Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.12.81

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

Summary: Basilides taught that martyrs suffer for hidden sins, mercifully under the name of Christians; even the apparently sinless suffer, as infants do, not by a hostile power.

Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.

Greek text · Stählin 2:284

Βασιλείδης δὲ ἐν τῷ εἰκοστῷ τρίτῳ τῶν Ἐξηγητικῶν περὶ τῶν κατὰ τὸ μαρτύριον κολαζομένων αὐταῖς λέξεσι τάδε φησί· φημὶ γάρ τοι, ὁπόσοι ὑποπίπτουσι ταῖς λεγομέναις θλίψεσιν, ἤτοι ἡμαρτηκότες ἐν ἄλλοις λανθάνοντες πταίσμασιν εἰς τοῦτο ἄγονται τὸ ἀγαθόν, χρηστότητι τοῦ περιάγοντος ἄλλα ἐξ ἄλλων ὄντως ἐγκαλούμενοι, ἵνα μὴ ὡς κατάδικοι ἐπὶ κακοῖς ὁμολογουμένοις πάθωσι, μηδὲ λοιδορούμενοι ὡς ὁ μοιχὸς ἢ ὁ φονεύς, ἀλλʼ ὅτι Χριστιανοὶ † πεφυκότες, ὅπερ αὐτοὺς παρηγορήσει μηδὲ πάσχειν δοκεῖν· κἂν μὴ ἡμαρτηκὼς δʼ ὅλως τις ἐπὶ τὸ παθεῖν γένηται, σπάνιον μέν, ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ οὗτος κατʼ ἐπιβουλὴν δυνάμεώς τι πείσεται, ἀλλὰ πείσεται ὡς ἔπασχε καὶ τὸ νήπιον τὸ δοκοῦν οὐχ ἡμαρτηκέναι.

English · Claude translation

Basilides, in the twenty-third book of his Exegetica, says this in these very words about those punished in martyrdom: “For I say that all who fall under the so-called afflictions have either sinned in other offenses without being found out and are brought to this good by the kindness of the one who leads them about, being in fact accused of other things, so that they may not suffer as condemned for acknowledged crimes, nor be reviled as the adulterer or the murderer, but because they are … Christians; which will comfort them so that they do not even seem to suffer. And even if someone who has not sinned at all comes to suffering, which is rare, not even he will suffer anything through the plotting of some power, but he will suffer as the infant too suffers, who seems not to have sinned.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:284 · 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; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.
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.
Topics
Martyrdom, Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • This is Basilides, Exegetica book 23 (fragment), preserved only here. The text is corrupt at one point (dagger).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.12.81 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/12/81/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.12.81 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/12/81/).

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