Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.3.10

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

Summary: Justice is known only where there is wrongdoing; Paul says love fulfills all the commandments; so the commandments that threaten fear aim at love, not hatred.

Greek text · Stählin 2:252–253

καλῶς οὖν Ἡράκλειτος δίκης ὄνομα φησὶν οὐκ ἂν ᾔδεσαν, εἰ ταῦτα μὴ ἦν, Σωκράτης δὲ νόμον ἕνεκα ἀγαθῶν οὐκ ἂν γενέσθαι. ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ τοῦτο ἔγνωσαν οἱ κατήγοροι, ὡς ὁ ἀπόστολός φησιν ὅτι ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν πλησίον κακὸν οὐκ ἐργάζεται· τὸ γὰρ οὐ φονεύσεις, οὐ μοιχεύσεις, οὐ κλέψεις, καὶ εἴ τις ἑτέρα ἐντολή, ἐν τούτῳ μόνῳ ἀνακεφαλαιοῦται τῷ λόγῳ, τῷ· ›ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν.‹ ταύτῃ που ἀγαπήσεις κύριον τὸν θεόν σου φησὶν ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας σου, καὶ ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν. εἰ δὴ ὁ τὸν πλησίον ἀγαπῶν κακὸν οὐκ ἐργάζεται καὶ πᾶσα ἐντολὴ ἐν τούτῳ ἀνακεφαλαιοῦται, τῷ ἀγαπᾶν τὸν πλησίον, αἱ τὸν φόβον ἐπαρτῶσαι ἐντολαὶ ἀγάπην, οὐ μῖσος κατασκευάζουσιν.

English · Claude translation

Well, then, does Heraclitus say, “They would not have known the name of justice if these things did not exist,” and Socrates, that law would not have come into being for the sake of the good. But the accusers did not know this either, as the apostle says, that “the one who loves his neighbor does no evil. For ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal,’ and any other commandment, is summed up in this one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” In this way, I suppose, “You shall love the Lord your God,” he says, “with all your heart, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, then, the one who loves his neighbor does no evil, and every commandment is summed up in this, in loving the neighbor, then the commandments that hang fear over us produce love, not hatred.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:252–253 · 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, Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Heraclitus (fragment 23), Rom 13:10, 9, and Matt 22:37, 39.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.3.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/3/10/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.3.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/3/10/).

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