Miscellanies 6.17.154
Summary: Philosophers who seek philosophy as a whole and gladly acknowledge truth wherever found are led by God's goodness from Greek and barbarian learning to faith and then to knowledge and salvation; the “spirit of perception” given to craftsmen is prudence, which extends to philosophy.
Greek text · Stählin 2:511
οἱ τοίνυν φιλόσοφοι οἱ εἰς τὴν οἰκείαν συναίσθησιν πνεύματι αἰσθητικῷ συνασκηθέντες, ἐπὰν μὴ μέρος φιλοσοφίας, ἀλλὰ τὴν αὐτοτελῶς φιλοσοφίαν πολυπραγμονῶσι, φιλαλήθως τε καὶ ἀτύφως προσμαρτυροῦντες τῇ ἀληθείᾳ κἂν παρὰ τοῖς ἑτεροδόξοις ἐπὶ τῶν καλῶς εἰρημένων, προκόπτουσιν εἰς σύνεσιν, κατὰ τὴν θείαν διοίκησιν, τὴν ἄρρητον ἀγαθότητα, τὴν ἑκάστοτε εἰς τὸ ἄμεινον κατὰ τὸ ἐγχωροῦν προσαγομένην τὴν τῶν ὄντων φύσιν· ἔπειτα οὐχ Ἕλλησι μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ βαρβάροις ὁμιλήσαντες, ἐπὶ τὴν πίστιν ἐκ συνασκήσεως κοινῆς εἰς σύνεσιν ἰδίαν ἄγονται· παραδεξάμενοι δὲ τὸν θεμέλιον τῆς ἀληθείας, δύναμιν προσλαμβάνουσι προϊέναι πρόσω ἐπὶ τὴν ζήτησιν, κἀνθένδε ἀγαπῶσι μὲν μαθητευσάμενοι, γνώσεως δὲ ὀριγνώμενοι σπεύδουσιν εἰς σωτηρίαν. ταύτῃ φησὶν ἡ γραφὴ πνεῦμα αἰσθήσεως δεδόσθαι τοῖς τεχνίταις ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ, τὸ δὲ οὐδὲν ἀλλʼ ἢ φρόνησίς ἐστι, δύναμις ψυχῆς θεωρητικὴ τῶν ὄντων καὶ τοῦ ἀκολούθου ὁμοίου τε καὶ ἀνομοίου διακριτική τε αὖ καὶ συνθετικὴ καὶ προστακτικὴ καὶ ἀπαγορευτικὴ τῶν τε μελλόντων καταστοχαστική. διατείνει δὲ οὐκ ἐπὶ τὰς τέχνας μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν φιλοσοφίαν αὐτήν.
English · Claude translation
The philosophers, then, who have been trained to self-awareness by a spirit of perception, when they busy themselves not with a part of philosophy but with philosophy as a whole, bearing witness to the truth lovingly and without conceit, even when it is found among those of other opinions in what they have said well, advance to understanding, in keeping with the divine administration, the ineffable goodness which always brings the nature of existing things toward the better as far as possible. Then, having associated not only with Greeks but also with barbarians, they are led from common training to a special understanding, to faith. And having received the foundation of truth, they receive in addition the power to go forward to inquiry; and from this point they love, having become disciples, and, reaching out for knowledge, they hasten toward salvation. In this way Scripture says that a spirit of perception was given by God to the craftsmen, which is nothing other than prudence, a power of the soul that contemplates existing things and discerns what follows and what is like and unlike, and is able also to combine, to command and forbid, and to conjecture the future. And it extends not only to the arts but also to philosophy itself.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusions are Exod 28:3 and 31:3 (“a spirit of perception” given to the craftsmen, LXX).
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.17.154 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/17/154/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.17.154 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/17/154/).
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