Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 2.14.61

Clement of Alexandria · Miscellanies · ca. 198–203 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: The law distinguished involuntary from voluntary offenses; spiritually understood, the one who cannot restrain the generative word, the idle talker, is to blame; God judges the intention, as Lot's wife shows.

Greek text · Stählin 2:146

Ἐκράτει μὲν οὖν ὁ νόμος τότε καὶ τὸν ἀκουσίως φονεύσαντα ὡς τὸν ἀκουσίως γονορρυῆ, ἀλλʼ οὐ κατʼ ἴσον τῷ ἑκουσίως. καίτοι κἀκεῖνος ὡς ἐπὶ ἑκουσίῳ κολασθήσεται, εἴ τις μεταγάγοι τὸ πάθος ἐπὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν· τῷ ὄντι γὰρ κολαστέος ὁ ἀκρατὴς τοῦ γονίμου λόγου. ὃ καὶ αὐτὸ πάθος ἐστὶ ψυχῆς ἄλογον, ἐγγὺς ἀδολεσχίας ἰόν· πιστὸς δὲ ᾕρηται πνοῇ κρύπτειν πράγματα. τὰ προαιρετικὰ τοίνυν κρίνεται. κύριος γὰρ ἐτάζει καρδίας καὶ νεφρούς· καὶ ὁ ἐμβλέψας πρὸς ἐπιθυμίαν κρίνεται. διὸ μηδὲ ἐπιθυμήσῃς λέγει καὶ ὁ λαὸς οὗτος τοῖς χείλεσί με τιμᾷ φησίν, ἡ δὲ καρδία αὐτῶν πόρρω ἐστὶν ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ. εἰς αὐτὴν γὰρ ἀφορᾷ τὴν γνώμην ὁ θεός, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὴν Λὼτ γυναῖκα ἐπιστραφεῖσαν μόνον ἑκουσίως ἐπὶ τὴν κακίαν τὴν κοσμικὴν κατέλιπεν ἀναίσθητον, ὡς λίθον δείξας ἁλατίνην καὶ στήσας εἰς τὸ μὴ πρόσω χωρεῖν, οὐ μωρὰν καὶ ἄπρακτον εἰκόνα, ἀρτῦσαι δὲ καὶ στῦψαι τὸν πνευματικῶς διορᾶν δυνάμενον.

English · Claude translation

The law at that time held liable even the one who killed involuntarily, as it did the one who had an involuntary emission, but not equally with the one who acted voluntarily. And yet even he will be punished as for a voluntary act, if one transfers the condition to the truth; for truly the one who has no control over the generative word is to be punished. This too is an irrational passion of the soul, bordering on idle talk; but “the faithful one has chosen to hide matters in his breath.” Deliberate acts, then, are judged. For “the Lord examines hearts and kidneys”; and “the one who looks with desire” is judged. That is why it says, “You shall not desire”; and “This people honors me with their lips,” it says, “but their heart is far from me.” For God looks at the intention itself, since also Lot's wife, who only turned back willingly toward worldly vice, he left without sense, showing her as a pillar of salt and fixing her so that she could not go farther, not a foolish and useless image, but one to season and preserve the one able to see spiritually.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:146 · Otto Stählin, ed., Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 2, Stromata Buch I–VI, GCS 15 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1906); vol. 3, Stromata Buch VII und VIII, GCS 17 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909) · Greek text: Otto Stählin, Clemens Alexandrinus 2–3 (GCS 15, 17, 1906–1909), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Stählin, GCS 15, 17. 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), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Stählin (1906–1909); 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) · Book 3 is left partly untranslated (in Latin) there.
Scripture
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions and quotations are Num 35:11, Lev 15:2, Prov 11:13 (LXX), Ps 7:9 (7:10 LXX; Jer 17:10), Matt 5:28, Exod 20:17, Isa 29:13 (Matt 15:8), and Gen 19:26. Clement allegorizes the emission of seed as uncontrolled speech (the “generative word”).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.14.61 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/14/61/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.14.61 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/14/61/).

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