Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 5.1.10

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

Summary: The Greek philosophers stole their chief doctrines from Moses and the prophets; also the fallen angels revealed secrets to women; so Greek thought is partly true by conjecture and partly wrong through misreading prophetic allegory.

Greek text · Stählin 2:332

Παρεστήσαμεν δʼ ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ Στρωματεῖ κλέπτας λέγεσθαι τοὺς τῶν Ἑλλήνων φιλοσόφους, παρὰ Μωυσέως καὶ τῶν προφητῶν τὰ κυριώτατα τῶν δογμάτων οὐκ εὐχαρίστως εἰληφότας. οἷς δὴ κἀκεῖνα προσθήσομεν, ὡς οἱ ἄγγελοι ἐκεῖνοι οἱ τὸν ἄνω κλῆρον εἰληχότες κατολισθήσαντες εἰς ἡδονὰς ἐξεῖπον τὰ ἀπόρρητα ταῖς γυναιξίν, ὅσα γε εἰς γνῶσιν αὐτῶν ἀφῖκτο, κρυπτόντων τῶν ἄλλων ἀγγέλων, μᾶλλον δὲ τηρούντων εἰς τὴν τοῦ κυρίου παρουσίαν. ἐκεῖθεν ἡ τῆς προνοίας διδασκαλία ἐρρύη καὶ ἡ τῶν μετεώρων ἀποκάλυψις. τῆς προφητείας δὲ ἤδη εἰς τοὺς τῶν Ἑλλήνων ποιητὰς διαδοθείσης ἡ δογματικὴ πραγματεία τοῖς φιλοσόφοις πῇ μὲν ἀληθὴς κατὰ στοχασμὸν ἐπιβαλλομένοις, πῇ δὲ πεπλανημένη τὸ ἐπικεκρυμμένον τῆς προφητικῆς ἀλληγορίας μὴ συνιέντων γέγονεν, ὃ καὶ παρασημήνασθαι πρόκειται διὰ βραχέων ἐπιδραμοῦσι τὰ κατεπείγοντα.

English · Claude translation

We showed in the first Miscellany that the philosophers of the Greeks are called thieves, having taken the chief doctrines from Moses and the prophets without gratitude. To this we will add that those angels who had obtained the upper lot, slipping down into pleasures, told the secrets to women, as much as had come to their knowledge, while the other angels concealed them, or rather kept them for the Lord's coming. From there flowed the teaching of providence and the revelation of heavenly things. And prophecy having now been passed on to the Greek poets, the dogmatic treatment by the philosophers became partly true, when they hit the mark by conjecture, and partly mistaken, when they did not understand the hidden meaning of the prophetic allegory; which it is our purpose to note, running briefly over what is pressing.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:332 · 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
  • Gen 6:2 · allusion, medium confidence
Extrabiblical texts
  • 1 En. 8; 16.3 (1 Enoch) · allusion, high confidence
Topics
Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

  • The story of the fallen angels revealing secrets to women comes from 1 Enoch 8; 16.3 (Gen 6:1–4).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.1.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/1/10/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.1.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/1/10/).

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