Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.26.169

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

Summary: Isaiah's “hear, heaven, give ear, earth” addresses the knowing soul as heaven and the ignorant as earth; Micah and Abraham also address the earthbound; the unbeliever is already judged.

Greek text · Stählin 2:323

ἄλλος δʼ αὖ προφήτης φησίν· ἄκουε, οὐρανέ, καὶ ἐνωτίζου, γῆ, τὴν σύνεσιν ἀκοὴν εἰπών, καὶ οὐρανὸν τὴν τοῦ γνωστικοῦ ψυχὴν τὴν οὐρανοῦ καὶ τῶν θείων θέαν ἐπανῃρημένου καὶ ταύτῃ Ἰσραηλίτην γεγονέναι· ἔμπαλιν γὰρ αὖ τὸν ἑλόμενον τὴν ἀμαθίαν καὶ τὴν σκληροκαρδίαν γῆν εἴρηκεν καὶ τὸ ἐνωτίζου ἀπὸ τῶν ὀργάνων τῆς ἀκοῆς τῶν ὤτων προσηγόρευσεν, τὰ σαρκικὰ τοῖς προσανέχουσι τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς ἀπονείμας. οὗτοί εἰσι περὶ ὧν Μιχαίας ὁ προφήτης λέγει· ἀκούσατε λαοὶ λόγον κυρίου οἱ συνοικοῦντες ὀδύναις. καὶ ὁ Ἀβραὰμ μηδαμῶς, εἶπεν, κύριε, ὁ κρίνων τὴν γῆν, ἐπεὶ ὁ ἀπιστήσας κατὰ τὴν σωτήριον φωνὴν ἤδη κέκριται.

English · Claude translation

And another prophet says: “Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth,” calling understanding “hearing,” and “heaven” the soul of the one who knows, who has taken up the contemplation of heaven and divine things and so has become an Israelite; while conversely he called “earth” the one who has chosen ignorance and hardness of heart, and named “give ear” from the organs of hearing, the ears, assigning fleshly things to those devoted to sensible things. These are the ones of whom the prophet Micah says: “Hear, peoples, the word of the Lord, you who dwell with pains.” And Abraham said, “By no means, Lord, you who judge the earth”; since the one who has disbelieved, according to the saving word, “has already been judged.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:323 · 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
Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Isa 1:2, Mic 1:2 (a free form), Gen 18:25, and John 3:18.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.26.169 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/26/169/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.26.169 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/26/169/).

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