Miscellanies 4.11.78 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 2:283

Ναί, φασίν, εἰ κήδεται ὑμῶν ὁ θεός, τί δήποτε διώκεσθε καὶ φονεύεσθε; ἢ αὐτὸς ὑμᾶς εἰς τοῦτο ἐκδίδωσιν; ἡμεῖς δὲ οὐχ οὕτως ὑπολαμβάνομεν τοῖς περιστατικοῖς περιπίπτειν ἡμᾶς τὸν κύριον βουληθῆναι, ἀλλὰ προφητικῶς τὰ συμβήσεσθαι μέλλοντα προειρηκέναι, ὡς διὰ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ διωχθησόμεθα, φονευθησόμεθα, ἀνασκινδυλευθησόμεθα. ὥστʼ οὐ διώκεσθαι ἠθέλησεν ἡμᾶς, ἀλλʼ ἃ πεισόμεθα προεμήνυσεν, διὰ τῆς τοῦ συμβήσεσθαι προαγορεύσεως εἰς καρτερίαν γυμνάσας, ᾗ τὴν κληρονομίαν ἐπηγγείλατο. καίτοι οὐ μόνοι, ἀλλὰ μετὰ πολλῶν κολαζόμεθα. ἀλλʼ ἐκεῖνοι, φασί, κακοῦργοι τυγχάνοντες δικαίως ὑπίσχουσι τὴν τιμωρίαν.

English · Claude translation

“Yes,” they say, “if God cares for you, why are you persecuted and killed? Or does he himself hand you over to this?” But we do not suppose that the Lord wished us to fall into these circumstances, but that he foretold prophetically what was going to happen: that we would be persecuted for his name, killed, impaled. So he did not wish us to be persecuted, but made known beforehand what we will suffer, training us for endurance by foretelling what would happen, to which he promised the inheritance. And yet we are not punished alone, but with many. “But those,” they say, “being criminals, justly undergo punishment.”

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:283 · 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

Matt 10:22 · allusion, high confidence
Matt 24:9 · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Persecution, Martyrdom

Notes

Translation notes

The allusion is Matt 10:22 and 24:9.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (stray period in the digital text): ὡς διὰ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ διωχθησόμεθα. φονευθησόμεθα, → ὡς διὰ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ διωχθησόμεθα, φονευθησόμεθα,.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.11.78 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/11/78/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.11.78 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/11/78/).