Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 2.20.116

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

Summary: Desires darken the mind; the soul, like gold, must be purified; Barnabas says that before faith the heart was a house of demons, full of idolatry.

Greek text · Stählin 2:175–176

ἐπισκοτοῦσι γοῦν τῷ φωτὶ τῷ νοερῷ ἐπισπωμένης τῆς ψυχῆς τὰς ἐκ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἀναδόσεις καὶ παχυνούσης τὰς συστροφὰς τῶν παθῶν ἐνδελεχείᾳ ἡδονῶν. χρυσοῦ δὲ ἀπὸ γῆς οὐκ αἴρεται βῶλος, ἀλλʼ ἀφεψόμενος διυλίζεται, ἔπειτα καθαρὸς γενόμενος χρυσὸς ἀκούει, γῆ κεκαθαρμένη. αἰτεῖσθε γὰρ καὶ δοθήσεται ὑμῖν τοῖς ἐξ ἑαυτῶν ἑλέσθαι τὰ κάλλιστα δυναμένοις λέγεται. ὅπως δʼ ἡμεῖς τοῦ διαβόλου τὰς ἐνεργείας καὶ τὰ πνεύματα τὰ ἀκάθαρτα εἰς τὴν τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ ψυχὴν ἐπισπείρειν φαμέν, οὔ μοι δεῖ πλειόνων λόγων παραθεμένῳ μάρτυν τὸν ἀποστολικὸν Βαρνάβαν (ὃ δὲ τῶν ἑβδομήκοντα ἦν καὶ συνεργὸς τοῦ Παύλου) κατὰ λέξιν ὧδέ πως λέγοντα· πρὸ τοῦ ἡμᾶς πιστεῦσαι τῷ θεῷ ἦν ἡμῶν τὸ οἰκητήριον τῆς καρδίας φθαρτὸν καὶ ἀσθενές, ἀληθῶς οἰκοδομητὸς ναὸς διὰ χειρός· ὅτι ἦν πλήρης μὲν εἰδωλολατρείας καὶ ἦν οἶκος δαιμόνων, διὰ τὸ ποιεῖν ὅσα ἦν ἐναντία τῷ θεῷ.

English · Claude translation

At any rate they darken the light of the mind, the soul drawing in the vapors of desire and thickening the masses of the passions by continual pleasures. A lump of gold is not lifted from the earth, but is boiled and strained, and then, having become pure, it is called gold, earth purified. For “ask and it will be given to you” is said to those who are able to choose the best things of themselves. And as for how we say that the energies of the devil and the unclean spirits sow themselves in the sinner's soul, I need no more words, setting forth as witness the apostolic Barnabas (he was one of the Seventy and a fellow worker of Paul), who says word for word something like this: “Before we believed in God, the dwelling place of our heart was corrupt and weak, truly a temple built by hand; for it was full of idolatry and was a house of demons, because it did whatever was contrary to God.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:175–176 · 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
Extrabiblical texts
  • Barn. 16.7 (Epistle of Barnabas) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Matt 7:7 and Barn. 16.7. Clement counts Barnabas among the Seventy (Luke 10:1).

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (syllables repeated in the digital text): τοῦ διαβόλου βόλου τὰς ἐνεργείας → τοῦ διαβόλου τὰς ἐνεργείας.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.20.116 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/20/116/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.20.116 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/20/116/).

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