Miscellanies 7.3.18
Summary: The one who knows is courageous, indifferent to praise and blame, calm and self-controlled, rich in wanting nothing, and just in loving to live with his fellow believers on earth and in heaven.
Greek text · Stählin 2
εἴδη δὲ τῆς ἀνδρείας καρτερία, μεγαλοφροσύνη, μεγαλοψυχία, ἐλευθεριότης καὶ μεγαλοπρέπεια. [καὶ] διʼ ἣν αἰτίαν οὔτε μέμψεως οὔτε κακοδοξίας τῆς ἐκ τῶν πολλῶν ἀντιλαμβάνεται ὁ γνωστικὸς οὔτε δόξαις οὔτε κολακείαις ὑποβέβληται, ἔν τε τῷ ὑπομένειν πόνους, διαπραττόμενος ἅμα τι τῶν προσηκόντων καὶ ἀνδρείως ὑπεράνω πάντων τῶν περιστατικῶν γινόμενος, ἀνὴρ τῷ ὄντι ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀναφαίνεται ἀνθρώποις· σῴζων τε αὖ τὴν φρόνησιν σωφρονεῖ ἐν ἡσυχιότητι τῆς ψυχῆς, παραδεκτικὸς τῶν ἐπαγγελλομένων καλῶν ὡς οἰκείων κατὰ τὴν ἀποστροφὴν τῶν αἰσχρῶν ὡς ἀλλοτρίων, γενόμενος κόσμιος καὶ ὑπερκόσμιος, ἐν κόσμῳ καὶ τάξει πάντα πράσσων καὶ οὐδὲν οὐδαμῇ πλημμελῶν, πλουτῶν μὲν ὡς ὅτι μάλιστα ἐν τῷ μηδενὸς ἐπιθυμεῖν, ἅτε ὀλιγοδεὴς ὢν καὶ ἐν περιουσίᾳ παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ διὰ τὴν γνῶσιν τἀγαθοῦ. δικαιοσύνης γὰρ αὐτοῦ πρῶτον ἔργον τὸ μετὰ τῶν ὁμοφύλων φιλεῖν διάγειν καὶ συνεῖναι τούτοις ἔν τε γῇ καὶ οὐρανῷ.
English · Claude translation
The kinds of courage are endurance, high-mindedness, greatness of soul, liberality, and magnificence. For this reason the one who knows does not take notice of blame or of ill repute from the many, and he is not subject to opinions or to flatteries. In enduring toils, while accomplishing at the same time something fitting and rising courageously above all hardships, he shows himself truly a man among other human beings. And again, keeping prudence, he is self-restrained in the calm of his soul, receptive of the promised good things as his own, just as he turns away from shameful things as alien to him; he becomes orderly and above the world, doing everything in order and rank and in no way ever going wrong; rich as much as can be in desiring nothing, since he needs little and has an abundance of every good through his knowledge of the Good. For the first work of his justice is to love to spend his life with those of his own kind and to be with them both on earth and in heaven.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “Truly a man” plays on ἀνδρεία “courage” (literally “manliness”). The bracketed “and” is marked by Stählin for deletion.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.3.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/3/18/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.3.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/3/18/).
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