Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 6.13.105

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

Summary: The one who moves from moderating the passions to freedom from passion and active goodness becomes equal to the angels and hastens to the holy dwelling, like the apostles, who were chosen not for their nature but because God foresaw their fitness, as with Matthias.

Greek text · Stählin 2:484–485

Ὁ τοίνυν μετριοπαθήσας τὰ πρῶτα καὶ εἰς ἀπάθειαν μελετήσας αὐξήσας τε εἰς εὐποιίαν γνωστικῆς τελειότητος ἰσάγγελος μὲν ἐνταῦθα· φωτεινὸς δὲ ἤδη καὶ ὡς ὁ ἥλιος λάμπων κατὰ τὴν εὐεργεσίαν σπεύδει τῇ γνώσει τῇ δικαίᾳ διʼ ἀγάπης θεοῦ ἐπὶ τὴν ἁγίαν μονὴν καθάπερ οἱ ἀπόστολοι, οὐχ, ὅτι ἦσαν ἐκλεκτοί, γενόμενοι ἀπόστολοι κατά τι φύσεως ἐξαίρετον ἰδίωμα, ἐπεὶ καὶ ὁ Ἰούδας ἐξελέγη σὺν αὐτοῖς, ἀλλʼ οἷοί τε ἦσαν ἀπόστολοι γενέσθαι ἐκλεγέντες πρὸς τοῦ καὶ τὰ τέλη προορωμένου. ὁ γοῦν μὴ σὺν αὐτοῖς ἐκλεγεὶς Ματθίας, ἄξιον ἑαυτὸν παρασχόμενος τοῦ γενέσθαι ἀπόστολον, ἀντικατατάσσεται Ἰούδα.

English · Claude translation

The one, then, who has first moderated his passions and trained himself toward freedom from passion, and has grown to the beneficence of the perfection of knowledge, is here equal to the angels. Already luminous and shining like the sun in doing good, he hastens by righteous knowledge through the love of God to the holy dwelling place, like the apostles. They did not become apostles because they were chosen for some exceptional peculiarity of nature, since Judas too was chosen with them; rather, they were capable of becoming apostles, being chosen by the one who foresees even how things will end. Matthias, at any rate, who was not chosen with them, having shown himself worthy to become an apostle, is put in Judas's place.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:484–485 · 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
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions are Luke 20:36 (“equal to the angels”), Matt 13:43, John 14:2, John 6:70, and Acts 1:23–26.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.13.105 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/13/105/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.13.105 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/13/105/).

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