The Instructor 1.6.40 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Blood is changed into milk in quality, not substance; nothing is more nourishing, sweet, or white than milk.

Greek text · Stählin 1:114

τούτῳ τῷ τρόπῳ καὶ οἱ ποταμοὶ ῥόθῳ φερόμενοι τῇ ἐμπεριλήψει τοῦ περικεχυμένου ἀέρος ξαινόμενοι ἀφρὸν μορμύρουσιν, καὶ τὸ ἐνστόμιον ἡμῶν ὑγρὸν τῷ πνεύματι ἐκλευκαίνεται. τίς οὖν ἡ ἀποκλήρωσις μὴ οὐχὶ καὶ τὸ αἷμα ἐπὶ τὸ φωτεινότατον καὶ λευκότατον ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος τρέπεσθαι ὁμολογεῖν; πάσχει δὲ τὴν μεταβολὴν κατὰ ποιότητα, οὐ κατʼ οὐσίαν. ἀμέλει γοῦν οὐ τροφιμώτερον ἄλλο τι οὐδὲ μὴν γλυκύτερον ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ λευκότερον εὕροις ἂν γάλακτος.

English · Claude translation

In this way rivers too, rushing along with a roar, are churned by the surrounding air they take in and seethe with foam; and the moisture in our mouths is whitened by breath. What objection, then, is there to admitting that blood too is changed by air to the brightest and whitest? It undergoes the change in quality, not in substance. Indeed, you could find nothing more nourishing than milk, nor sweeter, nor whiter.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 1:114 · Otto Stählin, ed., Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 1, Protrepticus und Paedagogus, GCS 12 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1905) · Greek text: Otto Stählin, Clemens Alexandrinus 1: Protrepticus und Paedagogus (GCS 12, 1905), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Stählin, GCS 12. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Stählin (1905); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.6.40 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/6/40/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.6.40 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/6/40/).