Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 6.9.77

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

Summary: Through love the future is present to the one who knows; he does not pray for earthly goods but to keep the faith and that many may become like him, for whoever resembles the Savior helps save others.

Greek text · Stählin 2:469–470

κἄστιν αὐτῷ διʼ ἀγάπην ἐνεστὸς ἤδη τὸ μέλλον· πεπίστευκεν γὰρ διά τε τῆς προφητείας διά τε τῆς παρουσίας τῷ μὴ ψευδομένῳ θεῷ καὶ, ὃ πεπίστευκεν, ἔχει καὶ κρατεῖ τῆς ἐπαγγελίας (ἀλήθεια δὲ ὁ ἐπαγγειλάμενος) καὶ τὸ τέλος τῆς ἐπαγγελίας διὰ τῆς ἀξιοπιστίας τοῦ ἐπαγγειλαμένου κατʼ ἐπιστήμην βεβαίως ἀπείληφεν. ὁ δὲ τὴν ἐν οἷς ἐστι κατάστασιν βεβαίαν τῶν μελλόντων κατάληψιν εἰδὼς διʼ ἀγάπης προαπαντᾷ τῷ μέλλοντι. αὐτίκα οὐδὲ εὔξεται τυχεῖν τῶν τῇδε ὁ τεύξεσθαι πεπεισμένος τῶν ὄντως ἀγαθῶν, ἔχεσθαι δὲ ἀεὶ τῆς ἐπηβόλου καὶ κατορθωτικῆς πίστεως. καὶ πρὸς τοῖσδε παμπόλλους ὡς ὅτι μάλιστα ὁμοίους αὐτῷ γενέσθαι εὔξεται, εἰς δόξαν τοῦ θεοῦ, ἣ κατʼ ἐπίγνωσιν τελειοῦται· σωτήριος γάρ τις ὁ τῷ σωτῆρι ἐξομοιούμενος, εἰς ὅσον ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει χωρῆσαι τὴν εἰκόνα θέμις, ἀπαραβάτως τὰ κατὰ τὰς ἐντολὰς κατορθῶν.

English · Claude translation

And for him, through love, the future is already present. For he has believed God, who does not lie, both through prophecy and through the coming; and what he has believed he possesses, and he holds fast the promise (and the one who promised is truth), and he has securely received, with understanding, the fulfilment of the promise through the trustworthiness of the one who promised. And he who knows that his state among the things where he is is a firm apprehension of things to come, goes out to meet the future beforehand through love. For instance, he will not even pray to obtain the things here, being persuaded that he will obtain the truly good things; but he will pray always to hold to the faith that attains and succeeds. And besides this he will pray that very many may become as like himself as possible, for the glory of God, which is perfected through full knowledge. For whoever is made like the Savior is himself a kind of savior, so far as it is lawful for human nature to receive the image, carrying out without transgression what accords with the commandments.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:469–470 · 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
Topics
Prayer, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions are Titus 1:2 and Heb 10:23.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (accent: grave on ὃ): ὅ πεπίστευκεν → ὃ πεπίστευκεν.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.9.77 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/9/77/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.9.77 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/9/77/).

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