Miscellanies 2.7.32
Summary: To attack fear is to attack the law and the God who gave it; without law, desire rules; the fear the commandments inspire is not irrational but rational, whatever the philosophers call it.
Greek text · Stählin 2:130
Οἱ δὲ τοῦ φόβου κατηγοροῦντες κατατρέχουσι τοῦ νόμου, εἰ δὲ τοῦ νόμου, δῆλόν που ὡς καὶ τοῦ δεδωκότος τὸν νόμον θεοῦ. τρία γὰρ ταῦτα ἐξ ἀνάγκης ὑφέστηκεν περὶ τὸ ὑποκείμενον, ὁ διοικῶν, ἡ διοίκησις, τὸ διοικούμενον. εἰ γοῦν καθʼ ὑπόθεσιν ἐξέλοιεν τὸν νόμον, ἀνάγκη δήπου ἕκαστον ὃς ἄγεται ὑπὸ ἐπιθυμίας, ἡδονῇ χαριζόμενον ἀμελεῖν μὲν τοῦ καλῶς ἔχοντος, ὑπερφρονεῖν δὲ τοῦ θείου, ἀσεβεῖν δὲ ἅμα καὶ ἀδικεῖν ἀδεῶς ἀποσκιρτήσαντα τῆς ἀληθείας. ναί, φασίν, ἄλογος ἔκκλισις ὁ φόβος ἐστὶ καὶ πάθος. τί σὺ λέγεις; καὶ πῶς ἄν σοι ἔτι σῴζοιτο οὗτος ὁ ὅρος διὰ λόγου δοθείσης μοι τῆς ἐντολῆς; ἐντολὴ δὲ ἀπαγορεύει, τὸν φόβον ἐπαρτῶσα διὰ παιδείαν τῶν οὕτως ἐπιδεχομένων νουθετεῖσθαι. οὐ τοίνυν ἄλογος ὁ φόβος, λογικὸς μὲν οὖν· πῶς γὰρ οὔ, παραινῶν οὐ φονεύσεις, οὐ μοιχεύσεις, οὐ κλέψεις, οὐ ψευδομαρτυρήσεις; ἀλλʼ εἰ σοφίζονται τὰ ὀνόματα, εὐλάβειαν καλούντων οἱ φιλόσοφοι τὸν τοῦ νόμου φόβον.
English · Claude translation
Those who accuse fear attack the law; and if the law, then clearly also God who gave the law. For these three things necessarily exist in relation to the subject: the one who governs, the governing, and the governed. If, then, by hypothesis they should take away the law, it would necessarily follow that each one who is led by desire, gratifying pleasure, would neglect what is right, despise the divine, and at the same time act impiously and unjustly without fear, having leapt away from the truth. “Yes,” they say, “fear is an irrational avoidance and a passion.” What are you saying? And how will this definition still hold for you, when the commandment has been given me through the Word? The commandment forbids, hanging fear over us for the training of those who thus accept being admonished. Fear, then, is not irrational; it is rational. For how could it not be, when it exhorts, “You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness”? But if they quibble about names, let the philosophers call the fear of the law “caution,”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “Irrational avoidance” is the Stoic definition of fear; “caution” (εὐλάβεια), “reasonable avoidance,” is the Stoic good emotion corresponding to it. The quotation is Exod 20:13–16.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.7.32 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/7/32/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.7.32 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/7/32/).
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