Miscellanies 5.14.92
Summary: The philosophers learned from Moses that the world had a beginning, as Plato says in the Timaeus, and Plato's evil-working soul in the Laws corresponds to the devil of Scripture.
Greek text · Stählin 2:386–387
Ναὶ μὴν γενετὸν εἶναι τὸν κόσμον ἐκ Μωυσέως παραλαβόντες ἐδογμάτισαν οἱ φιλόσοφοι. καὶ ὅ γε Πλάτων ἄντικρυς εἴρηκεν· πότερον ἦν, ἀρχὴν ἔχων γενέσεως οὐδεμίαν, ἢ γέγονεν, ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς τινος ἀρξάμενος; γέγονεν· ὁρατὸς τε γὰρ ὢν ἁπτός ἐστιν ἁπτός τε ὢν καὶ σῶμα ἔχει. αὖθίς τε ὁπόταν εἴπῃ τὸν μὲν οὖν ποιητὴν καὶ πατέρα τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς εὑρεῖν τε ἔργον, οὐ μόνον γενητὸν τε ἔδειξεν τὸν κόσμον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγονέναι σημαίνει καθάπερ υἱόν, πατέρα δὲ αὐτοῦ κεκλῆσθαι, ὡς ἂν ἐκ μόνου γενομένου καὶ ἐκ μὴ ὄντος ὑποστάντος. γενητὸν δὲ καὶ οἱ Στωϊκοὶ τίθενται τὸν κόσμον. Τόν τε ὑπὸ τῆς βαρβάρου φιλοσοφίας θρυλούμενον διάβολον, τὸν τῶν δαιμόνων ἄρχοντα, κακοεργὸν εἶναι ψυχὴν ἐν τῷ δεκάτῳ τῶν Νόμων ὁ Πλάτων λέγει ταῖσδε ταῖς λέξεσιν· ψυχὴν διοικοῦσαν καὶ ἐνοικοῦσαν τοῖς πάντῃ κινουμένοις μῶν οὐ καὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀνάγκη διοικεῖν φάναι; τί μήν; μίαν ἢ πλείους; πλείους, ἐγὼ ὑπὲρ σφῶν ἀποκρινοῦμαι. δυοῖν μέν που ἔλαττον μηδὲν τιθῶμεν, τῆς τε εὐεργέτιδος καὶ τῆς τἀναντία δυναμένης ἐξεργάσασθαι.
English · Claude translation
Yes, and the philosophers took over from Moses the teaching that the world has come into being. And Plato said plainly: “Was it always, having no beginning of coming to be, or has it come to be, having begun from some beginning? It has come to be; for it is visible and tangible, and being tangible it has a body.” And again, when he says, “Now, the Maker and Father of this universe it is a task to find,” he not only showed that the world came into being, but also indicates that it came into being from him as a son, and that he is called its Father, since it came into being from him alone and came to exist from what was not. The Stoics too hold that the world came into being. And the devil, so much spoken of by the barbarian philosophy, the ruler of the demons, Plato in the tenth book of the Laws calls an evil-working soul, in these words: “Since soul governs and dwells in all things that move in any way, must we not say that it governs heaven too? Certainly. One soul or more? More, I shall answer for you both. Let us assume no fewer than two: the one that does good, and the one able to work the opposite.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Plato, Timaeus 28b and 28c, and Laws 10.896d–e; the creation account is Gen 1:1.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.92 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/92/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.92 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/92/).
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