Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 2.16.72

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

Summary: Critics say joy and pity are passions; but we err if we read Scripture's language about God in a fleshly way, for the prophets spoke as we could hear, the Lord accommodating himself to human weakness.

Greek text · Stählin 2:151

Ἐνταῦθα πάλιν ἐπιφύονται οἱ κατήγοροι χαρὰν καὶ λύπην πάθη ψυχῆς λέγοντες· τὴν μὲν γὰρ χαρὰν εὔλογον ἔπαρσιν ἀποδιδόασι καὶ τὸ ἀγάλλεσθαι χαίρειν ἐπὶ καλοῖς, τὸ δὲ ἔλεος λύπην ἐπὶ ἀναξίως κακοπαθοῦντι, τροπὰς δὲ εἶναι ψυχῆς καὶ πάθη τὰ τοιαῦτα. ἡμεῖς δέ, ὡς ἔοικεν, οὐ παυόμεθα τὰ τοιαῦτα σαρκικῶς νοοῦντες τὰς γραφὰς καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν ἡμετέρων παθῶν ἀναγόμενοι, τὸ βούλημα τοῦ ἀπαθοῦς θεοῦ ὁμοίως τοῖς ἡμεδαποῖς κινήμασιν ἀπεκδεχόμενοι· ὡς δʼ ἡμεῖς ἀκοῦσαι δυνατοί, οὕτως ἔχειν ἐπὶ τοῦ παντοκράτορος ὑπολαμβάνοντες, ἀθέως πλανώμεθα. οὐ γὰρ ὡς ἔχει τὸ θεῖον, οὕτως οἷόν τε ἦν λέγεσθαι· ἀλλʼ ὡς οἷόν τε ἦν ἐπαΐειν ἡμᾶς σαρκὶ πεπεδημένους, οὕτως ἡμῖν ἐλάλησαν οἱ προφῆται συμπεριφερομένου σωτηρίως τῇ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀσθενείᾳ τοῦ κυρίου.

English · Claude translation

Here again the accusers fasten on us, saying that joy and grief are passions of the soul. For they define joy as a reasonable elation, and exultation as rejoicing at good things, and pity as grief at one suffering undeservedly; and such things, they say, are changes and passions of the soul. But we, it seems, do not stop understanding such things in the Scriptures in a fleshly way, and, starting from our own passions, taking the will of the passionless God to be like our own movements; and, supposing that it is with the Almighty as we are able to hear, we err godlessly. For the divine could not be spoken of as it is; but as we, fettered by flesh, were able to listen, so the prophets spoke to us, the Lord accommodating himself for our salvation to human weakness.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:151 · 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.
Topics
Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

  • The definitions of joy and pity are Stoic.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.16.72 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/16/72/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.16.72 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/16/72/).

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