Miscellanies 6.14.114
Summary: Dwelling places differ by merit, as the thirty, sixty, and hundredfold show; likeness to God is not bodily shape nor an equal virtue with God, but the disciple's likeness to the Teacher in adoption and friendship with God.
Greek text · Stählin 2:489
ἀναλόγως ἄρα καὶ αἱ μοναὶ ποικίλαι κατʼ ἀξίαν τῶν πιστευσάντων. αὐτίκα ὁ Σολομών· δοθήσεται γὰρ αὐτῷ τῆς πίστεως ἡ χάρις ἐκλεκτὴ καὶ κλῆρος ἐν ναῷ κυρίου θυμηρέστερος. τὸ συγκριτικὸν γὰρ δείκνυσι μὲν τὰ ὑποβεβηκότα ἐν τῷ ναῷ τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅς ἐστιν ἡ πᾶσα ἐκκλησία, ἀπολείπει δὲ ἐννοεῖν καὶ τὸ ὑπερθετικόν, ἔνθα ὁ κύριός ἐστιν. ταύτας ἐκλεκτὰς οὔσας τὰς τρεῖς μονὰς οἱ ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ ἀριθμοὶ αἰνίσσονται, ὁ τριάκοντα καὶ ὁ ἑξήκοντα καὶ ὁ ἑκατόν. καὶ ἡ μὲν τελεία κληρονομία τῶν εἰς ἄνδρα τέλειον ἀφικνουμένων κατʼ εἰκόνα τοῦ κυρίου, ἡ δὲ ὁμοίωσις οὐχ, ὥς τινες, ἡ κατὰ τὸ σχῆμα τὸ ἀνθρώπειον (ἄθεος γὰρ ἥδε ἡ ἐπιφορά) οὐδὲ μὴν ἡ κατʼ ἀρετήν, ἡ πρὸς τὸ πρῶτον αἴτιον· ἀσεβὴς γὰρ καὶ ἥδε ἡ ἔκδοσις, τὴν αὐτὴν ἀρετὴν εἶναι ἀνθρώπου καὶ τοῦ παντοκράτορος θεοῦ προσδοκησάντων· ὑπέλαβες, φησίν ἀνομίαν, ὅτι ἔσομαί σοι ὅμοιος· ἀλλʼ ἀρκετὸν γὰρ τῷ μαθητῇ γενέσθαι ὡς ὁ διδάσκαλος, λέγει ὁ διδάσκαλος. καθʼ ὁμοίωσιν οὖν τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ εἰς υἱοθεσίαν καὶ φιλίαν τοῦ θεοῦ καταταγεὶς κατὰ τὴν συγκληρονομίαν τῶν κυρίων καὶ θεῶν γίνεται, ἐάν, καθὼς αὐτὸς ἐδίδαξεν ὁ κύριος, κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τελειωθῇ.
English · Claude translation
In proportion, then, the dwelling places too are various, according to the worth of those who have believed. For instance, Solomon: “For there will be given to him the chosen grace of faith and a more delightful lot in the temple of the Lord.” The comparative shows the lower places in the temple of God, which is the whole church, and leaves us to think also of the superlative, where the Lord is. These chosen dwelling places, three in number, are hinted at by the numbers in the Gospel, the thirty, the sixty, and the hundred. And the perfect inheritance belongs to those who arrive at the perfect man according to the image of the Lord. The likeness is not, as some think, that of the human shape (for this inference is godless), nor that which is by virtue in relation to the first cause (for this interpretation too is impious, of those who have supposed that the virtue of man and of God Almighty is the same): “You supposed lawlessly,” it says, “that I will be like you.” But “it is enough for the disciple to become like the teacher,” says the Teacher. According to the likeness of God, then, the one enrolled into adoption and friendship with God comes to be, in the joint inheritance of the lords and gods, if he is perfected according to the gospel, as the Lord himself taught.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Wis 3:14, Ps 50:21 (49:21 LXX), and Matt 10:25 (Luke 6:40); the allusions are Matt 13:8 (Mark 4:20), Eph 4:13, Gen 1:26, and Ps 82:6 (81:6 LXX, “gods”). The view that virtue is the same in God and man is Stoic. The parentheses in the digital text were garbled.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (misreading in the digital text (parenthesis garbled as a breathing); misreading in the digital text (parenthesis garbled as a breve)): ̔ἄθεος → (ἄθεος; ἐπιφορἄ → ἐπιφορά).
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.14.114 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/14/114/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.14.114 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/14/114/).
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