Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.22.139

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

Summary: Knowledge loves and teaches others to honor all creation; the one who has learned to love God keeps virtue even in dreams, his mind unchanged; Christ's command to stay awake means keeping the soul pure by night as by day, which is likeness to God.

Greek text · Stählin 2:309–310

εἰκότως οὖν ἡ γνῶσις αὕτη ἀγαπᾷ καὶ τοὺς ἀγνοοῦντας διδάσκει τε καὶ παιδεύει τὴν πᾶσαν κτίσιν τοῦ παντοκράτορος θεοῦ τιμᾶν. εἰ δὲ ἀγαπᾶν μεμάθηκε τὸν θεόν, οὐχ ἕξει τὴν ἀρετὴν ἀπόβλητον οὗτος οὐδαμῶς οὔτε ὕπαρ οὔτε ὄναρ οὐδὲ κατὰ φαντασίαν τινά· ἐπεὶ μηδʼ ἐξίσταταί ποθʼ ἑαυτῆς ἡ ἕξις ἀποπεσοῦσα τοῦ ἕξις εἶναι, εἴτʼ οὖν ἕξις ἡ γνῶσις εἴτε διάθεσις εἶναι λέγοιτο. τῷ γὰρ μὴ παρεισιέναι ποτὲ ἐννοίας διαφόρους ἀναλλοίωτον τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν μένον οὐ προσλαμβάνει τινὰ ἑτεροίωσιν φαντασιῶν, τὰς ἐκ τῶν μεθημερινῶν κινήσεων ἀνειδωλοποιίας ὀνειρῶττον. διὰ τοῦτό τοι καὶ ὁ κύριος ἐγρηγορέναι παραγγέλλει, ὥστε μηδὲ ὄναρ ἡμῶν παθαίνεσθαί ποτε τὴν ψυχήν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς νυκτὸς τὴν πολιτείαν ὡς ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ἐνεργουμένην καθαρὰν καὶ ἀκηλίδωτον διαφυλάττειν προστάττει. αὕτη γὰρ ἡ κατὰ δύναμιν ἐξομοίωσις πρὸς θεὸν τὸ φυλάττειν τὸν νοῦν ἐν τῇ κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ σχέσει· αὕτη δὲ νοῦ σχέσις ὡς νοῦ, ἡ δὲ ποικίλη διάθεσις γίνεται τῇ πρὸς τὰ ὑλικὰ προσπαθείᾳ.

English · Claude translation

Fittingly, then, this knowledge loves and teaches the ignorant, and trains them to honor the whole creation of Almighty God. And if he has learned to love God, he will not lose his virtue in any way, neither awake nor in dreams nor in any imagination; since a settled state never departs from itself so as to fall from being a settled state, whether knowledge is called a state or a disposition. For since differing thoughts never come in, the ruling part, remaining unaltered, does not take on any alteration of impressions, dreaming images from the movements of the day. That is why the Lord commands us to keep awake, so that our soul may never be moved by passion even in dreams, but commands us to keep our conduct at night pure and spotless as if carried on by day. For this is likeness to God as far as possible: to keep the mind in the same condition; and this is the condition of the mind as mind, while the varied disposition arises from passionate attachment to material things.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:309–310 · 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
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusion is Matt 24:42 (Mark 13:37).

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (iota subscript missing): ὡς ἐν ἡμέρα ἐνεργουμένην → ὡς ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ἐνεργουμένην.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.22.139 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/22/139/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.22.139 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/22/139/).

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