Miscellanies 7.12.78
Summary: The one who knows shares others' sufferings, gives even from his own need, lives as a stranger on earth ready for death, does everything in holiness whether eating, drinking, or marrying, and prays together with the angels and saints.
Greek text · Stählin 2
Ἡγεῖται γοῦν τὴν ἀλγηδόνα ἐκείνου ἴδιον ἄλγημα· κἂν ἐκ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ἐνδείας παρεχόμενος διʼ εὐποιίαν πάθῃ τι δύσκολον, οὐ δυσχεραίνει ἐπὶ τούτῳ, προσαύξει δὲ ἔτι μᾶλλον τὴν εὐεργεσίαν. ἔχει γὰρ ἄκρατον πίστιν τὴν περὶ τῶν πραγμάτων, τὸ εὐαγγέλιον διʼ ἔργων καὶ θεωρίας ἐπαινῶν. καὶ δὴ »οὐ τὸν ἔπαινον παρὰ ἀνθρώπων, ἀλλὰ παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ« καρποῦται, ἃ ἐδίδαξεν ὁ κύριος, ταῦτα ἐπιτελῶν. οὗτος περισπώμενος ὑπὸ τῆς ἰδίας ἐλπίδος οὐ γεύεται τῶν ἐν κόσμῳ καλῶν, πάντων τῶν ἐνταῦθα καταμεγαλοφρονῶν· οἰκτείρων τοὺς μετὰ θάνατον παιδευομένους διὰ τῆς κολάσεως ἀκουσίως ἐξομολογουμένους, εὐσυνείδητος πρὸς τὴν ἔξοδον καὶ ἀεὶ ἕτοιμος ὤν, ὡς ἂν »παρεπίδημος καὶ ξένος« τῶν τῇδε, κληρονομημάτων μόνων τῶν ἰδίων μεμνημένος, τὰ δὲ ἐνταῦθα πάντα ἀλλότρια ἡγούμενος· οὐ μόνον θαυμάζων τὰς τοῦ κυρίου ἐντολάς, ἀλλʼ ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν διʼ αὐτῆς τῆς γνώσεως μέτοχος ὢν τῆς θείας βουλήσεως, οἰκεῖος ὄντως τοῦ κυρίου καὶ τῶν ἐντολῶν, ἐξειλεγμένος ὡς δίκαιος. ἡγεμονικὸς δὲ καὶ βασιλικὸς ὡς [ὁ] γνωστικός, χρυσὸν μὲν πάντα τὸν ἐπὶ γῆς καὶ ὑπὸ γῆν καὶ βασιλείαν τὴν ἀπὸ περάτων ἐπὶ πέρατα ὠκεανοῦ ὑπερορῶν, ὡς μόνης τῆς τοῦ κυρίου ἀντέχεσθαι θεραπείας. διὸ καὶ ἐσθίων καὶ πίνων καὶ γαμῶν, ἐὰν ὁ λόγος αἱρῇ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὀνείρους βλέπων τὰ ἅγια ποιεῖ καὶ νοεῖ· ταύτῃ καθαρὸς εἰς εὐχὴν πάντοτε. ὃ δὲ καὶ μετʼ ἀγγέλων εὔχεται, ὡς ἂν ἤδη καὶ »ἰσάγγελος«. οὐδὲ ἔξω ποτὲ τῆς ἁγίας φρουρᾶς γίνεται· κἂν μόνος εὔχηται, τὸν τῶν ἁγίων χορὸν συνιστάμενον ἔχει. Διττὴν οὗτος οἶδε πίστιν, καὶ τὴν μὲν τοῦ πιστεύοντος ἐνέργειαν, τὴν δὲ τοῦ πιστευομένου τὴν κατʼ ἀξίαν ὑπεροχήν, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἡ δικαιοσύνη διπλῆ.
English · Claude translation
He counts that man's pain as his own suffering; and if, giving out of his own want in order to do good, he suffers some hardship, he does not complain about it, but increases his generosity all the more. For he has an undiluted faith about the realities, praising the gospel by works and by contemplation. And indeed he reaps “praise not from men but from God,” by carrying out what the Lord taught. Absorbed in his own hope, he does not taste the good things of the world, looking down on everything here; he pities those who are disciplined after death through punishment and confess against their will; he has a good conscience about his departure and is always ready, as a “sojourner and stranger” to the things here, mindful only of his own inheritance and counting everything here foreign to him. He not only admires the Lord's commandments, but, so to speak, through knowledge itself he shares in the divine will, truly an intimate of the Lord and of the commandments, chosen as righteous. He is ruling and royal as one who knows, looking down on all the gold on the earth and under the earth, and on dominion from one end of the ocean to the other, so as to cling to the service of the Lord alone. That is why, whether eating, drinking, or marrying, if reason chooses it, and even when he sees dreams, he does and thinks holy things; so he is always pure for prayer. He also prays with angels, as being already “equal to the angels.” He is never outside the holy guard; even if he prays alone, he has the chorus of the saints standing with him. He knows that faith is twofold: the activity of the one who believes, and the pre-eminence, according to its worth, of what is believed; since righteousness too is twofold,
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusions are Rom 2:29 (“praise not from men but from God”), 1 Pet 2:11, 1 Cor 10:31 (eating and drinking), and Luke 20:36 (“equal to the angels”). The reference to those disciplined after death reflects Clement's view that punishment after death is corrective. The bracketed ὁ is marked by Stählin for deletion.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (misreading in the digital text (ἰδίων); stray period and misreading in the digital text (πιστευομένου); stray period in the digital text): τῶν ἐδίων → τῶν ἰδίων; καὶ γαμῶν. ἐὰν ὁ λόγος αἱρῇ → καὶ γαμῶν, ἐὰν ὁ λόγος αἱρῇ; μετʼ ἀγγέλων εὔχεται. ὡς ἂν → μετʼ ἀγγέλων εὔχεται, ὡς ἂν; κἂν μόνος εὔχηται. τὸν → κἂν μόνος εὔχηται, τὸν; τοῦ πιστεύοντος ἐνέργειαν. τὴν δὲ τοῦ πιστενομένου → τοῦ πιστεύοντος ἐνέργειαν, τὴν δὲ τοῦ πιστευομένου.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.12.78 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/12/78/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.12.78 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/12/78/).
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