Miscellanies 4.16.102

Summary: Hebrews lists the faithful who endured mocking, scourging, stoning, and death, of whom the world was not worthy, who did not receive the promise without us.

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Greek text · Stählin 2:293

εἶτά σοι σμῆνος ὑποδειγμάτων θείων παρίστησιν. ἦ γὰρ οὐ πίστει, φησί, διʼ ὑπομονῆς κατώρθωσαν οἱ ἐμπαιγμῶν καὶ μαστίγων πεῖραν λαβόντες, ἔτι δὲ δεσμῶν καὶ φυλακῆς; ἐλιθάσθησαν, ἐπειράσθησαν, ἐν φόνῳ μαχαίρας ἀπέθανον, περιῆλθον ἐν μηλωταῖς, ἐν αἰγείοις δέρμασιν, ὑστερούμενοι, θλιβόμενοι, κακουχούμενοι, ὧν οὐκ ἦν ἄξιος ὁ κόσμος, ἐν ἐρημίαις πλανώμενοι καὶ ὄρεσι καὶ σπηλαίοις καὶ ταῖς ὀπαῖς τῆς γῆς. καὶ πάντες μαρτυρηθέντες διὰ τῆς πίστεως οὐκ ἐκομίσαντο τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν τοῦ θεοῦ. ἀπολείπεται νοεῖν τὸ κατὰ παρασιώπησιν εἰρημένον μόνοι.

English · Claude translation

Then he sets before you a swarm of divine examples. “For was it not by faith,” he says, “through endurance, that they succeeded, who experienced mockings and scourgings, and also bonds and prison? They were stoned, they were tested, they died by the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth. And all of them, having been attested through faith, did not receive the promise of God.” What remains is to understand what is said by leaving it unsaid: “alone.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:293 · 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
Martyrdom, Persecution

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotation is Heb 11:36–39 (a free form). The last remark refers to Heb 11:40 (“apart from us they should not be made perfect”), which Clement leaves unquoted.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.16.102 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/16/102/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.16.102 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/16/102/).

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