Miscellanies 4.6.31
Summary: Those who refuse the supper are held back by passionate attachment to possessions; the foxes are the earthbound greedy, the birds the heavenly-minded; poverty too, badly borne, brings cares that choke the word like thorns.
Greek text · Stählin 2:261–262
αὐτίκα εἰς τὴν κλῆσιν τοῦ δείπνου οἱ φιλοκτήμονες κληθέντες οὐκ ἀπαντῶσιν, οὐ διὰ τὸ κεκτῆσθαι, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ προσπαθῶς κεκτῆσθαι. αἱ ἀλώπεκες ἄρα φωλεοὺς ἔχουσι. τοὺς ἀμφὶ τὸν μεταλλευόμενον καὶ γεωρυχούμενον διατρίβοντας πλοῦτον κακοήθεις ἀνθρώπους καὶ γηγενεῖς ἀλώπεκας προσεῖπεν. ὡσαύτως καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἡρώδου ὑπάγετε, εἴπατε τῇ ἀλώπεκι ταύτῃ, ἰδού, ἐκβάλλω δαιμόνια καὶ ἰάσεις ἀποτελῶ σήμερον καὶ αὔριον, καὶ τῇ τρίτῃ τελειοῦμαι· πετεινὰ γὰρ οὐρανοῦ τοὺς οὐρανῷ τῶν ἄλλων ὀρνέων διακεκριμένους, καθαροὺς τῷ ὄντι, τοὺς εἰς τὴν τοῦ οὐρανίου λόγου γνῶσιν πτητικοὺς προσεῖπεν. οὐ γὰρ δὴ μόνον πλούτου καὶ δόξης καὶ γάμου, ἀλλὰ καὶ πενίας τῷ μὴ φέροντι μυρίαι φροντίδες, καὶ μή τι ταύτας ἐν τῇ παραβολῇ τοῦ τετραμεροῦς σπόρου ᾐνίξατο τὰς μερίμνας, τὸ σπέρμα τοῦ λόγου φήσας τὸ εἰς ἀκάνθας καὶ φραγμοὺς πεσὸν συμπνιγῆναι ὑπʼ αὐτῶν καὶ μὴ καρποφορῆσαι δυνηθῆναι.
English · Claude translation
For example, the lovers of property who were invited to the supper do not come, not because they possess, but because they possess with passion. “The foxes, then, have holes.” He called the malicious men who busy themselves with the wealth that is mined and dug from the earth earthborn foxes. Likewise too of Herod: “Go, tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I am perfected.’” For he called “birds of the sky” those distinguished from the other birds by heaven, truly pure, able to fly to the knowledge of the heavenly Word. For not only wealth, glory, and marriage, but poverty too brings countless cares to one who does not bear it well; and perhaps he hinted at these cares in the parable of the fourfold sowing, saying that the seed of the Word that fell among thorns and hedges was choked by them and could not bear fruit.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations and allusions are Luke 14:16–20, Matt 8:20 (Luke 9:58), Luke 13:32, and Matt 13:7, 22.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.6.31 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/6/31/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.6.31 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/6/31/).
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