Miscellanies 4.25.155
Summary: Euripides blesses the contemplative, and Plato calls the one who contemplates the Ideas a god among men; the soul that rises above becoming becomes like an angel and dwells with Christ, while the rest are shadows and the dead.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Greek text · Stählin 2:317
Ὄλβιος ὅστις τῆς ἱστορίας ἔσχε μάθησιν, μήτε πολιτῶν ἐπὶ πημοσύνην μήτʼ εἰς ἀδίκους πράξεις ὁρμῶν, ἀλλʼ ἀθανάτου καθορῶν φύσεως κόσμον ἀγήρω, πῇ τε συνέστη καὶ † ὅπῃ καὶ ὅπως. τοῖς δὲ τοιούτοις οὐδέποτʼ αἰσχρῶν ἔργων μελέτημα προσίζει. εἰκότως οὖν καὶ Πλάτων τὸν τῶν ἰδεῶν θεωρητικὸν θεὸν ἐν ἀνθρώποις ζήσεσθαί φησι· νοῦς δὲ χώρα ἰδεῶν, νοῦς δὲ ὁ θεός. τὸν οὖν ἀοράτου θεοῦ θεωρητικὸν θεὸν ἐν ἀνθρώποις ζῶντα εἴρηκεν καὶ ἐν τῷ Σοφιστῇ δὲ τὸν Ἐλεάτην ξένον διαλεκτικὸν ὄντα ὁ Σωκράτης θεὸν ὠνόμασεν, οἵους τοὺς θεοὺς ξείνοισιν ἐοικότας ἀλλοδαποῖσιν ἐπιφοιτῶντας τοῖς ἄστεσιν. ὅταν γὰρ ψυχὴ γενέσεως ὑπεξαναβᾶσα καθʼ ἑαυτήν τε ᾖ καὶ ὁμιλῇ τοῖς εἴδεσιν, οἷός ἐστιν ὁ ἐν τῷ Θεαιτήτῳ κορυφαῖος, οἷον ἄγγελος ἤδη γενόμενος σὺν Χριστῷ τε ἔσται, θεωρητικὸς ὢν, ἀεὶ τὸ βούλημα τοῦ θεοῦ σκοπῶν, τῷ ὄντι οἷος πεπνυμένος, τοὶ δʼ ὡς σκιαὶ ἀίσσουσιν· νεκροὶ γὰρ τοὺς ἑαυτῶν θάπτουσι νεκρούς. ὅθεν Ἱερεμίας λέγει· πληρώσω αὐτὴν νεκρῶν γηγενῶν, οὓς ἔπαισεν ἡ ὀργή μου.
English · Claude translation
“Blessed is he who has gained learning in inquiry, not rushing to the harm of citizens or to unjust deeds, but beholding the ageless order of immortal nature, where and … how and in what way it was composed. To such men the practice of shameful deeds never clings.” Fittingly, then, Plato too says that the one who contemplates the Ideas will live as a god among men; and mind is the place of the Ideas, and God is mind. He has said, then, that the one who contemplates the invisible God lives as a god among men. And in the Sophist Socrates called the Eleatic stranger, being a dialectician, a god, such as the gods “who, like strangers from abroad, visit the cities.” For when the soul, rising above becoming, is by itself and associates with the forms, like the leader of the chorus in the Theaetetus, having become already like an angel, it will be with Christ, being contemplative, always looking to the will of God; truly “he alone has understanding, while the others flit like shadows.” For “the dead bury their own dead.” That is why Jeremiah says: “I will fill it with earthborn dead, whom my anger struck.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Euripides (fragment 910), Plato, Sophist 216a–b (Homer, Odyssey 17.485–486), Theaetetus 173c, Homer, Odyssey 10.495, Matt 8:22, and Jer 33:5 (40:5 LXX, a free form). The text of Euripides is corrupt (dagger).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (accent: grave on ὢν; wrong breathing on οἷος): σὺν Χριστῷ τε ἔσται, θεωρητικὸς ὤν → σὺν Χριστῷ τε ἔσται, θεωρητικὸς ὢν; τῷ ὄντι οἶος πεπνυμένος → τῷ ὄντι οἷος πεπνυμένος.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.25.155 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/25/155/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.25.155 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/25/155/).
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