Miscellanies 7.4.27
Summary: True purity is not ritual washing but a clear conscience and abstaining from sin; so souls must first be cleansed of false opinions before receiving the true teaching.
Greek text · Stählin 2
Εὖ γὰρ καὶ ὁ Μένανδρος· εἰ μέν τι κακὸν ἀληθὲς εἶχες, Φειδία, ζητεῖν ἀληθὲς φάρμακον τούτου σʼ ἔδει. νῦν δʼ οὐκ ἔχεις· κενὸν εὑρὲ καὶ τὸ φάρμακον πρὸς τὸ κενόν· οἰήθητι δὲ ὠφελεῖν τί σε. περιμαξάτωσάν σε αἱ γυναῖκες ἐν κύκλῳ καὶ περιθεωσάτωσαν· ἀπὸ κρουνῶν τριῶν ὕδατι περίρραναι ἐμβαλὼν ἅλας, φακούς. πᾶς ἁγνός ἐστιν ὁ μηδὲν ἑαυτῷ κακὸν συνειδώς. Αὐτίκα ἡ τραγῳδία λέγει· Ὀρέστα, τίς σε ἀπόλλυσιν νόσος; Ἡ σύνεσις, ὅτι σύνοιδα δεινὰ εἰργασμένος. τῷ γὰρ ὄντι ἡ ἁγνεία οὐκ ἄλλη τίς ἐστιν πλὴν ἡ τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἀποχή. Καλῶς ἄρα καὶ Ἐπίχαρμός φησι· καθαρὸν ἂν τὸν νοῦν ἔχῃς, ἅπαν τὸ σῶμα καθαρὸς εἶ. Αὐτίκα καὶ τὰς ψυχὰς προκαθαίρειν χρεών φαμεν ἀπὸ τῶν φαύλων καὶ μοχθηρῶν δογμάτων διὰ τοῦ λόγου τοῦ ὀρθοῦ, καὶ τότε οὕτως ἐπὶ τὴν τῶν προηγουμένων κεφαλαίων ὑπόμνησιν τρέπεσθαι, ἐπεὶ καὶ πρὸ τῆς τῶν μυστηρίων παραδόσεως καθαρμούς τινας προσάγειν τοῖς μυεῖσθαι μέλλουσιν ἀξιοῦσιν, ὡς δέον τὴν ἄθεον ἀποθεμένους δόξαν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀληθῆ τρέπεσθαι παράδοσιν.
English · Claude translation
For Menander also says well: “If you had some real ill, Phidias, you would need to seek a real remedy for it. But now you do not; so find an empty remedy for the empty ill, and imagine that it does you some good. Let the women wipe you around in a circle and fumigate you with sulfur; sprinkle yourself with water from three springs, throwing in salt and lentils. Everyone is pure who is conscious of no evil in himself.” Indeed, the tragedy says: “Orestes, what sickness is destroying you?” “Conscience, because I know I have done terrible things.” For in truth purity is nothing else than abstaining from sins. Epicharmus, then, says well: “If you have a pure mind, you are pure in all your body.” So we say that souls too must first be purified from worthless and wicked opinions through right reason, and only then turn to the recollection of the principal heads of doctrine; since also before the handing on of the mysteries they think it right to apply certain purifications to those who are about to be initiated, because one must put off godless opinion before turning to the true tradition.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The verses are Menander (fragment 530 Kock, from The Apparition), Euripides, Orestes 395–396, and Epicharmus (fragment 26 Diels–Kranz). Proposed new extrabiblical entry: Epicharmus.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray period in the digital text; stray periods in the digital text): εἶχες. Φειδία. ζητεῖν → εἶχες, Φειδία, ζητεῖν; Ὀρέστα. τίς → Ὀρέστα, τίς; Ἡ σύνεσις. ὅτι → Ἡ σύνεσις, ὅτι.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.4.27 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/4/27/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.4.27 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/4/27/).
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