Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 6.15.118

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

Summary: Like a wild olive grafted into a cultivated one, the philosopher, eager but unable to digest the truth, becomes fruitful when grafted by faith into the merciful Word and true knowledge.

Greek text · Stählin 2:491

λαμβάνει τοίνυν τροφὴν μὲν πλείονα ἡ ἐγκεντρισθεῖσα ἐλαία διὰ τὸ ἀγρίαν ἐμφύεσθαι· οἷον δὲ ἥδε πέττειν ἐθίζεται τὴν τροφήν, συνεξομοιουμένη τῇ πιότητι τῆς ἡμέρου, ὣς δὲ καὶ ὁ φιλόσοφος, ἀγρίᾳ εἰκαζόμενος ἐλαίᾳ, πολὺ τὸ ἄπεπτον ἔχων, διὰ τὸ εἶναι ζητητικὸς καὶ εὐπαρακολούθητος καὶ ὀρεκτικὸς τῆς πιότητος τῆς ἀληθείας, ἐὰν προσλάβῃ τὴν θείαν διὰ πίστεως δύναμιν, τῇ χρηστῇ καὶ ἡμέρῳ ἐγκαταφυτευθεὶς γνώσει, καθάπερ ἡ ἀγριέλαιος ἐγκεντρισθεῖσα τῷ ὄντως καλῷ καὶ ἐλεήμονι λόγῳ πέττει τε τὴν παραδιδομένην τροφὴν καὶ καλλιέλαιος γίνεται. ὁ γάρ τοι ἐγκεντρισμὸς τὰς ἀχρείους εὐγενεῖς ποιεῖ καὶ τὰς ἀφόρους φορίμους γίνεσθαι βιάζεται τέχνῃ τῇ γεωργικῇ καὶ ἐπιστήμῃ τῇ γνωστικῇ.

English · Claude translation

The grafted olive, then, takes in more nourishment because it is grafted onto a wild stock; and it becomes accustomed, as it were, to digest the food, being made like the richness of the cultivated olive. So too the philosopher, likened to a wild olive, has much that is undigested because he is inquiring, quick to follow, and eager for the richness of the truth; if he takes on the divine power through faith, planted into the good and cultivated knowledge, like the wild olive grafted into the truly good and merciful Word, he both digests the food handed on to him and becomes a fine olive. For grafting makes worthless trees noble and forces barren ones to become fruitful, by the art of husbandry and by the science of knowledge.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:491 · 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

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Merciful” (ἐλεήμων) plays on “olive” (ἐλαία).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.15.118 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/15/118/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.15.118 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/15/118/).

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