Miscellanies 5.14.96
Summary: Plato's goal of becoming like God matches the saying that the seeker will find and reign and rest; Thales' sayings about God echo Scripture, and Moses' “choose life” teaches that only the good is to be chosen and that the end of life is to love God.
Greek text · Stählin 2:389
ὁ δὲ θεὸς ἡμῖν πάντων χρημάτων μέτρον ἂν εἴη. εἶτα ὑποβὰς ἐπάγει πάλιν· πᾶς γὰρ δὴ ἀγαθὸς ἀγαθῷ ὅμοιος, κατὰ τοῦτο δὲ καὶ θεῷ ἐοικὼς ἀγαθῷ τε παντὶ φίλος ὑπάρχει καὶ θεῷ. ἐνταῦθα γενόμενος κἀκείνου ἀνεμνήσθην· ἐπὶ τέλει γὰρ τοῦ Τιμαίου λέγει τῷ κατανοουμένῳ τὸ κατανοοῦν ἐξομοιῶσαι δεῖν κατὰ τὴν ἀρχαίαν φύσιν, ὁμοιώσαντα δὲ τέλος ἔχειν τοῦ προτεθέντος ἀνθρώπῳ ὑπὸ θεῶν ἀρίστου βίου πρός τε τὸν παρόντα καὶ τὸν ἔπειτα χρόνον. ἴσον γὰρ τούτοις ἐκεῖνα δύναται· οὐ παύσεται ὁ ζητῶν, ἕως ἂν εὕρῃ· εὑρὼν δὲ θαμβηθήσεται, θαμβηθεὶς δὲ βασιλεύσει, βασιλεύσας δὲ ἐπαναπαήσεται. Τί δʼ; οὐχὶ κἀκεῖνα τοῦ Θάλητος ἐκ τῶνδε ἤρτηται; τὸ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων δοξάζεσθαι τὸν θεὸν καὶ τὸ καρδιογνώστην λέγεσθαι πρὸς ἡμῶν ἄντικρυς ἑρμηνεύει. ἐρωτηθεὶς γέ τοι ὁ Θάλης, τί ἐστι τὸ θεῖον, τὸ μήτε ἀρχήν, ἔφη, μήτε τέλος ἔχον. πυθομένου δὲ ἑτέρου, εἰ λανθάνει τὸ θεῖον πράσσων τι ἄνθρωπος, καὶ πῶς, εἶπεν, ὅς γε οὐδὲ διανοούμενος; Ναὶ μὴν μόνον τὸ καλὸν ἀγαθὸν οἶδεν ἡ βάρβαρος φιλοσοφία καὶ τὴν ἀρετὴν αὐτάρκη πρὸς εὐδαιμονίαν, ὁπηνίκα ἂν εἴπῃ· ἰδού, δέδωκα πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν σου τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ τὸ κακόν, τὴν ζωὴν καὶ τὸν θάνατον· ἔκλεξαι τὴν ζωήν. τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἀγαθὸν ζωὴν καλεῖ καὶ καλὸν τὴν τούτου ἐκλογήν, κακὸν δὲ τὴν τοῦ ἐναντίου αἵρεσιν. ἀγαθοῦ δὲ καὶ ζωῆς ἓν τέλος τὸ φιλόθεον γενέσθαι· αὕτη γὰρ ἡ ζωή σου καὶ τὸ πολυήμερον, ἀγαπᾶν τὸ πρὸς ἀλήθειαν.
English · Claude translation
“And God would be for us the measure of all things.” Then, a little further on, he adds again: “For every good man is like a good man, and in this way, being like God, he is a friend both to every good man and to God.” Having got this far, I remembered that too: at the end of the Timaeus he says that one must make the thinking part like what it thinks, according to its ancient nature, and having made it like, attain the end of the best life set before humanity by the gods, both for the present and for the time to come. For those words have the same force as these: “He who seeks will not stop until he finds; and having found, he will be amazed; and having been amazed, he will reign; and having reigned, he will rest.” What then? Do not those sayings of Thales also depend on these? He plainly interprets what we say, that God is glorified to the ages of ages and is called the Knower of hearts. When Thales was asked what the divine is, he said, “That which has neither beginning nor end.” And when another asked whether a man escapes the notice of the divine when he does something, he said, “How could he, when he does not even when he is thinking?” Yes, and the barbarian philosophy knows that only the noble is good, and that virtue is sufficient for happiness, when it says: “Behold, I have set before your eyes good and evil, life and death; choose life.” For it calls the good “life,” and the choice of it noble, and the choosing of the opposite evil. And the one end of good and of life is to become a lover of God; for “this is your life and length of days,” to love what is in accord with truth.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Plato, Laws 4.716c–d and Timaeus 90d, a saying found in the Gospel according to the Hebrews (compare Strom. 2.9.45 and Gospel of Thomas 2), Deut 30:15 and 30:19, and Deut 30:20. The sayings of Thales are also reported by Diogenes Laertius 1.35–36. “To the ages of ages” and “Knower of hearts” echo Gal 1:5 and Acts 1:24 (15:8).
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.96 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/96/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.96 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/96/).
Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)
Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text