Miscellanies 2.6.30
Summary: Faith is not cheap: if it were merely human it would have died out, but it grows everywhere; whether born of love or fear, it is divine; fear, the law's schoolmaster, itself depends on faith.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Greek text · Stählin 2:129
οὔκουν † ἔτʼ εἰκότως πρόχειρον τὴν πίστιν διαβλητέον ὡς εὔκολόν τε καὶ πάνδημον καὶ προσέτι τῶν τυχόντων. εἰ γὰρ ἀνθρώπινον ἦν τὸ ἐπιτήδευμα, ὡς Ἕλληνες ὑπέλαβον, κἂν ἀπέσβη· ἣ δὲ αὔξει καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἔνθα οὐκ ἔστιν. φημὶ τοίνυν τὴν πίστιν, εἴτε ὑπὸ ἀγάπης ἐθεμελιώθη εἴτε καὶ ὑπὸ φόβου, ᾗ φασιν οἱ κατήγοροι, θεῖόν τι εἶναι, μήτε ὑπὸ ἄλλης φιλίας κοσμικῆς διασπωμένην μήτε ὑπὸ φόβου παρόντος διαλυομένην. ἡ μὲν γὰρ ἀγάπη τῇ πρὸς τὴν πίστιν φιλίᾳ τοὺς πιστοὺς ποιεῖ, ἡ δὲ πίστις ἕδρασμα ἀγάπης ἀντεπάγουσα τὴν εὐποιίαν, ὅτε καὶ ὁ τοῦ νόμου παιδαγωγὸς φόβος ἀφʼ ὧν πιστεύεται. καὶ φόβος εἶναι πιστεύεται. εἰ γὰρ ἐν τῷ ἐνεργεῖν τὸ εἶναι δείκνυται. ὃ δὲ μέλλων καὶ ἀπειλῶν, οὐχὶ δὲ ἐνεργῶν καὶ παρών, πιστεύεται καὶ τὸ εἶναι πιστευόμενος οὐκ αὐτὸς τῆς πίστεως γεννητικός, ὅ γε πρὸς αὐτῆς ἀξιόπιστος εἶναι δοκιμασθείς.
English · Claude translation
So we must not … fittingly slander faith as something ready to hand, easy, and common, belonging to ordinary people. For if the pursuit were human, as the Greeks supposed, it would have been extinguished; but it grows, and there is no place where it is not. I say, then, that faith, whether founded by love or by fear, as its accusers say, is something divine, neither torn away by other worldly friendship nor dissolved by present fear. For love makes believers by friendship toward faith, and faith, the foundation of love, brings in turn good deeds; when fear too, the law's schoolmaster, is believed from its effects. Fear too is believed to exist. For if existence is shown in acting, then fear, which is about to act and threatens, not acting and present, is believed; and, believed to exist, it is not itself the begetter of faith, since it is by faith that it is proved trustworthy.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The text is corrupt at the beginning (dagger). The allusion is Gal 3:24.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.6.30 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/6/30/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.6.30 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/6/30/).
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