Miscellanies 6.14.111
Summary: Those who fell from star-worship to idols are worthless as a drop from a jar; the knower's every act is a right action, the simple believer's intermediate, and the Gentile's sinful, since Scripture requires acting with a goal and with reason.
Greek text · Stählin 2:487
ναὶ μὴν κἀκεῖνοι οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς τῶν ἄστρων σεβήσεως μὴ ἐπαναδραμόντες ἐπὶ τὸν τούτων ποιητήν. ὁδὸς γὰρ ἦν αὕτη δοθεῖσα τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἀνακῦψαι πρὸς θεὸν διὰ τῆς τῶν ἄστρων θρῃσκείας. οἱ δὲ μὴ ἐπὶ τούτοις θελήσαντες ἐπιμεῖναι τοῖς δοθεῖσιν αὐτοῖς ἀστράσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτων ἀποπεσόντες εἰς λίθους καὶ ξύλα, ὡς χνοῦς, φησίν, ἐλογίσθησαν καὶ ὡς σταγὼν ἀπὸ κάδου, περισσοὶ εἰς σωτηρίαν, οἱ ἀπορριπτόμενοι τοῦ σώματος. ὥσπερ οὖν τὸ μὲν ἁπλῶς σῴζειν τῶν μέσων ἐστίν, τὸ δʼ ὀρθῶς καὶ δεόντως κατόρθωμα, οὕτως καὶ πᾶσα πρᾶξις γνωστικοῦ μὲν κατόρθωμα, τοῦ δὲ ἁπλῶς πιστοῦ μέση πρᾶξις λέγοιτʼ ἄν, μηδέπω κατὰ λόγον ἐπιτελουμένη μηδὲ μὴν κατʼ ἐπίστασιν κατορθουμένη, πᾶσα δὲ ἔμπαλιν τοῦ ἐθνικοῦ ἁμαρτητική· οὐ γὰρ τὸ ἁπλῶς εὖ πράττειν, ἀλλὰ τὸ πρός τινα σκοπὸν τὰς πράξεις ποιεῖσθαι καὶ κατὰ λόγον ἐνεργεῖν καθῆκον αἱ γραφαὶ παριστᾶσιν.
English · Claude translation
So too are judged those who did not run back from the worship of the stars to their maker. For this was a way given to the nations, to rise up to God through the worship of the stars. But those who were not willing to abide by the stars given to them, but fell away from these too to stones and wood, “were counted as dust,” it says, “and as a drop from a jar,” superfluous for salvation, cast off from the body. As, then, simply saving belongs to the intermediate things, but saving rightly and fittingly is a right action, so too every action of the one who knows may be called a right action, but that of the simple believer an intermediate action, not yet performed according to reason nor done rightly with understanding; while every action of the Gentile, conversely, is sinful. For the Scriptures present as proper not simply doing well, but doing one's actions toward some goal and acting according to reason.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is Isa 40:15. “Right action” (κατόρθωμα), “intermediate” (μέσον), and “proper” (καθῆκον) are Stoic technical terms.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.14.111 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/14/111/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.14.111 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/14/111/).
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