2 Clement 20.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:160–162

εἰ γὰρ τὸν μισθὸν τῶν δικαίων ὁ θεὸς συντόμως ἀπεδίδου, εὐθέως ἐμπορίαν ἠσκοῦμεν καὶ οὐ θεοσέβειαν· ἐδοκοῦμεν γὰρ εἶναι δίκαιοι, οὐ τὸ εὐσεβές, ἀλλὰ τὸ κερδαλέον διώκοντες. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο θεία κρίσις ἔβλαψεν πνεῦμα μὴ ὂν δίκαιον, καὶ ἐβάρυνεν δεσμοῖς.

English · Claude translation

For if God paid the wages of the righteous immediately, we would at once be practicing commerce and not godliness; for we would seem to be righteous while pursuing not what is godly but what is profitable. And for this reason divine judgment has harmed a spirit that is not righteous, and loaded it with chains.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:160–162 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, LCL 24 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912), 128–161 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912-1913), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 24, 1912); made independently of existing English translations.

Notes

Translation notes

The last sentence is obscure; it may refer to a particular person or to the fallen angels.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong accent)): μὴ ὃν δίκαιον → μὴ ὂν δίκαιον.