Miscellanies 6.16.142
Summary: God's rest means he fixed the order of creation and ended the ancient disorder; all things were made together by one will, the days showing rank rather than time, since time itself was created with the world.
Greek text · Stählin 2:504
ἔστιν δʼ οὖν καταπεπαυκέναι τὸ τὴν τάξιν τῶν γενομένων εἰς πάντα χρόνον ἀπαραβάτως φυλάσσεσθαι τεταχέναι καὶ τῆς παλαιᾶς ἀταξίας ἕκαστον τῶν κτισμάτων καταπεπαυκέναι· αἱ μὲν γὰρ κατὰ τὰς διαφόρους ἡμέρας δημιουργίαι ἀκολουθίᾳ μεγίστῃ παρειλήφεισαν ὡς ἂν ἐκ τοῦ προγενεστέρου τὴν τιμήν, τάξιν ἑξόντων ἁπάντων τῶν γενομένων, ἅμα νοήματι κτισθέντων, ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἐπʼ ἴσης ὄντων τιμίων· οὐδʼ ἂν φωνῇ δεδήλωτο ἡ ἑκάστου γένεσις ἀθρόως πεποιῆσθαι λεχθείσης τῆς δημιουργίας· ἐχρῆν γάρ τι καὶ πρῶτον ὀνομάσαι. διὰ τοῦτο ἄρα προεφητεύθη πρῶτα, ἐξ ὧν τὰ δεύτερα, πάντων ὁμοῦ ἐκ μιᾶς οὐσίας μιᾷ δυνάμει γενομένων· ἓν γάρ, οἶμαι, τὸ βούλημα τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν μιᾷ ταὐτότητι. πῶς δʼ ἂν ἐν χρόνῳ γένοιτο κτίσις, συγγενομένου τοῖς οὖσι καὶ τοῦ χρόνου; Ἤδη δὲ καὶ ἐν ἑβδομάσι πᾶς ὁ κόσμος κυκλεῖται τῶν ζῳογονουμένων καὶ τῶν φυομένων ἁπάντων.
English · Claude translation
To have rested, then, is to have ordained that the order of things created be kept inviolate for all time, and to have brought each of the creatures to rest from the ancient disorder. For the creations on the different days followed in the greatest sequence, so that all things created would have their honor from priority, and their order, though created together in a single thought, yet not equally honored. Nor could the generation of each have been shown in speech if creation had been said to have been made all at once; for it was necessary to name something first. That is why the first things were proclaimed first, from which came the second, all things having come into being together from one substance by one power; for the will of God, I think, is one, in one sameness. How could creation come to be in time, when time itself came into being together with the things that exist? And already the whole world of all living and growing things revolves in sevens.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusion is Gen 2:2–3. The view that creation was simultaneous and the days express order, not time, is shared with Philo (On the Creation of the World 13, 26–28).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (accent: grave on ἂν; misreading in the digital text (πεποιῆσθαι)): οὐδʼ ἄν φωνῇ → οὐδʼ ἂν φωνῇ; πεοιῆσθαι → πεποιῆσθαι.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.16.142 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/16/142/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.16.142 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/16/142/).
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