Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.23.151

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

Summary: Human courage and self-restraint master anger and desire, but God, without passion, needs neither; as the Pythagoreans said, man too must become one, like the one high priest and the one God.

Greek text · Stählin 2:315

καὶ ἡ μὲν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἀνδρεία ἐμπαθοῦς ὄντος, φασί, κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν ἄφοβον καὶ ἀήττητον τὸν μετέχοντα αὐτῆς ποιεῖ, καὶ ἔστι δορυφόρος τοῦ νοῦ ὁ θυμὸς ἐν ὑπομονῇ καὶ καρτερίᾳ καὶ τοῖς ὁμοίοις, ἐπὶ δὲ τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ τάττεται καὶ ἡ σωφροσύνη καὶ ἡ σωτήριος φρόνησις, θεὸς δὲ ἀπαθὴς ἄθυμός τε καὶ ἀνεπιθύμητος· καὶ οὐ ταύτῃ ἄφοβος ᾗ τὰ δεινὰ οὐκ ἐκκλίνει οὐδὲ μὴν σώφρων ᾗ τῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν ἄρχει· οὔτε γὰρ ἂν περιπέσοι τινὶ δεινῷ ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ φύσις οὔτε φεύγει ὁ θεὸς δειλίαν, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ ἐπιθυμήσει, ἵνα καὶ ἄρξῃ ἐπιθυμίας. μυστικῶς οὖν ἐφʼ ἡμῶν καὶ τὸ Πυθαγόρειον ἐλέγετο ἕνα γενέσθαι καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον δεῖν, ἐπεὶ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς εἷς, ἑνὸς ὄντος τοῦ θεοῦ κατὰ τὴν ἀμετάτρεπτον τοῦ ἀεὶ θεῖν τὰ ἀγαθὰ ἕξιν.

English · Claude translation

And the courage of man, who is subject to passion, they say, makes the one who shares in it fearless and invincible in substance; and anger is the mind's bodyguard in endurance, perseverance, and the like; while self-restraint and saving prudence are set over desire. But God is without passion, without anger and without desire; and he is not fearless in the sense that he does not avoid dangers, nor self-restrained in the sense that he rules over desires; for neither could the nature of God fall into any danger, nor does God flee cowardice, just as he will not desire, so as to rule over desire. Mystically, then, the Pythagorean saying was applied to us too, that man too must become one; since the high priest himself is one, God being one, according to the unchangeable state of always running toward good things.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:315 · 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.
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The Pythagorean saying “become one” is also in 4.23.152. The pun on θεός (“God”) and θεῖν (“to run”) is from Plato, Cratylus 397d.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.23.151 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/23/151/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.23.151 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/23/151/).

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