Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.18.117

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

Summary: Moses' face shone with a glory the people could not bear; at the soul's ascent the heavenly toll-collectors hold back those laden with worldly passions but send on the one full of knowledge and righteousness, like the tree of Psalm 1.

Greek text · Stählin 2:299–300

ταύτην τὴν δόξαν τὴν ἐκλάμψασαν ἐπὶ τοῦ προσώπου Μωυσέως ὁ λαὸς οὐχ οἷός τε ἦν προσβλέπειν, διὸ καὶ κάλυμμα ἐλάμβανε τῆς δόξης πρὸς τοὺς σαρκικῶς θεωμένους. τοὺς μὲν γὰρ ἐπαγομένους τινὰ τῶν κοσμικῶν κατέχουσιν οἱ τὸ τέλος ἀπαιτοῦντες τοῖς σφετέροις βαρουμένους πάθεσι, τὸν δὲ γυμνὸν μὲν τῶν ὑποπιπτόντων τῷ τέλει, πλήρη δὲ γνώσεως καὶ τῆς ἐξ ἔργων δικαιοσύνης συνευχόμενοι παραπέμπουσι, τὸν ἄνδρα σὺν καὶ τῷ ἔργῳ μακαρίσαντες· καὶ τὸ φύλλον αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἀπορρυήσεται, τοῦ ζωτικοῦ ξύλου, τοῦ κατὰ τὰς διεξόδους τῶν ὑδάτων τεθραμμένου· καρποφόροις δὲ ὁ δίκαιος ἀπεικάζεται δένδροις, οὐ μόνον τοῖς κατὰ τὴν τῶν μεταρσίων θυσίαν· ἦσαν δὲ κἀν ταῖς τῶν θυσιῶν προσαγωγαῖς παρὰ τῷ νόμῳ οἱ τῶν ἱερείων μωμοσκόποι. ὄρεξιν οὖν ἐπιθυμίας διακρίνουσιν οἱ περὶ ταῦτα δεινοί, καὶ τὴν μὲν ἐπὶ ἡδοναῖς καὶ ἀκολασίᾳ τάττουσιν ἄλογον οὖσαν, τὴν δὲ ὄρεξιν ἐπὶ τῶν κατὰ φύσιν ἀναγκαίων λογικὴν ὑπάρχουσαν κίνησιν.

English · Claude translation

This glory, which shone on the face of Moses, the people could not look at; that is why he took a veil over the glory for those who looked in a fleshly way. For those who demand the toll hold back those who bring any worldly things, weighed down by their own passions; but the one who is bare of what is subject to the toll, and full of knowledge and of the righteousness of works, they send on with their prayers, blessing the man together with his work. “And his leaf will not fall off,” the leaf of the living tree nourished by the streams of water. And the righteous man is compared to fruit-bearing trees, not only those for the sacrifice of the lofty ones; and in the offering of sacrifices under the law there were inspectors of blemishes in the victims. Those skilled in these matters distinguish appetite from desire, and assign the one to pleasures and licentiousness, as irrational, but appetite for natural necessities as a rational movement.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:299–300 · 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
Eschatology, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions and quotations are Exod 34:29–35 (2 Cor 3:7, 13), Ps 1:3, and Lev 22:21. The “toll collectors” are the powers that examine souls after death, a common image in early Christian thought.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.18.117 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/18/117/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.18.117 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/18/117/).

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