Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 5.14.99

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

Summary: Christ's teaching on plain speech and on oaths has parallels in Plato; the Greeks' “voice of God” echoes Moses' “he spoke and it came to be,” and their teaching that the body is earthly echoes the forming of man from dust.

Greek text · Stählin 2:391–392

Πάλιν αὖ τῷ τοῦ κυρίου ῥητῷ ἔστω ὑμῶν τὸ ναὶ ναὶ καὶ τὸ οὒ οὔ, ἐκεῖνο ἀπεικαστέον· ἀλλά μοι ψεῦδός τε συγχωρῆσαι καὶ ἀληθὲς ἀφανίσαι οὐδαμῶς θέμις· τῇ τε περὶ τοῦ ὀμόσαι ἀπαγορεύσει συνᾴδει ἥδε ἡ ἐν τῷ δεκάτῳ τῶν Νόμων λέξις· ἔπαινος δὲ ὅρκος τε περὶ παντὸς ἀπέστω. καὶ τὸ σύνολον Πυθαγόρας καὶ Σωκράτης καὶ Πλάτων, λέγοντες ἀκούειν φωνῆς θεοῦ, τὴν κατασκευὴν τῶν ὅλων θεωροῦντες ἀκριβῶς ὑπὸ θεοῦ γεγονυῖαν καὶ συνεχομένην ἀδιαλείπτως, ἀκηκόασι γὰρ τοῦ Μωυσέως λέγοντος ›εἶπεν, καὶ ἐγένετο‹, τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ ἔργον εἶναι διαγράφοντος. Ἐπί τε τῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐκ χοὸς διαπλάσεως ἱστάμενοι γήινον μὲν οἱ φιλόσοφοι παρʼ ἕκαστα τὸ σῶμα ἀναγορεύουσιν· Ὅμηρος δὲ οὐκ ὀκνεῖ ἐν κατάρας μέρει θέσθαι τό· ἀλλʼ ὑμεῖς μὲν πάντες ὕδωρ καὶ γαῖα γένοισθε, καθάπερ Ἡσαΐας, καὶ καταπατήσατε αὐτοὺς λέγων ὡς πηλόν.

English · Claude translation

Again, with the Lord's saying, “Let your yes be yes and your no no,” this is to be compared: “But it is by no means lawful for me to concede a falsehood and to suppress the truth.” And with the prohibition of swearing this passage in the tenth book of the Laws agrees: “Let praise and oath be absent in every matter.” And, in general, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, when they say that they hear the voice of God as they contemplate the structure of the universe, made precisely by God and held together unceasingly, had heard Moses saying, “He spoke, and it came to be,” describing the Word of God as a deed. And dwelling on the forming of man from dust, the philosophers at every turn proclaim the body earthly; and Homer does not hesitate to put it in the form of a curse: “But may all of you become water and earth,” as Isaiah too says, “And trample them like clay.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:391–392 · 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, Theaet. 151d (Plato (works)) · quotation, high confidence
  • Plato, Leg. 11.917b–c (Plato (works)) · quotation, high confidence
  • Homer, Il. 7.99 (Homer, Iliad) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Matt 5:37, Plato, Theaetetus 151d, Laws 11.917b–c (Clement says the tenth book), and Homer, Il. 7.99. The prohibition of oaths is Matt 5:34. “He spoke, and it came to be” is from Gen 1 (compare Ps 33:9 [32:9 LXX] and Ps 148:5). The words ascribed to Isaiah are closest to Isa 41:25 (LXX); the identification is uncertain.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.99 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/99/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.99 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/99/).

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