Miscellanies 7.17.106
Summary: Heretics, like thieves who break through the church's wall with a false key, came later than the catholic church: Christ taught under Augustus and Tiberius, the apostles finished their work under Nero, but the heresiarchs arose under Hadrian and Antoninus.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Greek text · Stählin 2
Οἱ τοίνυν τῶν ἀσεβῶν ἁπτόμενοι λόγων ἄλλοις τε ἐξάρχοντες μηδὲ εὖ τοῖς λόγοις τοῖς θείοις, ἀλλὰ ἐξημαρτημένως συγχρώμενοι, οὔτε αὐτοὶ εἰσίασιν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν οὔτε οὓς ἐξηπάτησαν ἐῶσιν τυγχάνειν τῆς ἀληθείας. ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ τὴν κλεῖν ἔχοντες αὐτοὶ τῆς εἰσόδου, ψευδῆ δέ τινα καί, ὥς φησιν ἡ συνήθεια, ἀντικλεῖδα, διʼ ἧς οὐ τὴν αὐλείαν ἀναπετάσαντες, ὥσπερ ἡμεῖς διὰ τῆς τοῦ κυρίου παραδόσεως εἴσιμεν, παράθυρον δὲ ἀνατεμόντες καὶ διορύξαντες λάθρᾳ τὸ τειχίον τῆς ἐκκλησίας, ὑπερβαίνοντες τὴν ἀλήθειαν, μυσταγωγοὶ τῆς τῶν ἀσεβῶν ψυχῆς καθίστανται. ὅτι γὰρ μεταγενεστέρας τῆς καθολικῆς ἐκκλησίας τὰς ἀνθρωπίνας συνηλύσεις πεποιήκασιν, οὐ πολλῶν δεῖ λόγων. ἡ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ κυρίου κατὰ τὴν παρουσίαν διδασκαλία ἀπὸ Αὐγούστου καὶ Τιβερίου καίσαρος ἀρξαμένη μεσούντων τῶν † Αὐγούστου χρόνων τελειοῦται, ἡ δὲ τῶν ἀποστόλων αὐτοῦ μέχρι γε τῆς Παύλου λειτουργίας ἐπὶ Νέρωνος τελειοῦται, κάτω δὲ περὶ τοὺς Ἀδριανοῦ τοῦ βασιλέως χρόνους οἱ τὰς αἱρέσεις ἐπινοήσαντες γεγόνασι, καὶ μέχρι γε τῆς Ἀντωνίνου τοῦ πρεσβυτέρου διέτειναν ἡλικίας, καθάπερ ὁ Βασιλείδης, κἂν Γλαυκίαν ἐπιγράφηται διδάσκαλον, ὡς αὐχοῦσιν αὐτοί, τὸν Πέτρου ἑρμηνέα. ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ Οὐαλεντῖνον Θεοδᾶ διακηκοέναι φέρουσιν· γνώριμος δʼ οὗτος γεγόνει Παύλου.
English · Claude translation
Those, then, who take up impious words and lead others off, using the divine words not well but wrongly, neither enter the kingdom of heaven themselves nor allow those they have deceived to reach the truth. Nor do they themselves have the key of the entrance, but a false one, what common speech calls a counter-key; with it they do not open the front gate, as we enter through the Lord's tradition, but cutting a side door and secretly digging through the wall of the church, overstepping the truth, they set themselves up as initiators of the souls of the impious. For that they made their human assemblies later than the catholic church needs few words. For the Lord's teaching at his coming, beginning under Augustus and Tiberius Caesar, was completed in the middle of the times of … Augustus; that of his apostles, up to Paul's ministry at least, was completed under Nero. But those who devised the heresies came later, around the times of the emperor Hadrian, and they lasted as late as the age of Antoninus the elder, like Basilides, even if he claims as his teacher Glaucias, as they themselves boast, the interpreter of Peter. Likewise they report that Valentinus heard Theudas; and Theudas had been a pupil of Paul.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusions are Matt 23:13 / Luke 11:52 (the key) and John 10:1 (entering another way). A dagger in the edition marks “the times of Augustus” as corrupt; the sense requires Tiberius. Basilides and Valentinus were second-century gnostic teachers; Glaucias and Theudas are known only from such claims.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (misreading in the digital text (συγχρώμενοι); stray periods in the digital text): συγχμώμενοι → συγχρώμενοι; ὥς φησιν ἡ συνήθεια. ἀντικλεῖδα. διʼ ἧς → ὥς φησιν ἡ συνήθεια, ἀντικλεῖδα, διʼ ἧς.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.17.106 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/17/106/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.17.106 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/17/106/).
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