Miscellanies 2.3.11 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: If faith were a natural gift, there would be no praise or blame, no repentance, no baptism, no need of the Son or the Father: salvation rests on voluntary faith.

Greek text · Stählin 2:118–119

οὐκέτʼ οὖν προαιρέσεως κατόρθωμα ἡ πίστις, εἰ φύσεως πλεονέκτημα, οὐδὲ ἀμοιβῆς δικαίας τεύξεται ἀναίτιος ὢν ὁ μὴ πιστεύσας, καὶ οὐκ αἴτιος ὁ πιστεύσας, πᾶσα δὲ ἡ τῆς πίστεως καὶ ἀπιστίας ἰδιότης καὶ διαφορότης οὔτʼ ἐπαίνῳ οὔτε μὴν ψόγῳ ὑποπέσοι ἂν ὀρθῶς λογιζομένοις, προηγουμένην ἔχουσα τὴν ἐκ τοῦ τὰ πάντα δυνατοῦ φυσικὴν ἀνάγκην γενομένην· νευροσπαστουμένων δὲ ἡμῶν ἀψύχων δίκην φυσικαῖς ἐνεργείαις τό τε ἑκούσιον καὶ τὸ ἀκούσιον παρέλκει ὁρμή τε ἡ προκαθηγουμένη τούτων. καὶ οὐκέτι ἔγωγε ἐννοῶ ζῷον τοῦτο, οὗ τὸ ὁρμητικὸν ἀνάγκην λέλογχεν ὑπὸ τῆς ἔξωθεν αἰτίας κινούμενον. ποῦ δὲ ἔτι ἡ τοῦ ποτὲ ἀπίστου μετάνοια, διʼ ἣν ἄφεσις ἁμαρτιῶν; ὥστε οὐδὲ βάπτισμα ἔτι εὔλογον οὐδὲ μακαρία σφραγὶς οὐδὲ ὁ υἱὸς οὐδὲ ὁ πατήρ· ἀλλὰ θεός, οἶμαι, ἡ τῶν φύσεων αὐτοῖς εὑρίσκεται διανομή, τὸν θεμέλιον τῆς σωτηρίας, τὴν ἑκούσιον πίστιν, οὐκ ἔχουσα.

English · Claude translation

Faith, then, is no longer the achievement of choice, if it is an advantage of nature; nor will the one who does not believe receive a just recompense, being not responsible, nor is the one who believes responsible; and the whole distinctiveness and difference of faith and unbelief would fall neither under praise nor blame, if one reasons rightly, having as its antecedent a natural necessity coming from the one who can do all things. And if we are pulled by strings like lifeless puppets by natural forces, the voluntary and the involuntary become superfluous, and so does the impulse that leads them. I no longer understand this to be a living being, whose impulse has been allotted necessity, moved by an external cause. Where, further, is the repentance of the one who was once unbelieving, through which comes forgiveness of sins? So neither is baptism reasonable any longer, nor the blessed seal, nor the Son, nor the Father; but God, I think, turns out for them to be the distribution of natures, lacking the foundation of salvation, voluntary faith.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:118–119 · 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

Heresy, Baptism

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.3.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/3/11/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.3.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/3/11/).