Miscellanies 4.12.88
Summary: If martyrs suffer for sins in a former life by providence, then either the persecutors act justly or persecution is God's will; the Basilidian theory destroys itself.
Greek text · Stählin 2:286–287
εἰ τοίνυν ἀπολογούμενός τις αὐτῶν λέγοι κολάζεσθαι μὲν τὸν μάρτυρα διὰ τὰς πρὸ τῆσδε τῆς ἐνσωματώσεως ἁμαρτίας, τὸν καρπὸν δὲ τῆς κατὰ τόνδε τὸν βίον πολιτείας αὖθις ἀπολήψεσθαι, οὕτω γὰρ διατετάχθαι τὴν διοίκησιν, πευσόμεθα αὐτοῦ, εἰ ἐκ προνοίας γίνεται ἡ ἀνταπόδοσις· εἰ μὲν γὰρ μὴ εἴη τῆς θείας διοικήσεως, οἴχεται ἡ οἰκονομία τῶν καθαρσίων καὶ πέπτωκεν ἡ ὑπόθεσις αὐτοῖς, εἰ δὲ ἐκ προνοίας τὰ καθάρσια, ἐκ προνοίας καὶ αἱ κολάσεις. ἡ πρόνοια δὲ εἰ καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἄρχοντος, ὥς φασιν, κινεῖσθαι ἄρχεται, ἀλλʼ ἐγκατεσπάρη ταῖς οὐσίαις σὺν καὶ τῇ τῶν οὐσιῶν γενέσει πρὸς τοῦ θεοῦ τῶν ὅλων. ὧν οὕτως ἐχόντων ἀνάγκη ὁμολογεῖν αὐτοὺς ἢ τὴν κόλασιν μὴ εἶναι ἄδικον (καὶ δικαιοπραγοῦσιν οἱ καταδικάζοντες καὶ διώκοντες τοὺς μάρτυρας) ἢ ἐκ θελήματος ἐνεργεῖσθαι τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τοὺς διωγμούς. οὐκέτι οὖν ὁ πόνος καὶ ὁ φόβος, ὡς αὐτοὶ λέγουσιν, ἐπισυμβαίνει τοῖς πράγμασιν ὡς ὁ ἰὸς τῷ σιδήρῳ, ἀλλʼ ἐκ βουλήσεως ἰδίας προσέρχεται τῇ ψυχῇ.
English · Claude translation
If, then, one of them should say in defense that the martyr is punished for sins before this embodiment, but will receive again the fruit of his conduct in this life, for so the government has been ordered, we will ask him whether the requital comes about by providence. For if it is not of the divine government, the arrangement of purifications is gone and their hypothesis has fallen; but if the purifications are by providence, the punishments are by providence too. And providence, even if it begins to be set in motion by the Ruler, as they say, was sown in substances together with the origin of the substances by the God of the universe. This being so, they must confess either that the punishment is not unjust (and those who condemn and persecute the martyrs act justly), or that persecutions too are worked by the will of God. No longer, then, do toil and fear, as they themselves say, come upon things as rust upon iron, but they come to the soul of its own will.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The Basilidians compared pain and fear to rust on iron.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.12.88 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/12/88/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.12.88 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/12/88/).
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