Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 7.11.68

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

Summary: Love makes the one who knows a friend and son of God, grown to full maturity; the pure soul will see God face to face forever and rest in the spiritual church.

Greek text · Stählin 2

Τούτων οὖν αἰτία ἡ ἁγιωτάτη καὶ κυριωτάτη πάσης ἐπιστήμης ἀγάπη· διὰ γὰρ τὴν τοῦ ἀρίστου καὶ ἐξοχωτάτου θεραπείαν, ὃ δὴ τῷ ἑνὶ χαρακτηρίζεται, φίλον ὁμοῦ καὶ υἱὸν τὸν γνωστικὸν ἀπεργάζεται, »τέλειον« ὡς ἀληθῶς »ἄνδρα εἰς μέτρον ἡλικίας« αὐξήσαντα. ἀλλὰ καὶ [ἡ] ὁμόνοια ἡ περὶ ταὐτὸ πρᾶγμα συγκατάθεσίς ἐστι, τὸ δὲ ταὐτὸν ἕν ἐστιν, ἥ τε φιλία διʼ ὁμοιότητος περαίνεται, τῆς κοινότητος ἐν τῷ ἑνὶ κειμένης. ὁ ἄρα γνωστικός, τοῦ ἑνὸς ὄντως θεοῦ ἀγαπητικὸς ὑπάρχων, τέλειος ὄντως ἀνὴρ καὶ φίλος τοῦ θεοῦ, ἐν υἱοῦ καταλεγεὶς τάξει. ταυτὶ γὰρ ὀνόματα εὐγενείας καὶ γνώσεως καὶ τελειότητος κατὰ τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐποπτείαν, ἣν κορυφαιοτάτην προκοπὴν ἡ γνωστικὴ ψυχὴ λαμβάνει, καθαρὰ τέλεον γενομένη, »πρόσωπον«, φησί, »πρὸς πρόσωπον« ὁρᾶν ἀιδίως καταξιουμένη τὸν παντοκράτορα θεόν. πνευματικὴ γὰρ ὅλη γενομένη πρὸς τὸ συγγενὲς χωρήσασα ἐν πνευματικῇ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ μένει εἰς τὴν ἀνάπαυσιν τοῦ θεοῦ.

English · Claude translation

The cause of these things, then, is love, the holiest and most sovereign of all understanding. For through the service of what is best and most excellent, which is marked by oneness, it makes the one who knows at once friend and son, having grown truly into “a perfect man, to the measure of stature.” Moreover, concord is agreement about the same thing, and the same is one; and friendship is achieved through likeness, since what is shared lies in the one. The one who knows, then, loving the truly one God, is a truly perfect man and a friend of God, enrolled in the rank of son. For these are names of nobility, knowledge, and perfection, in keeping with the vision of God, which the knowing soul receives as its highest advance, when it has become completely pure, being counted worthy, as Scripture says, to see the almighty God “face to face” forever. For having become wholly spiritual, and having gone to what is akin to it, it remains in the spiritual church, in the rest of God.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2 · 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
Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions are Eph 4:13 (“perfect man”), Jas 2:23 (friend of God), 1 Cor 13:12 (face to face), and Heb 4:10 (the rest of God). The bracketed ἡ is marked by Stählin for deletion.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (stray period in the digital text): ἐξοχωτάτου θεραπείαν. ὃ δὴ → ἐξοχωτάτου θεραπείαν, ὃ δὴ.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.11.68 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/11/68/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.11.68 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/11/68/).

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