Miscellanies 6.17.151
Summary: God is Lord of all; the Greeks deal in words, Christians in realities, and the Lord took a plain body so that no one would admire his form instead of his teaching; mere words without understanding are like a raven's speech.
Greek text · Stählin 2:509–510
Καί μοι ἀπόχρη φάναι θεὸν εἶναι τὸν κύριον πάντων. αὐτοτελῶς δὲ λέγω τὸν κύριον πάντων, οὐδενὸς ὑπολειπομένου κατὰ ἐξαίρεσιν. ἐπεὶ τοίνυν δύο εἰσὶν ἰδέαι τῆς ἀληθείας, τά τε ὀνόματα καὶ τὰ πράγματα, οἳ μὲν τὰ ὀνόματα λέγουσιν, οἱ περὶ τὰ κάλλη τῶν λόγων διατρίβοντες, οἱ παρʼ Ἕλλησι φιλόσοφοι, τὰ πράγματα δὲ παρʼ ἡμῖν ἐστι τοῖς βαρβάροις. αὐτίκα ὁ κύριος οὐ μάτην ἠθέλησεν εὐτελεῖ χρήσασθαι σώματος μορφῇ, ἵνα μή τις τὸ ὡραῖον ἐπαινῶν καὶ τὸ κάλλος θαυμάζων ἀφιστῆται τῶν λεγομένων καὶ τοῖς καταλειπομένοις προσανέχων ἀποτέμνηται τῶν νοητῶν. οὐ τοίνυν περὶ τὴν λέξιν, ἀλλὰ περὶ τὰ σημαινόμενα ἀναστρεπτέον. τοῖς μὲν οὖν τῆς λέξεως ἀντιληπτικοῖς καὶ μὴ κινηθεῖσι πρὸς γνῶσιν οὐ πιστεύεται ὁ λόγος, ἐπεὶ καὶ οἱ κόρακες ἀνθρωπείας ἀπομιμοῦνται φωνὰς ἔννοιαν οὐκ ἔχοντες οὗ λέγουσι πράγματος, ἀντίληψις δὲ νοερὰ πίστεως ἔχεται. οὕτως καὶ Ὅμηρος εἶπεν πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε, μὴ εἰδὼς τίς ὁ πατὴρ καὶ πῶς ὁ πατήρ.
English · Claude translation
And it is enough for me to say that God is the Lord of all. I say “the Lord of all” absolutely, with nothing left out as an exception. Since, then, there are two forms of truth, names and things, some speak of names—those who spend their time on the beauties of words, the philosophers among the Greeks—but the things are with us, the barbarians. For instance, the Lord deliberately chose to use a mean bodily form, so that no one, praising his comeliness and admiring his beauty, might turn away from what was said, and, devoting himself to what is left behind, be cut off from the intelligible things. We must, then, be occupied not with the diction but with what is signified. To those who grasp only the diction and are not moved toward knowledge the word is not entrusted, since ravens too imitate human voices without having any notion of what they are saying; but intellectual apprehension is bound up with faith. So Homer too said “father of men and gods,” not knowing who the Father is and how he is Father.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusion is Isa 53:2 (the Lord's plain appearance). The Homeric formula is from Iliad 1.544 and elsewhere. “We, the barbarians” is Clement's ironic self-description.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (syllables repeated in the digital text): αὐτοτελῶς λῶς → αὐτοτελῶς.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.17.151 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/17/151/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.17.151 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/17/151/).
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