Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 3.7.57

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

Summary: Greek self-control fights desire; Christian self-control, a gift of God's grace, aims not to desire at all, as Moses fasted forty days; desire that lingers inside still sins in memory.

Greek text · Stählin 2:222

Ἡ μὲν οὖν ἀνθρωπίνη ἐγκράτεια, ἡ κατὰ τοὺς φιλοσόφους λέγω τοὺς Ἑλλήνων, τὸ διαμάχεσθαι τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ καὶ μὴ ἐξυπηρετεῖν αὐτῇ εἰς τὰ ἔργα ἐπαγγέλλεται, ἡ καθʼ ἡμᾶς δὲ τὸ μὴ ἐπιθυμεῖν, οὐχ ἵνα τις ἐπιθυμῶν καρτερῇ, ἀλλʼ ὅπως καὶ τοῦ ἐπιθυμεῖν ἐγκρατεύηται. λαβεῖν δὲ ἄλλως οὐκ ἔστι τὴν ἐγκράτειαν ταύτην ἢ χάριτι τοῦ θεοῦ. διὰ τοῦτο εἶπεν αἰτεῖτε καὶ δοθήσεται ὑμῖν. ταύτην ἔλαβεν τὴν χάριν καὶ ὁ Μωυσῆς τὸ ἐνδεὲς σῶμα περικείμενος, ἵνα τεσσαράκοντα ἡμέρας μήτε πεινάσῃ μήτε διψήσῃ. ὡς δὲ ὑγιαίνειν ἄμεινον τοῦ νοσοῦντα περὶ ὑγείας διαλέγεσθαι, οὕτω τὸ εἶναι φῶς τοῦ περὶ φωτὸς λαλεῖν καὶ ἡ κατὰ ἀλήθειαν ἐγκράτεια τῆς ὑπὸ τῶν φιλοσόφων διδασκομένης. οὐ γὰρ ὅπου φῶς, ἐκεῖ σκότος· ἔνθα δέ ἐστιν ἐπιθυμία ἐγκαθεζομένη, μόνη τυγχάνουσα, κἄν τῇ ἐνεργείᾳ ἡσυχάζῃ τῇ διὰ τοῦ σώματος, τῇ μνήμῃ συνουσιάζει πρὸς τὸ μὴ παρόν.

English · Claude translation

Human self-control, then, I mean that of the Greek philosophers, professes to fight against desire and not to serve it in deeds; but ours is not to desire at all, not that one should desire and hold out, but that one should exercise self-control even over desiring. And it is not possible to gain this self-control except by the grace of God. That is why he said, “Ask and it will be given to you.” Moses too received this grace, though clothed in a needy body, so that for forty days he was neither hungry nor thirsty. And as it is better to be healthy than to discourse about health while sick, so it is better to be light than to talk about light, and true self-control is better than that taught by the philosophers. For where light is, there is no darkness; but where desire sits within, even if it is alone, and even if it is quiet in its activity through the body, it has intercourse in memory with what is not present.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:222 · 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
Topics
Ethics, Fasting

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations and allusions are Matt 7:7 and Exod 34:28 (Deut 9:9).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.7.57 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/7/57/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.7.57 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/7/57/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage