 10.620d–e (Plato (works)) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • Plato's rivers of the underworld are in Phaedo 111c–114c; the quotation is Republic 10.620d–e. The angels of the little ones are Matt 18:10. Corrected the misreading Αάχεσιν to Λάχεσιν (Lachesis, one of the Fates).

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (misreading in the digital text (Λάχεσιν)): Αάχεσιν → Λάχεσιν.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.91 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/91/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.91 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/91/).

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