Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 6.16.134

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

Summary: The tablets were written twice, for the ruling spirit and the fleshly spirit; there is a decad in man—five senses, speech, reproduction, the bodily spirit, the ruling mind, and the Holy Spirit given by faith—and the law addresses ten human parts.

Greek text · Stählin 2:499–500

ἀνεκαινίσθησαν οὖν μυστικῶς, πλεοναζούσης ἀγνοίας ἅμα καὶ ἁμαρτίας. δισσῶς, ὡς ἔοικεν, γράφονται δισσοῖς πνεύμασιν ἐντολαί, τῷ τε ἡγεμονικῷ τῷ τε ὑποκειμένῳ, ἐπεὶ ἡ σὰρξ ἐπιθυμεῖ κατὰ τοῦ πνεύματος καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα κατὰ τῆς σαρκός. ἔστι δὲ καὶ δεκάς τις περὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον αὐτόν, τά τε αἰσθητήρια πέντε καὶ τὸ φωνητικὸν καὶ τὸ σπερματικὸν καὶ τοῦτο δὴ ὄγδοον τὸ κατὰ τὴν πλάσιν πνευματικόν, ἔνατον δὲ τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ δέκατον τὸ διὰ τῆς πίστεως προσγινόμενον ἁγίου πνεύματος χαρακτηριστικὸν ἰδίωμα. ἔτι πρὸς τούτοις δέκα τισὶν ἀνθρωπείοις μέρεσι προστάσσειν ἡ νομοθεσία φαίνεται, τῇ τε ὁράσει καὶ ἀκοῇ καὶ τῇ ὀσφρήσει ἁφῇ τε καὶ γεύσει καὶ τοῖς τούτων ὑπουργοῖς ὀργάνοις δισσοῖς οὖσι, χερσί τε καὶ ποσίν· αὕτη γὰρ ἡ πλάσις τοῦ ἀνθρώπου.

English · Claude translation

They were renewed, then, in a mystical way, as ignorance and sin increased together. The commandments, it seems, are written twice, for two spirits, the ruling one and the subject one, since “the flesh desires against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.” There is also a certain decad in man himself: the five organs of sense, the power of speech, and that of reproduction; and eighth, the spiritual element that comes with his formation; ninth, the ruling part of the soul; and tenth, the distinctive mark of the Holy Spirit that comes to him through faith. Besides these, the legislation appears to give orders to ten human parts: to sight, hearing, and smell, to touch and taste, and to the organs that serve them, which are double, hands and feet. For this is how man is formed.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:499–500 · 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

  • The allusions are Exod 34:1 (the renewed tablets) and Gal 5:17. The list of the soul's parts is Stoic (five senses, speech, reproduction, ruling part), to which Clement adds the Holy Spirit.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.16.134 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/16/134/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.16.134 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/16/134/).

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