Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 2.5.20

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

Summary: The Greek doctrine that the wise man possesses all things and is dear to God comes from Moses: Abraham was God's friend, Jacob saw God, Isaac was a type of Christ's sacrifice, and God spoke with Moses as with a friend.

Greek text · Stählin 2:123

Πάντα τοίνυν τὰ προειρημένα φαίνεται παρὰ Μωυσέως τοῦ μεγάλου ἐπὶ τοὺς Ἕλληνας διαδεδόσθαι δόγματα. πάντα μὲν οὖν τοῦ σοφοῦ ὑπάρχειν διὰ τούτων διδάσκει· καὶ διότι ἠλέησέν με ὁ θεός, ἔστι μοι πάντα. θεοφιλῆ δὲ αὐτὸν μηνύει λέγων· θεὸς Ἀβραάμ, θεὸς Ἰσαάκ, θεὸς Ἰακώβ. ὃ μὲν γὰρ φίλος ἄντικρυς κεκλημένος εὑρίσκεται, ὃ δὲ ὁρῶν τὸν θεὸν μετωνομασμένος δείκνυται· τόν τε Ἰσαὰκ ὡς καθωσιωμένον ἱερεῖον ἀλληγορήσας ἐξελέξατο ἑαυτῷ τύπον ἐσόμενον ἡμῖν οἰκονομίας σωτηρίου. παρά τε Ἕλλησιν ᾄδεται ὁ Μίνως ἐννέωρος βασιλεὺς ὀαριστὴς Διός, ἀκηκοότων αὐτῶν, ὅπως ποτὲ μετὰ Μωυσέως διελέγετο ὁ θεός, ὡς εἴ τις λαλήσαι πρὸς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ φίλον.

English · Claude translation

All the doctrines mentioned above appear, then, to have been handed down from the great Moses to the Greeks. He teaches that all things belong to the wise man by these words: “And because God has had mercy on me, I have all things.” And he shows him to be dear to God, saying: “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.” For the one is found expressly called a friend, the other is shown to have been renamed “the one who sees God”; and Isaac, allegorized as a consecrated sacrifice, he chose for himself to be a type for us of the plan of salvation. And among the Greeks Minos is sung as a king “who at nine years old conversed with Zeus,” since they had heard how God once talked with Moses, “as one would speak to his own friend.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:123 · 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
  • Homer, Od. 19.179 (Homer, Odyssey) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Christology, Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Gen 33:11 (LXX), Exod 3:6, Homer, Odyssey 19.179, and Exod 33:11. The allusions are Isa 41:8 and Gen 32:28–30.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.5.20 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/5/20/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.5.20 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/5/20/).

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