Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.22.144

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

Summary: Doing right only for reward is no better than doing it from fear; yet the hope of reward and punishment after death is taught by Scripture and by Pythagoreans, Socrates, and Heraclitus.

Greek text · Stählin 2:312

καὶ τοιαῦτα μὲν τὰ σκοτεινὰ δόγματα· εἰ δὲ καὶ ἐλπίδι τῆς ἐπὶ δικαίοις παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀμοιβῆς ἀφέξεταί τις τοῦ ἀδικεῖν, οὐδʼ οὗτος ἑκὼν χρηστεύσεται· ὡς γὰρ ἐκεῖνον ὁ φόβος, οὕτω τοῦτον ὁ μισθὸς δικαιοῖ, μᾶλλον δὲ δίκαιον εἶναι δοκεῖν δείκνυσι. τὴν δὲ ἐλπίδα τὴν μετὰ θάνατον οὐ μόνον οἱ τὴν βάρβαρον σοφίαν μετιόντες ἴσασι τοῖς μὲν ἀγαθοῖς καλήν, τοῖς δὲ φαύλοις ἔμπαλιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ Πυθαγόρειοι· τέλος γὰρ κἀκεῖνοι τὴν ἐλπίδα ὑπηγόρευον τοῖς φιλοσοφοῦσιν. ὅπου γε καὶ ὁ Σωκράτης ἐν Φαίδωνι μετὰ ἀγαθῆς ἐλπίδος φησὶ τὰς καλὰς ψυχὰς ἐνθένδε ἀπιέναι, καὶ πάλιν τοὺς πονηροὺς κακίζων ἀντιτίθησι ζῶσι γὰρ μετὰ κακῆς ἐλπίδος λέγων. συνᾴδειν τούτῳ καὶ ὁ Ἡράκλειτος φαίνεται διʼ ὧν φησι περὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων διαλεγόμενος· ἀνθρώπους μένει ἀποθανόντας ἅσσα οὐκ ἔλπονται οὐδὲ δοκέουσιν.

English · Claude translation

Such are the dark doctrines. But if one abstains from wrongdoing in the hope of the reward given by God to the righteous, not even he will be good willingly; for as fear makes the first righteous, so reward makes this one, or rather shows him to seem righteous. And the hope after death, good for the good and the opposite for the wicked, is known not only to those who pursue barbarian wisdom, but also to the Pythagoreans; for they too declared hope to be the goal for those who philosophize. Indeed Socrates too says in the Phaedo that noble souls depart from here with good hope, and again, rebuking the wicked, contrasts them, saying, “For they live with evil hope.” Heraclitus too seems to agree with this in what he says about men: “There await men when they die things they do not expect or imagine.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:312 · 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.
Extrabiblical texts
  • Plato, Phaedo 63b–c (Plato (works)) · allusion, high confidence
Topics
Ethics, Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Plato, Phaedo 63b–c, 67b (compare Republic 1.330e–331a), and Heraclitus (fragment 27).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.22.144 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/22/144/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.22.144 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/22/144/).

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